The Men’s Husky Hockey squad completed two different comebacks last weekend to sweep North Dakota.

Article Written by Brian Moos

This is the first time the Huskies have swept North Dakota since the 2013-14 season. It was also the first time the Huskies have swept the Fighting Hawks at home since 2001.  

Things got going early for North Dakota, with Sophomore Forward Griffin Ness and Freshman Forward Jackson Blake both scoring to give UND a 2-1 1st period lead. Those would be the only tallies the Hawks would score all night. 

The Huskies would explode in the 2nd period with 4 goals. Jami Krannila would score first for his 7th of the year. Leading goal scorer on SCSU Grant Cruikshank kept rolling for his 12th of the season not too long after. Jack Peart showed extreme patience on his first of the year and Veeti Miettinen would be the 4th of 4 Husky goals of the 2nd period for his 4th goal of the season. 

Jami Krannila and Kyler Kupka would wrap things up in the 3rd period en route to a 7-2 Husky victory.  

On Saturday North Dakota switched their uniforms to all-black and got after it, scoring 3 goals in the 22 minutes of play.  

A 3-0 hole was not too steep for the Huskies though. After scoring 6 unanswered goals the night before, they repeated that same output.  

It started with Brendan Bushy, who extended his point streak to 4 games with a goal on the rush past Drew DeRidder. Then enter Zach Okabe, who would rattle 3 straight goals. A natural hat trick put the Huskies up 4-3 early in the 3rd period. Kupka and Peart would score to finish the series. With Peart’s goal he became the leading point scorer on the weekend.  

The Huskies pounced on poor goaltending to pour it on North Dakota. SCSU scored 13 goals and produced 34 total points on the weekend.  

The top performers on the weekend were Defensemen Jack Peart, who had 2 goals and 5 points. Veeti Miettinen was the leading scorer for Forwards, with 1 goal and 4 points. Zach Okabe only needed one game to be the leading goal scorer, with 3 goals and 3 points. The Goalie tandem of Jaxon Castor and Dominic Basse had 53 saves combined over Friday and Saturday. Castor had 30, Basse saved 23 shots.  

The Huskies will go on the road to Oxford, Ohio next for their last series of the 2022 calendar year. Games will be played this weekend on Friday and Saturday night.