Penalties hurt St. Cloud State hockey in 5-3 loss to North Dakota

ST. CLOUD — St. Cloud State committed 10 penalties on Saturday night, six coming in the third period to deter a chance at a comeback as they fell 5-3 to North Dakota at Herb Brooks National Hockey Center.

North Dakota responded well after an 8-1 loss on Friday, building a 5-2 lead after a goal from Connor Ford at 9:49 in the third period while using an extra attacker on a delayed penalty. St. Cloud State senior Nick Perbix scored his first goal of the season with just over six minutes remaining to make it 5-3, but the Huskies couldn't capitalize late after pulling their goalie.

North Dakota's Zach Driscoll was much improved in goal after allowing three goals in the first period on Friday night before being pulled. He made 30 saves on Saturday, including a toe save in the third period and multiple saves after losing his goalie stick in the closing minutes.

Last night: SCSU leads early, tops rival North Dakota 8-1 on Friday

The Fighting Hawks also held the Huskies to 0-4 on the power play, while SCSU came into Saturday as the No. 1-ranked power play crew in the country. SCSU was 3-6 on the power play on Friday night.

St. Cloud State drops to 10-6 this season and 4-4 in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference. They will be back in action at Bemidji State on Dec. 31.

Too many penalties

North Dakota and St. Cloud State combined for 11 of the game's 17 penalties in the third period, with bad blood starting to boil over between the rivals.

While neither team scored on the power play in the final period, SCSU's discipline made it difficult for them to find chances to score late in the game.

"Penalties came at the wrong time," St. Cloud State head coach Brett Larson said. "It's tough to come back when some of your top players are expending a lot of energy ... the timing of the penalties was almost the worst thing, right when we were getting momentum again."

St. Cloud State entered the weekend averaging just over 12 penalty minutes per game, and they committed only three penalties for six minutes on Friday night.

A mixture of North Dakota stepping up their game and the Huskies sitting in the penalty box for 20 minutes on Saturday wasn't a recipe for a comeback win.

"Our work ethic was great all week ... we just made too many mistakes against a good team like that," junior Kyler Kupka said. "Our details in our game got to be better if we want to be consistent against the best teams in the country."

Fast start

After SCSU scored a goal only 18 seconds in on Friday night, graduate student Kevin Fitzgerald did one better with a score 17 seconds into the game on Saturday.

The game started with a frantic pace, with both teams killing off penalties in the opening six minutes. North Dakota netted their first goal from close range at 3:23 from Jackson Kunz cleaning up by the net, and they went ahead 2-1 at 8:37 with a power play goal from Riese Gaber. SCSU set up the opportunity after being called for too many men on the ice.

The Huskies managed offensive zone time for significant stretches of the period, unable to capitalize on their possession. They caught a break late in the period when North Dakota's Jake Sanderson fired a backwards pass that was intercepted by Fitzgerald, who passed ahead to Kupka before he sliced through the retreating defense to even the game at 2-2 with 23 seconds left in the first period. It was Kupka's second goal of the season, both coming this weekend.

"We score the first shift and score the last shift, and you're feeling pretty good about the period," Larson said. "I thought we were a little looser defensively, and they did make a hard push."

Second period push

St. Cloud State went on the power play only 14 seconds into the second period, but North Dakota came up with a key shorthanded goal to take the lead back at 3-2. A pass wrapped around the boards and couldn't be controlled by goalie David Hrenak, and North Dakota senior Gavin Hain approached the puck in space.

He drove to the goal as the Huskies were still recovering from a shift change, scoring on a backhanded double-move to put the Fighting Hawks ahead. North Dakota went ahead by two goals midway through the period, as a pass from Hain was corralled by Louis Jamernick off the back wall and flicked past Hrenak for a 4-2 lead. SCSU never got closer than two goals the rest of the way.

Despite the result, Larson still liked the energy and compete level out of the Huskies. There's more positives than negatives to take from the weekend, including in facets of the offensive game. They'll now have some time to recover as they prepare for Bemidji State in three weeks.

"We made a few too many mental mistakes tonight that cost us," Larson said. "When you play a good team, you can't give them those unforced errors."

Zach Dwyer is a sports reporter and photographer for the St. Cloud Times. Reach him at 320-406-5660 or zdwyer@stcloudtimes.com. Follow him on Twitter @sctimeszach.

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This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: St. Cloud State hockey hurt by penalties in 5-3 loss to North Dakota