OMAHA, Neb.-- Already short-handed a pair of defensemen gone with Team USA for the IIHF World Junior Championships, North Dakota found itself with another defenseman and a forward exiting early due to injury before the finish of a 5-3 loss to No. 13/11 St. Cloud State Saturday afternoon at Baxter Arena. It left UND with five dressed defensemen for all of the third period. But, UND head coach
Brad Berry made no excuses following Saturday's result.
"It's unfortunate we don't have those guys in our group right now (
Jake Sanderson and
Tyler Kleven with Team USA)," Berry said to the media following the outcome. "They earned their time to go to the World Juniors and they worked hard their whole life to do that. We never hold back the opportunity for the players to do that. Yeah, it's unfortunate to not have them in our group right now, but we don't use that as an excuse. Whether it's an injury or guys going to the World Juniors, we have enough very good players here to do the job and they will."
St. Cloud State needed just 51 seconds to get on the scoreboard as Sam Hentges sneaked one past
Peter Thome for the early edge. Senior
Matt Kiersted had a quick answer, however. Forty seconds later, Kiersted blasted a shot from the point that beat Matt Hrenak and it was 1-1 just 91 seconds into the game.
The Huskies grabbed the lead back nearly seven minutes later when Easton Brodzinkski tallied a power-play goal for a 2-1 lead after one period. Freshman
Brendan Budy scored his first career goal early in the second period as a delayed penalty gave North Dakota (3-2-1) an extra attacker. Budy received a nifty cross-ice pass from
Jasper Weatherby from deep to Hrenak's right to Budy at the right dot, where he roofed it for his first career marker.
St. Cloud State countered with two goals in a 2:04 span in the middle stages of that period to seize control. The Huskies added another with 5:05 to play to take a 5-2 edge and kept UND's vaunted power play in check, killing all five Fighting Hawk power play opportunities on the evening.
With 2:15 to play,
Grant Mismash found himself with a clear path to the net and was slashed near the crease, giving him a penalty shot. He weaved in front of David Hrenak, got him to commit to sprawling on the ice before calmly handling it away from Hrenak and flipping it in the net for North Dakota's first score on a penalty shot since Feb. 2018.
It would finish there, however, and North Dakota fell to 3-2-1 in the NCHCpod with a quick turnaround for a Sunday afternoon matchup with Western Michigan on the horizon.
NOTES
*
Jordan Kawaguchi now has a point in all six games this season (2-6--8) after his assist setup UND's first goal.
*Christian Wolanin scored North Dakota's last penalty shot, beating Colorado College's Alex LeClerx in the second period of a 4-2 CC win (2/9/18).
*
Peter Thome made his second start but was lifted in relief and
Adam Scheel played the final period and a half.
*UND outshot SCSU, 36-30, for the game. Â
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