Huskies Finish Season-Opening Sweep of St. Thomas

Sunday, October 3

St. Paul, Minn.

5:00 P.M. CT

St. Cloud State

2-0-0

St. Thomas

0-2-0

St. Cloud St.

St. Thomas (MN)

10/3/2021 10:44:00 PM | Men's Hockey

Box Score

t. Cloud State defeats Tommies 2-0 at Xcel Energy Center

ST. CLOUD, Minn. – St. Cloud State Men's Hockey (2-0-0, 0-0-0 NCHC) finished out a weekend series sweep of St. Thomas (0-2-0, 0-0-0) to open the 2021-22 season, winning 2-0 on Sunday evening at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn. Senior goalie David Hrenak (Povazska Bystrica, Slovakia) added on to his already school record by recording his 12^th career shutout in the victory for the Huskies.

After a 12-2 win in St. Cloud on Saturday, the Huskies and Tommies played a much closer game on Sunday, as junior forward Zach Okabe (Okotoks, Alberta) and senior forward Micah Miller (Grand Rapids, Minn.) provided the scoring needed to claim the two-game series sweep.

TURNING POINT

The Huskies jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first period after successfully converting a first period power play, as Okabe found the back of the net following assists from

TOP HUSKIES

One night after becoming the Huskies' all-time leader in career wins, Hrenak made 12 saves to record his 12^th career shutout, which is also the best mark in program history. After the pair of weekend victories, Hrenak's record now stands at 68-33-9.
Okabe scored his second goal in as many nights with his first period goal. He now sits in a five-way tie for the Huskies' lead in goals with two.
Miller scored for the first time this season with his second period goal.

NOTES

The Huskies pulled closer in the all-time series between the two programs with the weekend series sweep, which now stands at 18-24. This was the first matchup between the two programs since the 1979-80 season.
The sweep was the first time the Huskies swept and home-and-home series since Oct. 21-22, 2016 when St. Cloud State beat the Gophers, 6-5, in Minneapolis and 3-2 in St. Cloud.
Hrenak's save was the Huskies' first shutout since Feb. 20, 2021 when Hrenak blanked Colorado College with 23 saves, and the first shutout on the road since Jan. 9, 2021 when Hrenak made 28 saves in a 1-0 win over Minnesota Duluth.
The Huskies converted 1-of-3 power play chances in the game and have been successful on 8-of-13 power plays on the season (61.5 percent).

QUOTABLES

St. Cloud State Men's Hockey Head Coach Brett Larson

On the newcomers in the lineup…

"I was happy with them. I thought Aidan Spellacy had a really good game, the team just gave him the player of the game award in the locker room. I thought Josh (Luedtke) and Brady (Ziemer) both did a really good job in the back. They were mobile, made some good plays, were physical. The defensemen keep making it harder and harder for us to make our decisions. I thought they did a really good job."

On if the hard lineup decisions is a good problem to have…

"It's a good problem to have when you have guys like Luke Jaycox and Ondrej Trejbal who look me in the eye this morning and say 'Coach, whatever we need to do for the team.' When you have character like that in the room, that is a good problem. I'm confident everyone is going to be able to handle this and feel like an important part of the team. But their response this morning says so much about their character.

On the team's energy in the first period…

I thought we did have good energy. We just couldn't extend the lead tonight. We had a couple power plays where we had some great chances. If we got up 3-0, maybe it would have been a little different and we may have got rolling a little bit, but I thought St. Thomas did a really great job of defending to the point where we couldn't extend the lead and we couldn't get that huge energy burst that we got last night.

UP NEXT

The Huskies will now travel to No. 5/5 Minnesota State Mankato for a two-game road series on Oct. 8-9. Friday's game is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. CT, while Saturday's game will start at 6 p.m. CT.

For all the latest on St. Cloud State Men's Hockey, stay tuned to SCSUHuskies.com and follow the team on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Tickets for the 2021-22 season are available for purchase at www.scsutickets.com, downloading the St. Cloud State Huskies app or by calling 1-877-SCSUTIX / 320-308-2137.