ST. CLOUD, Minn. — St. Cloud State got its offense going for the first time this season against Minnesota, but still came out on the short end of a 4-2 score.
“Overall, I thought it was a really good weekend on the road, coming in against a St. Cloud team who has been really hot, as of late,” coach Brad Frost said. “It was nice to come away with all six points.”
The Gophers (22-3-0, 17-3-0-0 WCHA) got two points each from Hannah Brandt, Kelly Pannek, Cara Piazza, and Lee Stecklein, plus three power-play goals.
“There’s no doubt it’s helping us win games,” Frost said. “We still need to generate a little bit more goal production five on five, but I’d rather have a really good power play than not.”
St. Cloud State (11-11-3, 7-10-3-3 WCHA) broke through with its first goals of the season against the Gophers in the third frame.
“Winning a period at the end was a positive thing to come back and to score a couple goals there and to not just fall into that trap of kind of fading away at the end of the game,” coach Eric Rud said. “Tonight, I thought we competed hard and kept going and kept going.”
The Minnesota power play clicked twice in the first period with Milica McMillen and Piazza each scoring from the slot.
“All year long we’ve been a disciplined team, and tonight, three power-play goals, that really shot us in the foot,” Rud said.
Sidney Peters stopped Molly Illikainen on a penalty shot between the two first-period tallies for the Gophers.
The visitors increased their lead to 3-0 in the middle stanza.
“Good to see Taylor Williamson get that one here tonight,” Frost said. “She’s worked so hard and been a little snake bit.”
Lauren Hespenheide cut into the deficit 1:51 into the final period. After Dani Cameranesi bumped the margin back to three, Hannah Potrykus spotted Suvi Ollikainen for a power-play goal for the Huskies.
The ultimate difference was Minnesota going three of five with the advantage while SCSU got one goal on two power-play opportunities.
“It’s hard when you play those top, elite teams, because they have the puck all the time,” Rud said. “That’s just the nature of it, and that’s fine. You just have to deal with it. You are going to take a few penalties, but we had three that we easily could have avoided. One stick penalty in the neutral zone and two checkings that we didn’t need to take.
“I hate learning lessons this time of year, but we have plenty of hockey left, so we can learn that lesson now.”
