No. 20/18 St. Cloud State Men's Hockey Returns Home to Host Alaska

Friday, October 20

St. Cloud, Minn.

7:30 P.M. CT

St. Cloud State

Alaska Fairbanks

Photo by: Jason Soria

10/19/2023 4:11:00 PM | Men's Hockey

Huskies and Nanooks to play Friday & Saturday at the Brooks Center

THE MATCHUP

No. 20/18 St. Cloud State Men's Hockey returns home for its first two-game home series of the season, as it hosts (RV) Alaska on Friday and Saturday at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center. The series begins on Friday with a 7:30 p.m. CT puck drop at the Brooks Center, followed by a Saturday series finale beginning at 6:00 p.m. CT. The game will be televised on Fox 9 + and NCHC.tv with Jim Rich, Geno Parrish and Anna Behning on the call, while on the radio, Husky Hockey veteran Jim Erickson and former Husky captain Dave Reichel will have the call over the airwaves on KNSI (1450 AM / 99.3 FM).Saturday's contest will be shown on a tape delay on Fox 9 + following a previously commitment from the station.
St. Cloud State enters the weekend ranked No. 20 in the USCHO Top-20 Poll and No. 18 in USA Hockey / The Rink Live Top-20 poll, while the Nanooks are currently receiving votes in both polls.

SERIES HISTORY

St. Cloud State and Alaska will meet for the 18th and 19th times this weekend, and for the first time since the beginning of the 2018-19 season this upcoming weekend. The Huskies have a commanding 11-6-0 record against the Nanooks, which includes victories in nine of the last 10 matchups. The last time the two teams met, it was game number one and two of the Brett Larson era, as the Huskies traveled out to Fairbanks and defeated the Nanooks 3-2 and 6-2 on Oct. 12-13, 2018. Patrick Newell and Robby Jackson scored five combined goals in the series to earn the sweep and record the first two victories of Larson's career.

A LOOK BACK AT THE LAST SERIES

The Huskies came out on the wrong end of a two-game road sweep at the hands of Minnesota State this past weekend, its first series sweep loss to the Mavericks since Oct. 14-15, 2016. The Huskies had a 2-0 lead on Friday following goals from freshman Barrett Hall and senior forward Joe Molenaar, but the Mavericks responded with two second period scores and an overtime score 3:10 into the extra period for the 3-2 win. On Saturday, Minnesota State jumped out to a 3-1 lead, causing St. Cloud State to chase for the rest of the game. Fifth-year forward Kyler Kupka scored a third period goal, but the Mavericks were able to get two empty net goals to seal the victory and the sweep.

OKABE NEARS 100

Fifth-year senior forward Zach Okabe returns for one more campaign in the red and black, and is only four points away from joining an exclusive club in St. Cloud State Men's Hockey history. Okabe currently has 96 points (43 goals / 53 assists) and is four points away from becoming the 38th member of SCSU's 100-point club. Okabe had a career-year in 2022-23, as he set career-bests in goals (18), assists (18), points (36), game-winning goals (fie) and plus/minus (+16) while leading the Huskies to an NCHC Frozen Faceoff championship and NCAA Tournament appearance. Okabe's overtime winner against North Dakota provided one of the most memorable moments of last season for the Huskies.
Okabe is one of 13 Huskies to record multiple hat tricks in their SCSU career, the only one to record two natural hat tricks, and currently ranks 13th in career game-winning goals with nine. The Husky senior is also closing in on the top-20 list for most career goals, as his 46 goals is just six away from a four-way tie in 17th place at 52 goals from Joe Motzko (1999-03), Nic Dowd (2010-14), Robby Jackson (2015-19) and Jami Krannila (2019-23).

GAME NOTES FROM LAST SERIES

GAME 1 - 3-2 OT loss at Minnesota State (10-13-23 in Mankato)

Freshman forward Barrett Hall scored his second goal of the season while skating to a plus-one and blocking a shot.
Senior forward Joe Molenaar scored his first goal of the year and skated to a plus-one with two shots on goal.
Freshman forward Verner Miettenen, fifth-year defenseman Dylan Anhorn and junior defenseman Josh Luedtke each provided an assist with Miettenen and Anhorn tallying their second of the season.
St. Cloud State's penalty kill turned away all three MSU power plays while the SCSU power play went 0-for-3.

GAME 2 - 5-1 loss at Minnesota State (10-14-23 in Mankato)

With the loss, St. Cloud State falls to 61-63-13 all-time against Minnesota State.
Fifth-year forward Kyler Kupka scored his first goal of the season.
Freshman forward Barrett Hall recorded his first collegiate assist while sophomore forward Adam Ingram provided his second apple of the season.
Freshman goalie Isak Posch made 14 saves across 33:18 scoreless minutes in his collegiate debut off the bench.
SCSU went 0-for-3 on the power play and killed off one of their two penalties.
Shots were even at 30.