#17 St. Cloud State men's hockey drops 3-1 decision against #20 Omaha

Friday, December 9

St. Cloud, Minn.

7:37 p.m.

St. Cloud State

7-7-1, 3-5-1NCHC

University of Nebraska at Omaha

9-5-3, 4-3-0NCHC

OMAHA

St. Cloud State

Jack Poehling

Photo by: Maddie MacFarlane

#17 St. Cloud State men's hockey drops 3-1 decision against #20 Omaha

12/9/2016 10:17:00 PM | Men's Hockey

Box Score

In a battle of two top 20 ranked teams, the #17 St. Cloud State University men's hockey team (7-7-1, 3-5-1 NCHC) lost a hard fought 3-1 match against #20 Omaha (9-5-3, 4-3-0 NCHC) on Friday, Dec. 9 at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center in St. Cloud, Minn.

The two teams will complete their weekend series in St. Cloud with a 7:07 p.m. game at the HBNHC on Saturday, Dec. 10. Tickets are still available for this key league contest and fans can purchase them online at www.scsutickets.com or purchase them at the gate on game day.

The game will also feature the annual Teddy Bear Toss. All fans are encouraged to bring a new or gently used Teddy Bear or stuffed animal toy to throw onto the ice during the intermission. All toys collected will be donated to this year's Toys for Tots campaign in St. Cloud, which helps the area's needy during the holiday season.

Omaha opened the game's scoring on Dec. 9 with a goal by Fredrik Olofsson at 9:48 of the first period. Austin Ortega and Teemu Pulkkinen added assists on the even strength goal for the Mavs.

In the early moments of the second period, the Huskies tied the contest at 1:37 of the second with a power play marker by Dennis Cholowski. He was assisted on the play by Patrick Newell and Jack Poehling. This was Cholowski's first collegiate goal and it was Newell's 10th assist of the 2016-17 season. He is now tied for the team's assist lead at 10 apiece along with Jack Ahcan.

Pulkkinen posted the Omaha game winner with his goal at 15:54 of the second period. Luc Snuggerud and Dean Stewart provided assists on the play. To complete the scoring, Omaha's Justin Parizek scored the game's third goal at 1:24 of the third period with assists from Ian Brady and goalie Evan Weninger.

Despite the goal advantage, Omaha was outshot by the Huskies in the contest by a 41-24 margin. In the second period, SCSU outshot the Mavs 15-6. In the power play, SCSU was 1-3 and for the third consecutive game the Huskies were perfect on the penalty kill at 3-3. SCSU is now 11-of-11 on the penalty kill in its last three games played.

In the nets, Zach Driscoll was the goalie of record for SCSU with 11 saves and three goals allowed in the game. Jeff Smith completed the final 17:15 minutes of the game for SCSU with 10 saves to his credit. Weninger earned the win for Omaha with 40 saves made.