No. 17/16 St. Cloud State Men's Hockey Closes Regular Season at Minnesota Duluth

Friday, March 8

Duluth, Minn.

7:00 P.M. CT

St. Cloud State

Minnesota Duluth

No. 17/16 St. Cloud State Men's Hockey Closes Regular Season at Minnesota Duluth

3/7/2024 9:52:00 AM | Men's Hockey

Huskies aim to finish regular season strong before beginning postseason play

*No. 17/16 ST. CLOUD STATE at MINNESOTA DULUTH*
*OPPONENT*	*LOCATION*	*DAY*	*TIME (CT)*	*TV / STREAM*	*RADIO*	*STATS*	*GAME NOTES*
Minnesota Duluth	Amsoil Arena	Friday, March 8	7:00 p.m.	NCHC.tv	KNSI	Stats	SCSU Notes
Minnesota Duluth	Amsoil Arena	Saturday, March 9	6:00 p.m.	NCHC.tv	KNSI	Stats	UMD Notes

WEEKEND PREVIEW

RINKSIDE

THE MATCHUP

No. 17/16 St. Cloud State Men's Hockey will finish the regular season on the road when the Huskies head north to NCHC rival Minnesota Duluth for a series at Amsoil Arena on March 8-9. The series begins Friday with a 7:00 p.m. CT puck drop followed by a 6:00 p.m. CT start on Saturday on NCHC.tv. Over the radio, TV voice of the Huskies Jim Rich will be filling in for Jim Erickson as he calls the Minnesota State High School state tournament on 45.tv and will be joined by former Husky captain Dave Reichel. SCSU has clinched home ice for the NCHC Quarterfinals, but its final seeding position for the NCHC Tournament will happen this weekend.
The Huskies enter the weekend in third place with 40 points, but could finish anywhere from 2-4 in the standings depending how the final weekend of the regular season plays out. SCSU enters the weekend at No. 14 in the pairwise and will be looking to improve its position in the upcoming weeks ahead of the NCAA Tournament. In the national polls, St. Cloud State is ranked No. 17 in the USCHO poll and No. 16 in the USA Today / The Rink Live Top-20 poll, while the Bulldogs are unranked.

SERIES HISTORY

Here we go again with another series between St. Cloud State and Minnesota Duluth to close the regular season with the potential for these two programs to meet in the NCHC Quarterfinals for the third consecutive season. Since Feb. 2022, the two programs have squared up 15 times in SCSU's past 86 games (17.4 percent), with six with UMD holding the advantage at 7-6-2. Earlier this season, the Huskies moved to 6-0-0 to begin NCHC play with a sweep over Minnesota Duluth on Nov. 17-18 at the Brooks Center. In game one, senior goalie Dominic Basse made 19 saves and senior forward Joe Molenaar scored his seventh goal of the season with just over two minutes left in the game to lift the Huskies to victory. Then, the Huskies outlasted the Bulldogs in an 11-goal thriller in game two, as senior forward Veeti Miettinen scored twice and fifth-year defenseman Dylan Anhorn added three assists.
Last season, the Huskies avenged its NCHC Quarterfinals loss from the previous season with a series win in the NCHC Quarterfinals win at the Brooks Center, taking games one and three, both by 3-1 scores. The series win vaulted the Huskies to an NCHC Frozen Faceoff championship the following weekend at the Xcel Energy Center. Overall, the Huskies lead the current series between the two programs at 83-63-11, but trail the all-time series in Duluth, 30-33-3. All but eight of the teams' 152 matchups have come since January 1989 when St. Cloud State became a Division-I program, with those other eight contests coming between the 1946-47 and 1952-53 seasons.

A LOOK BACK AT THE LAST SERIES

St. Cloud State was swept by No. 5/4 Denver at home last weekend (6-2, 7-2), marking the first time SCSU has been swept at the Brooks Center since Nov. 15-16, 2019 when Colorado College swept the Huskies 4-2 and 5-2. On Friday, the Huskies gave up three goals in the first period and was never able to claw back in the contest, while on Saturday SCSU had its scoring chances but couldn't break through before the game was out of reach, falling 7-2. Senior forward Veeti Miettinen added on to his team lead with a goal in the third period of Saturday's game, recording his 15th goal of the season.

CLUTCH VEETI

After logging his 12th career game-winning goal in a 3-0 win on Feb. 24, senior forward Veeti Miettinen is one game-winning score away from matching a program record for the Huskies. The clutch Husky is one GWG away from moving into a five-way tie for first place with 13 game-winning goals, a record he would share with Joe Jensen (2002-06), Ryan Lasch (2006-10), David Morley (2012-16) and Easton Brodzinski (2017-22).

