ST. CLOUD, Minn. – The No. 3 Denver Pioneers hockey team fell 7-3 to the No. 4 St. Cloud State Huskies in the series opener on Friday night at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center.
 
St. Cloud State (17-6-0, 9-4-0 NCHC) used three power-play goals and tallied four times in the second period to earn the victory over the Pioneers (19-6-0, 10-3-0 NCHC) in a matchup of the top two teams in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference. The Huskies went 3-for-5 on the power play, while DU tallied once on its three man advantages.
 
"It was a tough game. Obviously, it went a little sideways on us, and I think that is the lesson: against really good hockey teams, you have to play a full 60 minutes," said Richard and Kitzia Goodman Hockey Head Coach David Carle. "That's the great part about playing teams like this in our league, you get pushed in different ways and you get challenged and this will make us better. That's the reality, and we'll get another opportunity tomorrow night."
 
Denver and St. Cloud wrap up their two-game set on Saturday at 5 p.m. MT. The contest will be broadcasted on NCHC.tv.
 
Sophomores Carter King and Jack Devine and senior Brett Edwards scored for the Pioneers, who weren't able to rally from a two-goal deficit entering the third period.
 
Denver led 2-1 early in the second stanza, but the Huskies tallied three unanswered markers in a matter of 6:14 to gain a 4-2 lead. Edwards registered his first marker of the season at 13:31 of the frame to get DU back within one score, but Veeti Miettinen scored nearly three minutes later to push the Huskies' advantage back to two goals.
 
SCSU added two markers in the third, including one into an empty net with 45.1 seconds remaining.
 
Huskies goaltender Dominic Basse stopped 28-of-31 shots faced, while Jami Krannila tallied twice. Zach Okabe (one goal, one assist) and Dylan Anhorn (two assists) also had multi-point nights.
 
Senior Magnus Chrona made 24 saves in 51:56 of work in goal for DU. Matt Davis finished the contest in net and stopped both shots he faced.
 
The Pioneers are now 1-2-0 on the season versus the Huskies, as they dropped the first game of the set on Nov. 4-5 in Denver before earning the win the next night to pick up a series split.
 
 
POSTGAME NOTES

• DU is now 56-51-6 all-time and is 22-23-4 in St. Cloud.
• The Pioneers were playing their first game in St. Cloud since Feb. 29, 2020
• Magnus Chrona had his season-long shutout streak end at 132:36, finishing as the 12th-longest in program history.
• Brett Edwards scored his first goal of the season.
• Jack Devine is now on a career-long four-game point streak (2g/2a).
• Shai Buium extended his career-best assist/point streak to four games (0g/4a).
• Sean Behrens is on a season's best four-game assist/point streak (1g/5a).
• Massimo Rizzo had his career-long point streak end at 11 games (6g/8a), tied for the fourth-longest by a Denver player since 2005.

 
GOAL SUMMARY
1st Period
6:36 SCSU (0-1) – PPG, Zac Okabe redirected a shot from Spencer Meier into the cage to start the scoring
10:34 DU (1-1) – PPG, Casey Dornbach patiently skated through the crease before releasing a backhand shot that rebounded to Carter King, who knocked in the puck from the right side.
 
2nd Period
2:06 DU (2-1) – Jack Devine deflected Aidan Thompson's shot from the left corner and the puck entered the net from a tough angle.
6:32 SCSU (2-2) – Jami Krannila tipped in an outside shot from the low slot.
9:48 SCSU (2-3) – Jack Rogers scored on a rebound in front.
12:45 SCSU (2-4) – Jami Krannila recorded his second marker of the game off a cross-ice pass by Grant Cruikshank just seconds after a DU power play expired.
13:31 DU (3-4) – Brett Edwards whacked the puck far-side and into the cage after Mike Benning's dump-in shot rebounded off the SCSU goalie and right to him.
16:23 SCSU (3-5) – Veeti Miettinen took a cross pass from Dylan Anhorn and scored top shelf
 
3rd Period
11:56 SCSU (3-6) – PPG, Grant Cruikshank tallied five-hole on a snap shot from the left side.
19:44 SCSU (3-7) – ENG, Mason Salquist buried the puck into an open net.
 
 
QUOTABLES
Richard and Kitzia Goodman Head Coach David Carle
On the second period: "I really liked our first period. I thought we were skating and winning a lot of races and making them uncomfortable. To me, it seemed like to me in the second that we took our foot off the gas a little bit, they obviously played harder and faster, got into us a little more, made it harder for us to get out of our own end."
 
On not being able to score two short-handed breakaways: "I liked how they forced Basse to make saves. It certainly would have been nice to put one of those in. Not scoring on the 5-on-3, coming back and scoring on a shorty certainly would have helped with the momentum and just helping that special teams battle. It was great sticks to generate those turnovers, but unfortunately weren't able to put them away."
 
 
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