MADISON, Wis. — Grant Cruikshank made his first college game in his home state a memorable one, two freshmen had their first college goals and Jaxon Castor had another strong game.
That was a winning combination for the 10th-ranked St. Cloud State men's hockey team in a 5-1 nonconference win over Wisconsin on Friday at the Kohl Center. The two teams play the second game of their series at 7 p.m. Saturday.
After a scoreless first period, the Huskies (3-0 overall) scored three goals in the second period to take control. Cruikshank, a fifth-year center, was playing his first college game in the Kohl Center and had a memorable game.
Cruikshank, who is from Delafield, Wis., scored a rebound goal and had an assist on a short-handed goal by Grant Ahcan to give the Huskies a 2-0 lead. Cruikshank cranked in a shot from a bad angle for his second goal of the season. Then with the Huskies killing a penalty, Cruikshank stole the puck in the corner and got it out front to Ahcan, who snapped it in.
It was the first college goal for Ahcan, a freshman from Savage, Minnesota. Ahcan's brother, Jack, played for SCSU and his other brother, Roman, played forward for Wisconsin. Ahcan added his first college assist on the Huskies' fifth goal.
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The Huskies took a 3-0 lead on a goal by Cooper Wylie. Wylie took a shot from the Badgers blue line that found its way through traffic for his first college goal.
The Badgers (0-3) scored on a bouncing puck shot by Mathieu De St. Phalle that got past Jaxon Castor at 13:10 of the third period to cut the deficit to 3-1.
But SCSU captain Spencer Meier scored a rebound goal at 15:13 on the power play to give the Huskies a 4-1 lead. Then, on a rush, senior defenseman Dylan Anhorn scored on a shot from the slot at 16:27 off a nice pass from Ahcan. On Anhorn's goal, freshman Jack Rogers also picked up his first college assist.
Castor, a senior from Phoenix, stopped 25 of 26 shots to pick up his second win of the season.
SCSU 5, WISCONSIN 1
SCSU 0-3-2—5
Wisconsin 0-0-1—1
First period scoring — None.
Second period — 1. SCSU, Grant Cruikshank 2 (Micah Miller) 3:56, 2. SCSU, Grant Ahcan 1 (Cruikshank 2) 13:11 (sh), 3. SCSU, Cooper Wylie 1 (Jack Peart 2, Jami Krannila 3) 14:12.
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Third period — 4. UW, Mathieu De St. Phalle 1 (Daniel Laatsch 1, Brock Caufield 1) 13:10; 5. SCSU, Spencer Meier 2 (Zach Okabe 2, Krannila 4) 15:13 (pp); 6. SCSU, Dylan Anhorn 2 (Ahcan 1, Jack Rogers 1) 16:27.
Goalie saves — SCSU: Jaxon Castor 25; UW: Jared Moe 28.
Power plays — SCSU 1-2; UW 0-3.
Faceoffs — UW 29-24.
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