GAME NOTES FROM LAST SERIES:

GAME 1 - 6-2 loss to Denver (3-1-24 in St. Cloud, Minn.)
- SCSU went 1-of-3 on the power play to increase its conversion rate to 22.4 percent (24-of-107).
- The Huskies have scored a power play in five of the last six games, going 6-of-16 (37.5 percent) over that span.
- Despite the score, SCSU outshot Denver in the game (34-27) and every period (13-12, 10-9, 11-6).
- Sophomore forward Adam Ingram notched his ninth goal of the season to record a new career-best for goals in a season. His third period score was his 17th career goal.
- Freshman forward Tyson Gross scored a goal and assist for two points, recording his second career two-point game. His score was his first career power play goal and third career goal overall.
- Junior defenseman Karl Falk logged the first point of his Husky career with the primary assist on Ingram's score.
- Fifth-year defenseman Dylan Anhorn recorded his 22nd assist of the season while senior forward Veeti Miettinen recorded his 13th assist of the season.
GAME 2 - 7-2 loss to Denver (3-2-24 in St. Cloud, Minn.)
- With the loss, SCSU moves to 53-58-7 all-time against Denver and 25-23-4 against the Pioneers in St. Cloud.
- This weekend's sweep marked the first time this season the Huskies didn't get any points – pairwise or conference – in a series the entire season.
- SCSU killed off each of its three penalties in the game to move to 79.6 percent (82-of-103) on the penalty kill this season.
- The Huskies were 59.6 percent (34-24) in the faceoff dot.
- Senior forward Veeti Miettinen scored his 15th goal of the season and 48th goal of his career. He now has 111 career points.
- Junior forward Mason Salquist scored his fifth goal of the season and 15th point.
- Freshman forward Verner Miettinen recorded his 15th assist on the season, moving to sixth all-time among SCSU freshmen.
- Fifth-year forward Zach Okabe had an assist to log his 117th career point, ranking 24th all-time in program history.
- Freshman forward Tyson Gross went 15-6 (71.4 percent) in the faceoff dot while Salquist went 13-9 (59.1 percent).
- Gross' 15 faceoff wins are his second-most this season, trailing only the 16 he won against Michigan on Nov. 25.

DISCIPLINED HUSKIES

St. Cloud State enters the weekend with 280 penalty minutes on the season, the third-fewest minutes in the NCHC and the fifth-fewest in the NCAA this season.
In its last six games, the Huskies have a combined 11 penalties for 22 penalty minutes. SCSU has committed three or fewer penalties in 13 games this season, including no penalties against North Dakota on (Jan. 20) and Western Michigan (Feb. 23).
Prior to Jan. 20, it had been eight years since the last time SCSU did not commit a penalty in a game (Jan. 2, 2016 vs. Arizona State). The last time SCSU had two games in one season where they did not commit a penalty was 2012-13 when the Huskies didn't commit any penalties in back-to-back games on Feb. 1-2, 2013.

ANHORN HEATING UP AT THE RIGHT TIME

Fifth-year defenseman Dylan Anhorn is starting to heat up at the right time of the season, and took home the NCHC Defenseman of the Week honors following SCSU's series sweep against Miami.
In his last 13 games, Anhorn has produced three goals and nine assists for 12 points and a +5 mark of the ice.
Anhorn scored both game-winning goals (2-0-2) while producing a +1 mark on the ice in SCSU's sweep over Miami. Anhorn's second-period one-timer gave the Huskies a 3-1 lead and ended up being the game-winner in Friday's 5-2 victory. On Saturday, he found the back of the net at the 10:16 mark of the third period to lift SCSU to a 3-1 win.
The Hobey Baker candidate has picked up right where he left off a season ago, as his 28 points rank third among NCHC blue-liners and 13th in the NCAA while his 22 assists rank third in the NCHC and 18th in the NCAA. Anhorn leads the Huskies in points (28), assists (22) and plus/minus (+13).

MIETTINEN TAKES NEXT STEP, REACHES 100-POINT MILESTONE

Senior forward Veeti Miettinen has taken the next step in his game, recording 15 goals and 28 points with a +8 mark on the ice this season. Miettinen leads the Huskies in goals (15) and points (28) while ranking 10th and 16th in the NCHC in those categories, respectively.
The Husky forward scored in six consecutive games between Oct. 20 and Nov. 11, the longest scoring streak by a Husky since Ryan Lasch produced the same mark in the 2007-08 season (Oct. 27 - Nov. 23, 2007).
Miettinen scored his 10th goal against Michigan on Nov. 25 to become just the ninth Husky to record four consecutive seasons with 10 or more goals. He joins Chris Scheid (1987-91), Tim Hanus (1988-92), Jeff Saterdalen (1988-92), Dave Paradise (1993-97), Jason Goulet (1995-99), Ryan Lasch (2006-10), Garrett Roe (2007-11) and Easton Brodzinski (five seasons, 2017-22) as the only Huskies to score 10+ goals in four seasons.
Miettinen has powered the Huskies power play unit through the first half of the season, scoring six of the team's 24 goals on the man advantage. The Husky senior's six power play goals ranks sixth in the NCHC and 29th nationally.
For his career, Miettinen has 48 goals and 63 assists for 111 points. His 12 career game-winning goals rank fifth all-time in program history, as he sits a three-way tie with Joe Motzko (1999-03) and Nic Dowd (2010-14). He can tie a program record with his next game-winning score, match the mark of 13 set by Joe Jensen (2002-06), Ryan Lasch (2006-10), David Morley (2012-16) and Easton Brodzinski (2017-22).

NCHC TOURNAMENT UP NEXT

St. Cloud State is in the thick of the fight for position seeding in the NCHC Quarterfinals, which will start next week. SCSU currently sits in third place with 40 points (11-7-4) while North Dakota wrapped up the Penrose Cup last weekend and has 49 points (15-6-1). Denver (14-6-2) jumped over SCSU for second place with 42 points while Colorado College (13-7-2) is in fourth place with 38 points.
SCSU jumped out to an early lead in the chase for the Penrose, as the Huskies went unbeaten through eight conference games. The Huskies 7-0-1 start to conference play was its best eight-game start to conference season in program history, surpassing its mark of 7-1-0 in the 2001-02 WCHA season.