St. Cloud State Men's Hockey Set for 16th NCAA Tournament Appearance

Friday, March 25

Allentown, Pa.

7:00 P.M. CT

St. Cloud State

Quinnipiac

St. Cloud State Men's Hockey Set for 16th NCAA Tournament Appearance

3/23/2022 11:34:00 AM | Men's Hockey

Huskies open NCAA berth against Quinnipiac on Friday at 7 p.m. CT on ESPNNews

GAME NOTES

THE MATCHUP

For the fourth time in the last five seasons and the 16th time in program history, St. Cloud State Men's Hockey (18-14-4) is heading to the NCAA Tournament. The Huskies will open the NCAA Tournament as the No. 3 seed in the Allentown region of the 2022 NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament against Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference runner-up and No. 2 seed Quinnipiac (31-6-3) on Friday, March 25 at 7:00 p.m. CT at the PPL Center in Allentown, Pa. The winner of the SCSU-QU matchup will faceoff against the winner of No. 1 seed Michigan (29-9-1) and No. 4 seed American International (22-12-3), who play at 2:00 p.m. CT on Friday. The regional final is scheduled to take place on Sunday, March. 27 at either 3:00 p.m. or 5:30 p.m. CT on ESPN2.
Friday's contest will start at 7:00 p.m. CT on ESPNNews and streamed on all ESPN services with SCSU alum Clay Matvick and Sean Richlin on the call. On the radio, the NCAA Tournament will be available on KNSI (1450 AM / 99.3 FM) with Jim Erickson and Dave Reichel on the call. The Huskies enter the weekend ranked No. 11 in both the DCU/USCHO and USA Today/USA Hockey Coaches Polls, while the Bobcats rank No. 8 in the DCU/USCHO Poll and No. 7 in the USA Today/USA Hockey Coaches Poll. In the pairwise, the St. Cloud State ranks 10th and Quinnipiac ranks eighth.

SERIES HISTORY

St. Cloud State is 4-5 all-time against the Bobcats, with Quinnipiac sweeping the last series against the two teams, 5-2 and 4-1 on Oct. 23-24, 2015, in Hamden, Conn. The two teams have met in the NCAA Tournament once before, with the Bobcats earning a 4-1 win over the Huskies at the NCAA Frozen Four on April 11, 2013.

HUSKIES BACK IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT

The Huskies will be making their third trip to the NCAA Tournament under fourth-year head coach Brett Larson. He is the first St. Cloud State head coach in the D-I era to lead the Huskies to NCAA Tournament berths the first three seasons a tournament is played (no tournament in 2020 due to pandemic). In 15 previous NCAA trips, the Huskies are 8-16 overall with Frozen Four appearances in 2013 and 2021. The Huskies earned the No. 4 seed in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference Tournament after a 10-10-4 record in conference play before falling to NCHC Frozen Faceoff champions Minnesota Duluth in the quarterfinals. The Huskies 18 wins marks the 22nd time in its 35-year history as a Division-I program St. Cloud State has won 18 or more games. St. Cloud State's 2022 NCAA berth will be the third time it has entered the NCAA Tournament as a 3-seed since the playoff format expanded to 16 teams in 2003, with the first two occurrences happening in 2014 and 2015. The Huskies advanced to the regional final in St. Paul and Fargo, respectively in each of those seasons, earning first-round wins against Notre Dame (4-3 OT, March 29) in 2014 and Michigan Tech (3-2, March 27) in 2015.

TIME TO REKINDLE THE MAGIC

The Huskies will look to build upon a historic NCAA Tournament run from a season ago, as St. Cloud State earned its first ever appearance in the NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey National Championship game at the 2021 NCAA Frozen Four in Pittsburgh, Penn. After a runner-up finish in the NCHC Frozen Faceoff Championship game an at-large bid to the NCAA Northeast Regional, the Huskies beat Boston and Boston College for the regional championship to advance to the NCAA Frozen Four for just the second time in program history. In Pittsburgh, St. Cloud State beat Minnesota State Mankato in the semifinal game before falling to Massachusetts in its first-ever Division-I national title game appearance. Before the Frozen Four, the Huskies defeated Boston, 6-2, and Boston College, 4-1, at the Northeast Regional in Albany, N.Y.

