Article by Felicity Harding. Photo by Felicity Harding.
The Huskies went into Friday night 0-10-1 in 2025 and 0-11-2 in their last 13 conference games and were looking for a win against the Colorado College Tigers. The Huskies saw sophomore goaltender Isak Posch return for his first full game since recovering from injury. Opposite to him was junior and reigning NCHC Goaltender of the Year, Kaidan Mbereko.
“I thought [Posch] looked sharp. I thought that was a really good game to get him back in the playing mode again,” Head coach Brett Larson said of goaltender Posch returning to the net.
The Huskies also saw a return from redshirt junior forward Ryan Rosborough.
“[Rosborough] brings energy every game. [He’s] another key guy that we’ve been missing, a great leader off the ice. [He] just kind of lifts everyone up and makes everyone better around him,” said sophomore forward Tyson Gross of Rosborough returning to the lineup.
The Tigers first got on the board after they entered the Huskies zone with a two-on-two, with freshman forward Gavin Lindberg coming down the center of the zone 8:12 into the first. Lindberg’s goal was assisted by sophomore forward Zaccharya Wisdom and sophomore defenseman Max Burkholder.
St. Cloud was able to tie the game up with a goal off a shot from the top of the left faceoff circle by junior defenseman Cooper Wylie snuck past a screened Kaidan Mbereko. Wylie’s goal came 10:10 into the first and was assisted by sophomore forwards Tyson Gross and Daimon Gardner. This was Wylie’s first game back since Dec. 29, 2024, against St. Thomas.
“Cooper [Wylie’s] just a minute-eater for us…He led our team in minutes played for a defenseman while he was playing before he got hurt,” said Larson, “We can play him against other teams’ top players. He makes a big impact out there defensively and obviously he’s got a really good shot from the point as well, which has given us a little boost offensively that we’ll need.”
The game was all tied up at the end of the first after the Huskies outshot the Tigers 13-7.
The two teams had a goal-heavy second period as the Huskies took the early lead off of a Verner Miettinen goal 2:49 into the period. Sophomore forward Verner Miettinen squeked the puck past Mbereko’s blocker side with assists from Tyson Gross and freshman forward Austin Burnevik.
Colorado College was able to not only tie the game but also get a two-goal lead after scoring three consecutive goals 3:07 apart. The goal scorers were graduate forward Tyler Coffey, sophomore forward Bret Link, and senior forward Stanley Cooley with assists coming from graduate forward Chase McLane, sophomore forward Drew Montgomery, freshman defenseman Philippe Blais-Savoie, senior forward Tommy Middleton, and freshman defenseman Fisher Scott.
The Huskies did not go out quietly, though. Tyson Gross won an offensive zone faceoff and freshman forward Gavyn Thoreson put it up and over the glove side shoulder of Kaidan Mbereko 14:12 into the period.
The Tigers took a 4-3 lead into the final 20 minutes after they were outshot by the Huskies 17-15.
After a very offensive second period, the Huskies and Tigers saw a very quiet third period as both goalies were brick walls and neither team was able to find the back of the net.
The Huskies outshot the Tigers 15-8 in the third period.
St. Cloud lost by a final score of 4-3 after outshooting the Tigers 45-30. The Huskies were 28-34 in the faceoff dot as the Tigers won 55% of the faceoffs. The Huskies were 0/1 on the powerplay but were 2/2 on the penalty kill while the Tigers were 0/1 on the powerplay and 2/2 on the penalty kill.
Huskies goaltender Isak Posch had 26 saves on 30 shots for a save percentage of .867 while Tigers goaltender Kaidan Mbereko had a save percentage of .933 after making 42 saves on 45 shots.
“[Posch] gave us a chance to win. He’s been awesome for us all year,” said Tyson Gross of Posch’s play.
The Huskies were not able to pull off the win, but they saw a major improvement in their game.
“Obviously, I’m not happy that we lost, but if we keep playing like that we’re going to win more games than we lose down the stretch. We’re going to keep getting better each weekend for the playoffs,” Larson said of the team in Friday night’s game, “That was Husky hockey again. It felt like we had that team back.”
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