DENVER – The No. 2-ranked Denver Pioneers hockey team fell 4-3 in overtime to the No. 4 St. Cloud State Huskies in the series opener on Friday night at Magness Arena.
 
St. Cloud State rallied from a late third-period deficit to tie the contest, and Veeti Miettinen scored the game-winning goal 3:22 into overtime. DU still picked up a point in the NCHC standings despite the extra-time loss.
 
The Pioneers and Huskies wrap up their top-five, nationally-ranked series on Saturday at 6 p.m. MT at Magness Arena. The game will be broadcasted on NCHC.tv and Evoca.tv.
 
Massimo Rizzo led Denver with his fifth-straight multi-point game, recording a goal and an assist. He scored with 2:11 remaining to give the Pioneers a 3-2 lead late, but the Huskies responded less than a minute later with a marker from Zach Okabe to knot the contest and send it to overtime.
 
Mike Benning and Justin Lee also scored for DU, with Sean Behrens, Casey Dornbach, Kyle Mayhew and Carter Mazur picking up helpers in the contest. Denver goaltender Magnus Chrona made 21 saves.
 
St. Cloud State took the lead early in the game, but Denver responded with back-to-back tallies. Benning scored with 2:11 remaining in the first period and Lee gave the Pioneers their first lead of the night at 7:24 of the middle frame.
 
Grant Cruikshank evened the game at 2-2 for St. Cloud midway through the third period before Rizzo scored his fourth of the season to momentarily give DU the scoreboard advantage.
 
Denver outshot St. Cloud State 27-25 in the contest. Both teams went 0-for-2 on the power play.
 
 
POSTGAME NOTES

• Denver had its four-game winning streak and seven-game home winning streak come to an end. St. Cloud State ended is eight-game losing streak at Magness Arena, with it last winning in Denver o Feb. 24, 2017.
• Carter Mazur had his goal streak end at three games, but he extended his point streak to a season-long four contests (6g/2a).
• Casey Dornbach (2g/5a) and Massimo Rizzo (4g/9a) both contributed assists to extend their respective point streaks to team-long five games.
• Justin Lee scored his first goal of the season
• Carter Mazur appeared in his 50th career game.
• Freshman Aidan Thompson made his NCAA debut after missing the first eight games of the season with a lower-body injury.

 
GOAL SUMMARY
1st Period
4:04 SCSU (0-1) – Jami Krannila scored on a rebound after Chase Brand's initial shot was stopped.
17:49 DU (1-1) – Mike Benning took a pass from Carter Mazur, cut to the inside and buried a shot from the slot.
 
2nd Period
7:24 DU (2-1) – Massimo Rizzo dropped the puck off for Justin Lee, who scored from the left side through traffic.
 
3rd Period
9:43 SCSU (2-2) – Grant Cruikshank scored with a one-timer from the top of the left circle
17:49 DU (3-2) – Sean Behrens kept the puck in the zone at the point before passing it to Massimo Rizzo, who scored from a tough angle to the left of the crease.
18:43 SCSU (3-3) – EA, Zach Okabe tallied on a rebound after Denver's Justin Lee blocked a shot.
 
Overtime
3:22 SCSU (3-4) – Veeti Miettinen scored on a wrist shot during a rush up the ice.
 

QUOTABLES
 
Richard and Kitzia Goodman Head Coach David Carle
On scoring even-strength goals: "It was nice to be able to score 5-on-5. We scored three, 5-on-5 goals. I don't think we've done that yet this year, so that was a good thing, and I thought we generated some other looks as well. Credit to them, they are a really good hockey team, and they made it hard on us. We weren't able to do it consistently enough."
 
On starting overtime on the power play: "There wasn't a lot of special teams, obviously in the hockey game. I thought the execution wasn't to the level that it needed to be. We got one good look at the net on the [Mike] Benning one-timer with [Carter] Mazur at the net, but other than that just poor passing, and not able to get more looks unfortunately."
 
Senior Forward Casey Dornbach
On challenges St. Cloud State presented: "I think that it just took a little bit to find our groove, and we didn't do what we had to do as far as sealing the game away when we had some leads. We just have to build on some of them as a team, like in the third period, and carry that into tomorrow."
 
On the team's strong 5-on-5 play: "I thought as far as our line we were moving our feet down low and winning our battles and creating chaos, making their coverage switch and hounding them all night. That's why we got rewarded throughout different times in the game. We had our defense active and that really helped, and we are hoping to carry that because we need those 5-on-5 goals and looking to get a few more. It wasn't enough tonight."
 
Senior Defenseman Kyle Mayhew
On the game: "It's kind of a weird thing we got to figure out. We didn't seem too ready right off the hop there in the first five to 10 minutes. I don't know if our heads weren't in it, but it's just something we got to focus on. Starts are huge, especially in conference college hockey. I mean you can't be taking off 10-20 minutes per night.
 
On the team's dominating possession at times: "That's definitely how we want to do things; that's pioneer hockey for us. We were cycling full lines… not getting stuck on the ice. So it was huge, and we had a lot of good chances. We just had a really good defensive game all around.
 

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