No. 15 St. Cloud State Men’s Hockey Drops OT Series Opener to No. 13/12 Western Michigan

Friday, February 23

St. Cloud, Minn.

7:00 P.M. CT

St. Cloud State

14-10-5, 10-5-4

Western Michigan

18-10-1, 9-10-0

OT 1

Western Mich.

St. Cloud St.

No. 15 St. Cloud State Men’s Hockey Drops OT Series Opener to No. 13/12 Western Michigan

2/24/2024 1:01:00 AM | Men's Hockey

Box Score

Huskies had 3-1 lead heading into the third period

ST. CLOUD, Minn. – A go-ahead score not allowed late in regulation and an overtime score for the visiting team led No. 15 St. Cloud State Men's Hockey (14-10-5, 10-5-4 NCHC) dropping the opening game of the series to No. 13/12 Western Michigan (18-10-1, 9-10-0 NCHC), 4-3, in overtime on Friday night at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center. The Huskies had a 3-1 lead heading into the third period, but Western Michigan scored twice in the first seven minutes of the final period to knot the score at 3-3. Senior forward Veeti Miettinen (Espoo, Finland) appeared to have scored the go-ahead goal with 1:38 left in the game as his slap shot seemingly passed over the goal line, but video replay determined no conclusive goal, keeping the score at 3-3. Western Michigan then scored 2:00 into overtime to finish off its comeback for the 5-4 overtime victory.

The Huskies opened up the game with a pair of goals in the first period at 13:33 and in the second period at 14:29. Sophomore forward Adam Ingram (West St. Paul, Manitoba) led an odd-man rush that finished with sophomore forward Ethan AuCoin (Calgary, Alberta) shooting the puck at the back of the Bronco goaltender, ricocheting the puck to the back of the net for the opening score. Fifth-year forward Kyler Kupka (Camrose, Alberta) then extended the Huskies lead in the second period after he won a puck battle following a faceoff win from junior forward Mason Salquist (Grand Forks, N.D.). Kupka took the puck and moved right to left in front of the goalie before beating him with a wrist shot to the back of the net.

The Broncos would respond just 29 seconds later to make the score 2-1, but then SCSU moved its lead back to two goals 1:40 later with a power play goal from fifth-year forward Zach Okabe (Okotoks, Alberta) at the 16:38 mark of the period. Okabe tipped in a slap shot from the blue line from junior defenseman Jack Peart (Grand Rapids, Minn.) to record his ninth goal of the season.

TOP HUSKIES

Okabe scored the Huskies' third goal with a second period power play score.
Salquist had an assist and was 14-8 in the faceoff dot.
Posch stopped 30 of 34 shots in the game.

NOTES

With the loss, St. Cloud State dropped to 22-14-5 all-time against Western Michigan and now sits at 12-7-2 against the Broncos in St. Cloud.
SCSU was 1-of-3 on the power play to improve to 22.5 percent (23-of-102) on the man advantage this season.
Okabe netted his ninth goal of the season and 51^st career goal with his second period score. He becomes the 24^th skater in program history to reach the 50-goal mark. He has now scored in eight of the last 12 games dating back to Dec. 31 vs. Bemidji State.
Kupka scored his 12^th goal of the season and 30^th of his career.
AuCoin had his fourth goal of the season and fifth of his career.
Ingram set new career-highs in assists (16) and points (24) with his first period.
Peart's eighth assist on the season was his 44^th career assist, the 17^th-most of SCSU blue liners all-time.
Salqust and Luedtke had single assists in the game.
Salquist and Peart both played in their 100^th career games.

HIGHLIGHTS

UP NEXT

St. Cloud State and Western Michigan will finish its series on Saturday at 6:00 p.m. CT at the Brooks Center. The game will be televised on Fox 9 + and NCHC.tv with radio coverage on KNSI.

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 2023-24 season are available at www.scsutickets.com, downloading the St. Cloud State Huskies app or by calling 1-877-SCSUTIX / 320-308-2137.