WCHA roundup: St. Cloud State splits with UND, Wisconsin sweeps

St. Cloud State remained inconsistent last weekend, splitting with North Dakota. The Huskies are still looking for their first series sweep this season.

January 23, 2012 at 12:37PM

St. Cloud State, the Gophers' next opponent, split at home with North Dakota this past weekend.

The Huskies won the first game 3-1, but lost the second 3-2 and fell one point behind UND in the WCHA standings. North Dakota is in sixth place with 18 points, SCSU and Michigan Tech are tied for seventh with 17.

UND's Corban Knight had two goals in the opening period and an assist on Brock Nelson's game-winner at 2:50 of the second period. Defenseman Andrew Prochno and forward Dave Eddy scored for SCSU. It appeared the Huskies had tied the game in the last minute of play, but an apparent goal was waved off because officials said it was kicked in.

The victory for UND coach Dave Hakstol was his 200th in eight seasons. ... Junior forward Danny Kristo of UND played in his 100th game. He has 35 goals and 54 assists for 89 points.

The Huskies played with 10 forwards most of the game. Sophomore forward Cory Thorson suffered an apparent shoulder injury in the first period and shortly afterward senior forward Jordy Christian left the game, too, after a collision. ... UND played the whole game with 17 skaters -- instead of the usual 18 -- because of injury problems.

The St. Cloud Daily Times story is here.

St. Cloud State was 0-for-7 on the power play last weekend, UND 0-for-4.

The Huskies play at Mariucci on Friday and then the series moves to the National Hockey Center on Saturday. SCSU has not won more than two games in a row this season and has not swept a series.

* On Friday, Thorson and freshman defenseman Jarrod Rabey scored goals for SCSU in the second period and Jared Festler added an empty-netter at the end. Freshman goalie Ryan Faragher made 41 saves.

* Prochno, who played for Minnetonka High School last season, has one goal and 10 assists in his last seven games.

WISCONSIN SWEEPS ...

Two players from Eagan had goals for Wisconsin as the Badgers edged Alaska Anchorage 3-2 for a sweep of their series at the Kohl Center. Freshman forward Joe LaBate, who went to Holy Angels, got the game-winner with just over four minutes to play.

Tyler Barnes, who went to high school at Burnsville, had the first goal for Wisconsin which won 4-0 on Friday. The Wisconsin State Journal story on the second game is here.

Badgers defenseman Justin Schultz was a plus-seven for the seres, meaning he was on the ice for every Wisconsin goal and they were all at even-strength.

PURPLE MAVS WIN IN OT FOR SPLIT

Sophomore forward Johnny McInnis' goal at 3:05 of overtime gave Minnesota State a 5-4 overtime victory over Nebraska Omaha.

Junior forward Eriah Hayes had a hat trick for the purple Mavericks. Josh Archibald had two goals for UNO which tied the score with 9.6 seconds left in regulation on freshman Jayson Megna's goal.

The Mankato Free Press story is here.

The red Mavs won the first game of the series 2-1 in overtime, and since the two teams split the series and had the same number of goals, the Spirit of the Maverick Trophy stays in Omaha.

UNO defenseman Bryce Aneloski scored the game-winner on Friday, on a power play at 1:37 of overtime. In the first minute of that extra period, MSU defenseman Evan Mosey crashed into goalie Ryan Massa. He had to be taken off the ice on a stretcher to a hospital but was at Saturday's game.

Massa made 39 saves but his backup, Dayn Belfour, who played 54 seconds and made one save, got credit for the win. How fair is that?

Freshman Jean-Paul Lafontaine had a third-period power play goal for the purple Mavs. He has 12 goals, only one behind Kyle Rau, the national leader for goals among rookies.

UMD SWEEPS ALABAMA HUNTSVILLE

Jack Connolly had two goals and one assist -- extending his points streak to a team record-tying 20 games -- as the Bulldogs edged Alabama Huntsville 4-3.

"I'm just trying to go out there and help the guys," said Connolly, who has three or more points in seven games this winter. "Hopefully, I can keep this streak going for a couple more games. It's nice to share this kind of record."

Connolly leads the nation with 40 points; he has 15 goals and 25 assists. This win was UMD's eighth in a row at home and gives the Bulldogs a final nonconference record of 6-1-1.

The Duluth News-Tribune story is here.

UMD won Friday's game 2-1. Alabama Huntsville has only two wins this season -- vs. UNO and Denver -- but does have a great goalie. Clarke Saunders stopped 95 of 101 shots against the Bulldogs.

Connolly now had 177 points in 149 college games.

MICHIGAN TECH FALLS

David Johnstone had two goals and Michigan Tech outshot Northern Michigan 30-24, but the Huskies lost 5-2. Tyler Gron had one goal and three assists and Justin Florek two goals for NMU.

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