St. Cloud State men's hockey falls to #6 Denver, 5-2

Saturday, February 29

St. Cloud, Minn.

6:07 p.m.

St. Cloud State

13-13-6, 10-10-2NCH

University of Denver

20-9-5, 10-8-4NCHC

Denver

St. Cloud State

SCSU Huskies celebrate Nolan Walker's goal on Feb. 29.

2/29/2020 10:29:00 PM | Men's Hockey

Box Score

The St. Cloud State University men's hockey team (13-13-6, 10-10-2 NCHC) saw its seven-game undefeated streak come to an end on Saturday, Feb. 29 with a 5-2 setback against #6 Denver (20-9-5, 10-8-4 NCHC) at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center in St. Cloud, Minn.

Before a Senior Night crowd of 5,212 at the HBNHC, the Huskies opened the game's scoring with a power play goal by Nolan Walker at 9:07 of the first period. Nick Poehling and Easton Brodzinski both had assists on the play, which was Walker's second goal of the season.

The assist was Poehling's 17th of the season, which places him in a tie for the team's assist lead along with Sam Hentges and Jack Ahcan. Nick Poehling also maintained his point scoring streak with points in his last nine games. He has scored 1g/12a during this stretch of games.

Denver tied the game at 15:09 of the first with a goal by Liam Finley and then took a 2-1 lead with a goal at 18:46 of the first by Jake Durfinger. In the second period, Ian Mitchell gave the Pioneers a 3-1 lead at 1:08 and then Emillio Pettersen scored at 10:29 of the third period to push DU's lead to 4-1.

The Huskies then pulled their goalie in the third period with hopes of taking advantage of a 4x4 situation with about 8:00 left in the period. The extra attacker paid dividends as Jami Krannila scored at 17:47 of the third with assists from Zach Okabe and Micah Miller, which closed the gap to 4-2. Denver finalized the scoring at 18:14 of the third with an empty net goal by Kohen Olischefski, which made the scoring 5-2.

In the game, Denver outshot the Huskies 36-29. David Hrenak was the goalie of record for SCSU with 31 saves. On the power play, SCSU 1-of-4 and it was 6-of-6 on the penalty kill. On the weekend, SCSU was a very solid 10-of-11 on the penalty kill against Denver.

SCSU will return to action on March 6-7 with NCHC games at Minnesota Duluth. These games will mark the end of the regular season for the Huskies. SCSU will be looking to gain NCHC points with hopes of obtaining home ice in the upcoming NCHC playoffs. The top four teams in the final league standings receive home ice advantage in the playoffs. SCSU currently sits in fifth place with 33 points, while Western Michigan is in fourth with 35 points and Denver is in third with 37 points.

The game also marked the final regular season home game for SCSU seniors Jack Ahcan, Clark Kuster, Jack Poehling, Nick Poehling and Jake Wahlin. These seniors helped SCSU win two NCHC regular season titles, earn two NCAA tournament bids and win 84 games over the past four seasons.