#2 St. Cloud State collects 7-4 victory at #20 Omaha on Dec.1

Friday, December 1

Omaha, NE

7:07 p.m.

St. Cloud State

University of Nebraska at Omaha

6-6-1, 1-4-0-0/0

St. Cloud State

Omaha

Mikey Essyimont

Photo by: Mark Kuhlmann/Omaha Athletics

#2 St. Cloud State collects 7-4 victory at #20 Omaha on Dec.1

12/1/2017 10:43:00 PM | Men's Hockey

Box Score

The #2 ranked St. Cloud State University men's hockey team (10-2, 5-2 NCHC) survived a third period comeback by host #20 Omaha (6-6-1, 1-4-0 NCHC) to gain a 7-4 victory at Baxter Arena in Omaha, Neb. on Friday, Dec. 1.

The Huskies owned a 5-2 lead at the start of the third before Omaha whittled the lead down to 5-4 with two early goals in the final period. SCSU managed to withstand the late surge and iced the game with two goals of their own in the closing minutes of the third period to bring home the victory.

Omaha opened the night's scoring with a goal at 3:14 of the first period by Steve Spinner. The Huskies wasted little time getting back into the mix with a goal by Kevin Fitzgerald at 5:42 of the first period. Jack Poehling provided the assist on the play, which was Fitzgerald's fifth goal at SCSU.

Jake Wahlin helped SCSU gain a 2-1 lead with his marker at 7:06 of the first period. He was assisted on the goal by Jimmy Schuldt and Blake Lizotte. This was Wahlin's first goal of the 2017-18 season and it was also Schuldt's team leading 12th helper of the year.

Omaha knotted the score at 2-2 with a goal by Tyler Vessel at 10:05 of the first before SCSU closed the period with a goal by Easton Brodzinski at 18:42. Robby Jackson and Ryan Poehling each provided assists on the play, which was Brodzisnki's fourth goal of the year.

SCSU set the stage for success in the second period with two more goals to gain a 5-2 edge. Mikey Eyssimont posted the first of his two goals on the night at 1:11 of the second with assists from Wahlin and Jon Lizotte. The period's scoring was then capped with a goal by Ryan Poehling at 17:20 of the second with assists from Mika Ilvonen and Jackson. This was Poehling's fourth goal of the season, while Jackson now has 10 assists and 15 points this year.

In the final period, UNO's David Pope got the Mavericks back on track with a power play goal at :43 to make it 5-3. UNO then closed the gap to one goal with a tally by Zach Jordan at 4:20 of the third.

The Huskies doused the fire with Wahlin's second goal of the night at 16:15 of the period. Mikey Eyssimont and Blake Lizotte each added assists on the play. To finish the night's offense, Eyssimont scored his second goal of the evening with an empty net goal at 18:26. Judd Peterson and Jacob Benson each had assists on the play.

On the night, several SCSU players enjoyed multi-point efforts. Wahlin and Eyssimont each had two goals and one assist in the game, while Ryan Poehling had one goal and one assist along with two assists nights from Jackson and Blake Lizotte.

UNO outshot the Huskies 40-30, which included the Mavericks outshooting the Huskies 15-5 in a wild third period. Jeff Smith gained the win for SCSU with 40 saves to his credit while Evan Weninger suffered the loss for UNO with 20 saves in two periods of play. Alex Blankenburg finished the game for UNO with three saves in the final period. On the power play, SCSU was 0-2 and UNO was 1-4.

The two teams will complete their weekend series at Baxter Arena with a 7 p.m. game on Saturday, Dec. 2.

Fans can listen to the game live on The River FM 96.7 and they can watch live on NCHC.tv/scsu