DULUTH — The St. Cloud State men's hockey team did something it has not done all season. The Huskies took a lead into the third period and suffered a loss.
Minnesota Duluth fifth-year forward Kobe Roth scored 31 seconds into overtime for the game-winner as the Bulldogs beat the Huskies 3-2 in an NCHC game at Amsoil Arena.
With the overtime win, the Bulldogs leads the Huskies by three points for fourth place with one game left in the regular season. St. Cloud State must beat UMD in regulation in a game that begins at 7 p.m. Saturday at Amsoil to get home ice for the opening round of the NCHC playoffs. Anything less than a win in regulation and the Bulldogs will play host to a best-of-three series next weekend. St. Cloud State holds a tiebreaker edge over UMD if it wins in regulation.
Regardless of who wins Saturday's game, the outcomes on Friday determined that UMD and SCSU will meet again in the opening round of the playoffs. Western Michigan beat Miami (5-3) to secure third place and North Dakota beat Nebraska Omaha 5-4. That loss means that the Mavericks will have the No. 6 seeds in the playoffs and will play at Western Michigan in the opening round of the playoffs.
Going into Friday, St. Cloud State was 16-0-2 this season when it led going into the third period. The Huskies got second period goals from junior center Jami Krannila (at 1:42) and senior defenseman Nick Perbix (9:58) to take a 2-0 lead. Perbix's goal came on the power play.
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But Tanner Laderoute picked up a rebound goal at 15:06 of the second period to cut the deficit to 2-1.
Then Roth scored off a nice pass from sophomore defenseman Wyatt Kaiser at 5:13 of the third period during a 5-on-3 power play. With the Huskies on the power play, Easton Brodzinski took an interference penalty at 3:32.
With SCSU trying to kill that penalty off, freshman defenseman Josh Luedtke took a tripping penalty at 4:57 to give the Bulldogs a 5-on-3 power play.
In the overtime, Roth carried the puck from behind the SCSU net to the slot and beat David Hrenak with a wrist shot for the game-winner.
UMD 3, SCSU 2, OT
SCSU 0-2-0-0—2
UMD 0-1-1-1—3
First period scoring — None. X. Penalties — None.
Second period scoring — 1. SCSU, Jami Krannila 14 (Zach Okabe 15) 1:42; 2. SCSU, Nick Perbix 4 (David Hrenak 2) 9:58 (pp); 3. UMD, Tanner Laderoute 9 (Owen Gallatin 14) 15:06. Penalties — UMD, Dominic James (tripping) 7:59; UMD, Darian Gotz (boarding) 16:26.
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Third period scoring — 4. UMD, Kobe Roth 12 (Wyatt Kaiser 13) 5:13 (pp). Penalties — UMD, Luke Loheit (boarding, misconduct) 2:47; SCSU, Easton Brodzinski (interference) 3:32; SCSU, Josh Luedtke (tripping) 4:57; UMD, Matt Anderson (slashing) 12:06.
Overtime scoring — 5. UMD, Roth 13 (Casey Gilling 14, Kaiser 14) :31. Penalties — None.
Goalie saves — SCSU, David Hrenak 13-2-7-1—23 (3 GA). UMD, Ryan Fanti 7-4-8-0—19 (2 GA).
Penalties-minutes — SCSU 2-4; UMD 5-18.
Power-play goals/opportunities — SCSU 1-4; UMD 1-2.
Faceoffs — SCSU 25-21.
Referees — Nick Krebsbach, Brian Hankes.
Linesemen — Nick Biondich, Jeff Schultz.
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Attendance — 5,582