ALL-NCHC HUSKIES

Senior defenseman Nick Perbix and graduate forward Kevin Fitzgerald each earned All-NCHC honors, as Perbix was named to the All-NCHC First Team and a finalist for the Offensive Defenseman of the Year, while Fitzgerald was named to the All-NCHC Second Team and a finalist for the Sportsmanship Award.
Since the conference's inception in 2013-14, Perbix and Fitzgerald are the 51st and 52nd All-Conference honorees for the Huskies. Perbix is the 10th Husky to be named to the First Team, and the first since 2018-19 when four Huskies earned the honor (Jimmy Schuldt, Patrick Newell, Ryan Poehling, Blake Lizotte). It is Perbix's third career all-conference honor after earning Rookie Team honors in 2018-19 and Second Team honors in 2020-21. Fitzgerald's first career all-conference honor is the 11th Second Team honor for the Huskies since 2013-14.
Perbix has had a banner year in his fourth season donning the red and black, totaling 31 points with six goals and a team-best 25 assists. His assist and point totals are both career-highs, while his 25 assists are the fourth-most in the NCHC and second-most by an NCHC defenseman this season. His 1.22 points per game in NCHC play led all defenseman as well. The Elk River native has posted a +5 mark with one power play goal and 38 blocks.
Perbix produced one of the most productive weekends in program and NCHC history against Miami (Jan. 21-22), leading the Huskies to an NCHC record 19 goals in 11-1 and 8-0 victories. Perbix contributed in a big way for the Huskies, tallying eight points on the weekend, including the first six-point game in NCHC history in Friday's win over the RedHawks. Among program records, he matched the school record marks points scored (six), assists (five), points by a defenseman (six) and assists by a defenseman (five).
A Hobey Baker Nominee, Perbix earned NCHC Defenseman of the Week honors twice (Dec. 6, Jan. 24), and was named the NCHC Player of the Month and Hockey Commissioners of America (HCA) Co-National Player of the Month for January after tallying a team-high 12 points – two goals and 10 assists – seven blocks and a +1 mark in five January games. The fourth-year Husky was also named to the 2022 U.S. Olympic Team, where he played in all four of Team USA's games in Beijing, recording an assist on a goal from teammate Sam Hentges in the Olympic quarterfinals.
In 134 career games, Perbix has totaled 89 career points, 22 goals and 67 assists with four power play goals, five game-winning goals and a +23 mark on the ice.
Fitzgerald is making the most of his final collegiate season of hockey, as he currently leads the team in goals (17), points (35) and power play goals (seven), while ranking second in assists (18). The alternate captain has also posted an impressive mark of +13 on the season with one game-winning goal and one short-handed goal. Among conference leaders, Fitzgerald ranks fifth in goals (17), fifth in power play goals (seven) and ninth in points (35).
Fitzgerald has already recorded career-highs in points (35), goals (17), assists (18) and power play goals (seven) and became 38th member of SCSU's 100-point club (36th with D-I stats only) with a goal in his final regular season home game against Colorado College on Feb. 26.
Fitzgerald was named a nominee for both the Hobey Baker Award and the Hockey Humanitarian Award, given annually to the top citizen in collegiate hockey.
In 162 career games, Fitzgerald has recorded 102 points, 46 goals and 56 assists, with 10 power play goals, seven game-winning goals and a +31 mark on the ice. Among program records, Fitzgerald ranks third in career games played (162) and 32nd in points (101).

POWER PLAY FUELS THE HUSKIES

For the majority of the 2021-22 season, St. Cloud State has led the nation in power play percentage, a mark they lead by a wide margin. The Huskies PP unit currently sits at 31.5 percent (45-of-143), with the next closest team sitting at 27.3 percent (Michigan Tech, 33-of-121). St. Cloud State also ranks third in power play goals with 45, trailing only NCHC foes Denver (49) and Omaha (48). St. Cloud State will have the single-season school record in its sights in the second half of the season, as the current records stand at 31.1 percent (73-of-235) on the power play in 2001-02 and 52 power play goals in 1990-91. The Huskies can also set an NCHC record with their power play success if they stay above Western Michigan's 2020-21 mark of 30.3 percent (23-of-76). Individually, 12 Huskies have scored on the power play this season, led by senior forward Kevin Fitzgerald with seven, which ranks 13th in the nation. Senior forward Sam Hentges and junior forward Zach Okabe have each scored six power play goals to rank 18th in the nation. St. Cloud State is 16-7-2 when scoring on the power play this season.
Against Colorado College on Feb. 25, the Huskies scored 3+ power play goals in a single game for the fifth time this season. The last time St. Cloud State scored 3+ power play goals that many times in a single season was in 2008-09, when the Huskies did it six times in the same season.

EXPERIENCE GALORE

The Huskies are one of the most experience teams in the nation, as evidence by the sheer amount of games its roster has played in. St. Cloud State has 16 athletes who have suited up for 85 or more games and combined for 2,064 games. Of those 16, 13 have hit the century mark in games played, led by graduate defensman Seamus Donohue, who has played in 182 games (117 at Michigan Tech from 2017-20 and 64 at SCSU from 2020-22), and senior forward Easton Brodzinski, who has played in a program record 175 games. Among leaders in the NCAA Tournament, Donouhue's 182 games rank second, only behind North Dakota's Connor Ford's 184.
Brodzinski ranks among the tournament's best as far as production, as he ranks third in goals (67), third in power play goals (25), third in game-winning goals (13) and fourth in points (125) among active skaters in the NCAA Tournament.
Donohue's 71 career assists ranked fourth among active skaters in the NCAA Touranment.
Among goalies in the NCAA Tournament, Hrenak ranks first in games played (146), first in saves (3,370), second in wins (82) and second in shutouts (14).
The Huskies' 16 athletes with 85+ career games to their ledger have combined for 925 career points with two over 100, six over 80 and 10 over 50 points.