St. Cloud State Men’s Hockey Drops Home Opener to No. 12/16 Michigan Tech in Overtime

Friday, October 9

St. Cloud, Minn.

7:00 P.M. CT

St. Cloud State

0-2-0

Michigan Tech

3-0-0

Team	1	2	3	OT 1	F
Michigan Tech	0	1	1	1	3
St. Cloud St.	1	1	0	0	2

Box Score (PDF)Highlights Press Conference

Photo by: Kayden Kircher

St. Cloud State Men’s Hockey Drops Home Opener to No. 12/16 Michigan Tech in Overtime

10/10/2026 1:39:00 AM | Men's Hockey

Box Score

Paupanekis nets first collegiate goal, Thoreson finds back of the net for first time in 2026-27

ST. CLOUD, Minn. – St. Cloud State Men's Hockey (0-2-0, 0-0-0 NCHC) dropped its second consecutive game in overtime to open the 2026-27 season, falling 3-2 to No. 12/16 Michigan Tech (3-0-0, 0-0-0 CCHA) on Friday night at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center in St. Cloud. The Huskies took a 2-0 lead early in the second period following goals from junior forward Gavyn Thoreson (Andover, Minn.) and freshman forward Hayden Paupanekis (Winnipeg, Manitoba) before Michigan Tech scored the game's last three goals.

SCSU flipped the script from the weekend prior, as the Huskies came out of the locker room buzzing and outshot Michigan Tech 14-6 in the first period. The Huskies took the lead at 15:51 of the opening frame when its top line led a rush play and Thoreson hammered home a rebound following a shot from sophomore forward Nolan Roed (White Bear Lake, Minn.).

The Huskies doubled their lead on their second power play chance of the game early in the second period. It took just five seconds into the power play for the Huskies to find the back of the net, as Roed won the faceoff and sent the puck back to sophomore Finn McLaughlin (Canmore, Alberta), who passed it to sophomore forward Noah Urness (Roseau, Minn.) and then finally to Paupanekis below the left dot. The Husky freshman turned towards the net and roofed a shot past the Michigan Tech goaltender for the score.

Michigan Tech was able to score midway through the second period and again a little past the midway point of the third period to tie the score at 2-2 and send the game into overtime. In the extra frame, Michigan Tech finished a rush play and then rebound for the game-winning goal at 2:09.

TOP HUSKIES

Paupanekis scored his first collegiate goal on the power play.
Thoreson scored his first goal of the season in the first period.
Roed, Urness and McLaughlin all recorded assists in the game for the Huskies.

NOTES

With the loss, St. Cloud State is now 56-28-5 all-time against Michigan Tech and 33-10-3 against the Huskies in St. Cloud.
The Huskies scored on the power play for the second consecutive game to open the season and remain at 25 percent (2-of-8) on the man advantage this season.
SCSU was a perfect 5-of-5 on the penalty kill and improved to 90.0 percent (9-of-10) on the kill this season.
The Huskies went 31-19 in the faceoff dot, led by a 16-7 night from junior forward WIlliam Ahlrik (Tidaholm, Sweden and a 10-5 night from Roed.
Thoreson scored his first goal of the season and 18^th of his career with his first period score.
Paupanekis scored his first collegiate goal and first power play goal in the second period.
McLaughlin recorded his second assist of the season to take the team lead in assists while also setting a new season-best for his career after record one assist in 31 games last season.
Roed and Urness recorded their first assists of the season.
Freshman goaltender Yan Shostak (Minsk, Belarus) made 26 saves, marking the second time this season and 12^th time in his career he has made 25 or more saves.
Two Huskies – freshman forward John Hirschfeld (St. Cloud, Minn.) and freshman defenseman Will Sharpe (Ladner, British Columbia) – made their SCSU and collegiate debuts in the game.

HIGHLIGHTS

PRESS CONFERENCE

UP NEXT

SCSU and Michigan Tech will finish their series on Saturday with a 6:00 p.m. CT start from the Brooks Center.

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 2026-27 season are available at www.scsutickets.com, downloading the St. Cloud State Huskies app or by calling 1-877-SCSUTIX / 320-308-2137.