Sports

St. Cloud State one point behind WCHA leader

The Gophers played St. Cloud State at the wrong time. The Huskies are 8-0-0 in 2010 and on the heels of WCHA leader UMD.

By Roman Augustoviz

January 25, 2010 at 6:13PM

A slightly edited WCHA news release:

St. Cloud State, after a weekend home-and-home sweep over Minnesota, is 7-1-1 over its last nine league games and has moved into a tie for second place in the WCHA standings.

In the biggest WCHA series, No. 3 Wisconsin earned three of four points against No. 1 Denver with a 3-3 overtime tie on Friday and a 4-3 triumph on Saturday.

Alaska Anchorage, the Gophers' next opponent, battled back from a 6-1 loss to visiting Colorado College on Friday at Sullivan Arena to claim a 2-1 victory over the Tigers on Saturday. The Seawolves are 3-2-1 over their last seven league games.

In non-conference play, North Dakota split at Cornell after a 3-1 victory on Saturday night while Minnesota Duluth suffered two defeats in a home-and-home series with Bemidji State, falling 5-4 in overtime on Saturday at the DECC.

Those results put the WCHA's 2009-10 nonconference mark at 40-22-5 (.634) through 67 games.

Both Michigan Tech and Minnesota State, Mankato were idle over the weekend.

Just two points separate the top five clubs in the WCHA race.

Wisconsin 4, Denver 3

At the Kohl Center on Saturday, a sellout crowd of 15,237 saw the Badgers edge Denver as left winger Jordy Murray and right wingers Craig Smith and Michael Davies all had a goal and an assist. Davies' tally at 13:30 of the third period was the game-winner while center Blake Geoffrion added two assists. For the Pioneers, defenseman Matt Donovan (1g, 2a) and left winger Rhett Rakhshani (1g, 1a) led the way.

Alaska Anchorage 2, Colorado College 1

At Sullivan Arena in Anchorage, 2,894 saw left winger Tommy Grant and center Alex Gellert score goals and the Seawolves' defense hold the Tigers to 17 shots on goal. Gellert's power-play goal at 8:53 of the second period put UAA up 2-0. For CC, left winger Addison DeBoer had a PPG at 12:45 of period two.

North Dakota 3, Cornell 1

The visiting North Dakota Sioux, after losing 1-0 on Friday, beat Cornell before a sellout crowd of 4,267. Center Chris VandeVelde netted the game-winner and left winger Jason Gregoire contributed a goal and an assist. VandeVelde's goal at 11:18 of the third period put the Sioux up 2-0. UND outshot their hosts 26-16 and blanked them on all seven power-play attempts.

Bemidji State 5, UMD 4, ot

At the DECC in Duluth on Saturday, the Bulldogs held the lead three different times against Bemidji State before falling in overtime before a capacity crowd of 5,396. The Beavers, with an extra attacker on the ice, knotted the score at 4-4 at the 19:58 mark of the third period on a goal by center Ben Kinne before left winger Jordan George sealed the win just :36 seconds into the extra session. For the Bulldogs, who outshot BSU 35-24, center Travis Oleksuk (1g, 1a) and right winger David Grun (2a) each had two points.