No. 6 St. Cloud State Men’s Hockey Snags Extra Point in Shootout, Tie with North Dakota

Saturday, February 18

Grand Forks, N.D.

6:00 P.M. CT

St. Cloud State

18-9-3, 10-7-3

North Dakota

13-13-5, 7-10-3

OT 1

OT 2

St. Cloud St.

North Dakota

Photo by: Russ Hons/UND Athletics

No. 6 St. Cloud State Men’s Hockey Snags Extra Point in Shootout, Tie with North Dakota

2/18/2023 10:19:00 PM | Men's Hockey

Box Score

Krannila becomes 23rd Husky with 50 career goals

GRAND FORKS, N.D. – In the fourth consecutive overtime for No. 6 St. Cloud State Men's Hockey (18-9-3, 10-7-3 NCHC), the Huskies earned an extra point following a shootout win over (RV) North Dakota (13-13-5, 7-10-3 NCHC) on Saturday night at Ralph Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks, N.D. Senior defenseman Spencer Meier (Sartell, Minn.) and senior forward Jami Krannila (Nokia, Finland) scored for the Huskies, while senior forward Grant Cruikshank (Delafield, Wis.) scored in the shootout to earn the second point in the conference standings.

TURNING POINT

Despite being outshot 12-5, the Huskies managed to end the first period tied 1-1 as Meier's power play goal with 52 seconds left in the period put the Huskies on the board. SCSU carried that momentum over to the first shift of the second period, as Krannila hammered home a rebound 18 seconds into the period for a 2-1 lead.

North Dakota outshot the Huskies 12-2 in the second frame, but the Fighting Hawks failed to find the back of the net for the rest of the period. UND pulled even with a power play goal 3:28 into the third period, but the Huskies' defense remained strong, forcing the overtime frame and shootout.

TOP HUSKIES

Krannila stayed hot with his third goal of the series in the second period.
Meier scored a power play goal in the first period, his first goal since scoring at Wisconsin on Oct. 14.
Senior goalie Jaxon Castor (Phoenix, Ariz.) made 29 saves in the game and was named the first star of the game.

NOTES

Following the tie, St. Cloud State is now 48-80-17 all-time against UND and 19-41-9 in Grand Forks.
The Huskies converted their only power play chance of the game, improving to 25.6 percent (31-of-121) on the season.
Krannila scored his third goal of the series and 19^th goal of the season, a mark which ranks fifth in the NCAA this season. He extended his conference-leading mark of 17 goals in NCHC play.
The Husky senior's 19 goals are the most by an NCHC skater since Patrick Newell netted 21 in 2018-19.
For his career, Krannila has now scored 50 goals, as he is just the 23^rd Husky in the D-I era to reach 50 goals.
Meier scored his third goal of the season, all coming on the power play. It marked 10^th career power play goal and 17^th career goal overall for the Husky captain.
Castor made 29 saves in his return to the net, marking the eighth time this season and 12^th time in his career he has made at least 25 saves in a game.
Junior forward Veeti Miettinen (Espoo, Finland), senior forward Micah Miller (Grand Rapids, Minn.), senior forward Zach Okabe (Okotoks, Alberta) and sophomore forward Jack Peart (Grand Rapids, Minn.) all recorded an assist in the contest.
Miettinen and Peart extended their career-best marks for assists in a season to 16 and 21, respectively.

UP NEXT

St. Cloud State will hit the road for its final regular season road series next weekend, as the Huskies travel to Omaha on Feb. 24-25.

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 2022-23 season are available at www.scsutickets.com, downloading the St. Cloud State Huskies app or by calling 1-877-SCSUTIX / 320-308-2137.