ST. CLOUD, Minn. -- St. Cloud State freshman Nick Oslund scored with seven minutes left in the game to complete a comeback 3-2 win for the Huskies men's hockey team on Friday after North Dakota led 2-0 early in the third period.
The Fighting Sioux fell to 9-8-1 overall and 6-7-0 in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. The Huskies raised their record to 10-9-2 overall and 5-7-1 in the WCHA. St. Cloud State is just one point behind UND in the WCHA standings.
It was the second game in a row that UND has lost despite leading after two periods. Prior to its last two outings, UND had won 13 games in a row when leading after two.
The first period was scoreless with the Sioux outshooting the Huskies, 10-8. St. Cloud State had three power-play opportunities in the period.
UND dominated the second period, outshooting St. Cloud State 11-0 while limiting the Huskies to just six shot attempts.
North Dakota took a 1-0 lead at 1:47 of the second on a goal by Andrew Kozek (Jr., Sicamous, B.C.), who picked up a loose puck out front and scored his seventh goal of the season after Rylan Kaip (Sr., Radville, Saskatchewan) stole a St. Cloud State clearing attempt and drove to the net.
The Sioux finished killing off a St. Cloud State power-play opportunity to start the third period and took a 2-0 lead just 58 seconds into the third when rookie defenseman Jake Marto (Grand Forks, N.D.) scored his first career goal after taking a feed from Chris VandeVelde (So., Moorhead, Minn.). Ryan Duncan (Jr., Calgary, Alberta) also picked up an assist on the goal.
St. Cloud State then began its comeback.
It started when Huskies' sophomore Ryan Lasch made it 2-1 at 3:41 of the third period with a wraparound goal that beat UND goalie Jean-Philippe Lamoureux (Sr., Grand Forks, N.D.) stick side. It was Lasch's 16th goal of the season.
After a UND turnover, SCSU freshman Aaron Marvin tied it just over two minutes later with his second goal of the season on a wrist shot from the lower right circle at 5:56.
That set the stage for Oslund's heroics.
On the game-winning play, St. Cloud State forward Jon Ammerman sent a pass to Brent Borgen, who was skating up the left side. While one UND defenseman tied up by a Huskies' forward skating down the middle, Borgen then lured the other UND defenseman his way before sending a pass to Oslund, who was cruising down the slot after trailing the play.
Oslund faked a shot from in close, causing Lamoureux to drop to the ice, and then went to his right before firing a shot around Lamoureux for his third goal of the season.
UND outshot St. Cloud State, 35-18, in the game. Huskies' goalie Dan Dunn made 33 saves, while Lamoureux stopped 15 shots.
Neither team scored a power-play goal, with UND going 0-of-5 and St. Cloud State 0-of-2 with the man advantage.
UND NOTES: Attendance at the National Hockey Center was 6,102 ... Kozek's seven goals tie a personal career high that he first also reached in his freshman season (2005-06).
