MINNEAPOLIS – Having coached North Dakota through more than 70 playoff games over the last decade, Dave Hakstol knows how slim the margin for error is at this time of year.

Tonight, his UND squad was done in by a poor final 30 seconds of the first period, a stretch that saw a 1-goal lead turn into a 2-goal deficit in an eventual 3-1 loss to St. Cloud State in the NCHC Frozen Faceoff semifinals.

SCSU's David Morley and Joey Benik scored 19 seconds apart to give the 18th-ranked Huskies a 2-1 lead and a berth in Saturday's conference championship game. Top-ranked UND will face either Miami or Denver in the third-place game Saturday afternoon.

Morley tapped home a Jonny Brodzinski centering feed with 25 seconds left in the first period to tie the game, and the Huskies claimed the lead with six seconds left after a UND turnover and a 2-on-1 rush resulted in a bouncing puck finding Benik all alone at the side of the UND net.

It was a short lapse that UND was unable to overcome.

“It was sloppy the last 30 seconds,” said Hakstol. “We weren't sharp through a lot of the game but certainly through the first half of the game we weren't sharp. That 25-second time period was certainly indicative of that.”

UND struggled to find any traction offensively, failing to surpass seven shots on goal in any of the three periods. Seniors Michael Parks and Stephane Pattyn were the only UND forwards to register multiple shots on goal.

“Give St. Cloud State a lot of credit. They played hard and hungry tonight in all three zones,” said Hakstol. “I didn't think we were very sharp or single-minded in getting through the neutral zone or getting on enough pucks. I thought we turned the corner a little bit in the second half of the game but by then you're down one goal and at playoff time one goal is critical.”

On one of the few occasions UND was able to generate sustained offensive pressure, it resulted in its lone goal of the game late in the first period. Pressure down low by forwards Pattyn, Johnny Simonson and Trevor Olson began a sequence in which Keaton Thompson received the puck at the blueline, and beat Husky goalie Charlie Lindgren through traffic.

“Trevor Olson made a great play beating their defenseman down the ice,” said Thompson, who scored his third goal of the season. “Tucker Poolman made a great pass at the top and I just tried getting it through. We had two or three guys in front. It was all net front. The goalie couldn't see it so reward those guys for that goal.”

Pattyn said the Thompson goal provides the blueprint for how his team needs to play going forward.

“On our first goal, I think that was the key was just getting a good grind, getting their D tired and getting the puck to the net with a lot of traffic,” said Pattyn. “If we just roll off that, I think we have more success than we did tonight. Tonight wasn't us, it wasn't our game.”

The Huskies, who outshot UND 24-20, iced the game on a Joe Rehkamp empty-net goal with 1:05 left in regulation.

With several of his top point producers mired in an offensive rut, Hakstol echoed Pattyn's assessment of needing to send more pucks and more bodies toward the net.

“It's the time of year where offense is a little bit tough to come by,” said Hakstol. “When things aren't coming easy, you've got to take what's there, you've got to simplify. It's playoff time. Teams play real good defense at this time of year. There's not a lot of that pretty stuff available. When it is, you have to execute.

“Beyond that you have to generate offense with simple play, but also with motion in the offensive zone. A lot of second opportunities are critical and we didn't get many of those tonight. I don't think we were in our mindset of getting to the blue paint, finding some of the second opportunities and scoring one or two of those gritty goals.”

UND now turns its focus to Saturday's third-place game where it will meet the winner of Friday night's second semifinal between Denver and Miami. With an NCAA Tournament berth virtually locked up, Saturday's game will serve as his team's final tune-up before the regionals.

“At this time of year everyone's playing for an awful lot,” said Hakstol. “It's playoff time. It's a real important hockey game.”

Notes: Both teams went 0-2 on the power play … SCSU's Benik, Morley and Lindgren were named the game's three stars … Lindgren stopped 19 of 20 saves while his UND counterpart, Zane McIntyre, turned aside 21 of 22 … Pattyn played in his 163rd career game, tops among active Division I men's players. He needs to play three more to crack UND's all-time top 10.