ST. CLOUD, Minn. — The power play seemed to find wherever its mojo was hiding and three seniors had goals in Game 1 of the last regular season NCHC series of the season at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center.
Olympian Sam Hentges scored two power-play goals, Easton Brodzinski ended the longest goal drought of his college career and captain Spencer Meier added a power-play goal to help St. Cloud State to a 4-1 win over Colorado College on Saturday.
With the win, the Huskies (8-9-4 NCHC, 16-11-4 overall) remain in fifth place in the NCHC, one point ahead of Nebraska Omaha (10-11-0, 20-13-0). That's because the Mavericks thumped Denver 5-1 on Friday at Baxter Arena.
St. Cloud State went into Friday in a slump on the power play, having gone 6-for-34 (17.6%) in its last 10 games. But the Huskies were 3-for-6 on the power play in the win over the Tigers (6-14-1, 9-19-3).
Meier had a power-play goal at 8:54 of the first period and then Brodzinski added an even-strength goal at 16:29 and the Huskies led 2-0 going into the second period. It was the 12th goal of the season for Brodzinski, who had gone 10 games without a goal.
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SCSU put itself in the driver's seat with two power-play goals from Hentges in the second period (at 3:27 and 18:47). Hentges, a Minnesota Wild draft pick, has nine goals in 14 games this season. He has missed games due to injury and playing for Team USA in the Olympics.
Fifth-year senior David Hrenak made 21 saves to pick up the win. In two games this week, Hrenak has stopped 46 of the 48 shots (95.8%) he has faced.
SCSU 4, COLORADO COLLEGE 1
CC 0-1-0—1
SCSU 2-2-0—4
First period scoring — 1. SCSU, Spencer Meier 5 (Kevin Fitzgerald 17, Jami Krannila 13) 8:44 (pp); 2. SCSU, Easton Brodzinski 12 (Sam Hentges 8, Jack Peart 15) 16:29. Penalties — CC, Stanley Cooley (tripping) 8:08; SCSU, Krannila (tripping) 17:35.
Second period scoring — 3. SCSU, Hentges 8 (Veeti Miettinen 11, Nick Perbix 21) 3:27 (pp); 4. CC, Logan Will 6 (Jordan Biro 7, Hunter McKown 7) 12:28 (pp); 5. SCSU, Hentges 9 (Miettinen 12, Perbix 22) 18:47 (pp). Penalties — CC, Connor Mayer (tripping) 2:17; CC, Hugo Blixt (kneeing) 7:29; SCSU, Meier (tripping) 10:14; SCSU, Fitzgerald (slashing) 11:17; CC, Noah Prokop (hooking) 14:05; CC, Nate Schweitzer (hooking) 17:09.
Third period scoring — None. Penalties — CC, Bryan Yoon (hooking) 8:36; SCSU, Mason Salquist (holding) 14:41.
Goalie saves — CC, Matt Vernon 7-12-9—28 (4 GA). SCSU, David Hrenak 7-6-8—21 (1 GA).
Penalties-minutes — CC 6-12; SCSU 4-8.
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Power-play goals, opportunities — CC 1-4; SCSU 3-6.
Faceoffs — CC 35-23.
Attendance — 3,857.
