Article by Felicity Harding. Photo by Felicity Harding.
After dropping the first game against North Dakota, the Huskies came into Saturday looking to get back in the win column.
Similar to Friday night, the Huskies were able to get on the board first. This time, it was a powerplay goal from freshman forward Austin Burnevik after a cross-ice pass from freshman forward Gavyn Thoreson, giving Burnevik a wide-open net to shoot on.
With less than five minutes to go in the first North Dakota was able to get on the board with a goal from sophomore defenseman Caleb MacDonald, finishing off the scoring for the first period.
After ending the first period in a tie, the Huskies saw the game get away from them in the second period with North Dakota putting up three goals in six minutes including a powerplay goal from sophomore forward Jayden Perron and goals from junior forwards Owen McLauglin and Dylan James.
The Huskies found themselves trailing 4-1 at the end of the second and were going to need a huge third period to steal at least one point.
A little over halfway through the third period, the Fighting Hawks were able to get another on the board from freshman forward Cade Littler.
But the Huskies were not going to go out quietly. With over six minutes left in the third, the Huskies pulled their goaltender for an extra skater. Junior defenseman Josh Zinger was able to find the back of the net off of a slap shot from above the left face off circle beneath North Dakota’s goaltender, Hobie Hedquist on the glove side.
The Fighting Hawks were able to put an extra nail in the coffin with an empty net goal less than 30 seconds after Zinger’s goal. The empty netter was scored by Owen McLaughlin, marking his second goal of the game.
The Huskies lost to the Fighting Hawks by a final score of 2-6 after outshooting the Fighting Hawks 35-24 and winning 41 of 63 faceoffs. St. Cloud’s goaltender James Gray had 18 saves on 23 shots for a save percentage of .783. North Dakota’s goaltender Hobie Hedquist had 33 saves on 35 shots for a save percentage of .943. The Huskies were 1/2 on the penalty kill while the Fighting Hawks were 4/5 after both teams gave up one powerplay goal.
The Huskies will now hit the road and head to Kalamazoo, Michigan to take on the Western Michigan Broncos, who are currently ranked Top 10 in the nation.
“This is honestly the toughest spot we’ve been in for a long time, toughest one since I can remember. We’ve got to go in and play our best hockey in Western Michigan. We’ve got to find a way to create more chances, score more goals… We had a good series [in Kalamazoo] last year and we’d love to build off that. That was the first time in a while we did well there,” said Coach Larson on playing Western Michigan next weekend.
While the Huskies are going through a rough patch in their season, they are doing everything but losing hope.
“All we can really do is make sure we stick together, make sure we keep working, and it’s going to feel darn good when we get that win and get on a roll,” said Head Coach Brett Larson after Saturday night’s game.
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