St. Cloud State Men’s Hockey Drops Series Opener to No. 6 Denver

Friday, February 28

Magness Arena | Denver, Colo.

8:00 P.M. CT

St. Cloud State

12-18-1, 5-15-1

Denver

24-8-1, 13-7-1

St. Cloud St.

Denver

St. Cloud State Men’s Hockey Drops Series Opener to No. 6 Denver

2/28/2025 10:51:00 PM | Men's Hockey

Box Score

Portz scores Huskies lone goal of the game in 3-1 setback

DENVER, Colo. – St. Cloud State Men's Hockey (12-18-1, 5-15-1 NCHC) dropped the first game of its series with No. 6 Denver (24-8-1, 13-7-1), 3-1, on Friday night at Magness Arena. The two teams were tied after 20 minutes of play, but two goals from the Pioneers in the middle frame proved to be the difference.

Denver scored just under five minutes into the game on a power play when Carter King batted in a goal off a shot from the point to take a 1-0 lead. The Huskies then evened the score about five minutes later when senior forward Nick Portz (St. Cloud, Minn.) finished a breakaway by firing a shot top left over the Pioneer goaltender.

In the second period, Denver scored at the 4:20 and 8:56 marks of the period to take a 3-1 lead, and that scored held up for the rest of the game.

TOP HUSKIES

Portz recorded his third goal of the season.
Junior forward Ethan AuCoin (Calgary, Alberta) and and junior defenseman Mason Reiners (Edina, Minn.) recorded assists for the Huskies.
Sophomore goaltender Isak Posch (Umea, Sweden) made 38 saves for the Huskies in net.

NOTES

With the loss, St. Cloud State falls to 53-61-7 all-time against Denver and 25-35-3 against the Pioneers in Denver.
In the loss, SCSU moves to 2-15-0 when its opponent scores first, 2-10-0 when tied after the first period, 0-11-1 when trailing after two periods and 6-10-1 when outshot by its opponent.
Portz's third goal of the season set a new career-high for a season, surpassing his mark of two in each of his freshman, sophomore and junior campaigns. He scored for the first time since Oct. 25 against Augustana when he found the back of the net twice.
AuCoin notched his second assist and fifth point of the season with the primary assist on Portz's score.
Reiners recorded his third assist of the season to match his career-high for a season from his three assists last season.
Posch's 38 saves marks the second time this season and third time in his career he has made 35 or more saves.
Senior forward Mason Salquist (Grand Forks, N.D.) went 13-12 in the faceoff dot, marking the 18^th time in 31 games he has won 10 or more faceoffs.

UP NEXT

St. Cloud State and Denver will finish its series on Saturday with puck drop scheduled for 7:00 p.m. CT / 6:00 p.m. MT from Magness Arena.

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 2024-25 season are available at www.scsutickets.com, downloading the St. Cloud State Huskies app or by calling 1-877-SCSUTIX / 320-308-2137.