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MARQUETTE -- Courtesy:  NMU

The Northern Michigan hockey team picked up a win in its home-opener from the Berry Events Center. The Wildcats scored four unanswered goals in the first and second period and went on to defeat the St. Cloud State Huskies 5-2 on Friday (Oct. 14) night.

St. Cloud (1-2) got on the board first with 2:29 left in the first period when Jarrod Rabey scored with assists to Cam Reid and Drew LeBlanc.

Sophomore forward Reed Seckel put the ‘Cats on the board less than a minute later when he blasted a shot over the shoulder of Husky goaltender Mike Lee, from the top of the circle. It was Seckel’s second goal of the season with the assists going to freshman defenseman Mitch Jones and junior forward Matt Thurber.

Junior forward Kory Kaunisto put the NMU on top 5:43 into the second period with his second goal of the season after a nifty passing play from Thurber to Seckel to Kaunisto.

Senior forward Andrew Cherniwchan put the ‘Cats up 3-1 with his first of the season from sophomore defenseman Wade Epp and sophomore forward Stephan Vigier. Cherniwchan blasted home the rebound off the Epp shot at 8:58 of the second period.

Junior defenseman Kyle Follmer scored the fourth consecutive NMU goal with his first of the season from Cherniwchan and junior defenseman Scott Macaulay with 11 second left in the second period.

Jared Festler brought the Huskies to within two after St. Cloud emptied its net and put on the extra attacker. Senior forward Tyler Gron iced the game for NMU with an empty net goal. It was Gron’s first of the season.

Senior goaltender Reid Ellingson got the win for NMU, stopping 27 Husky shots. Lee had 24 saves for St. Cloud. The two teams return to action at 7:35 p.m. on Saturday (Oct. 15) to finish their non-conference series.

Game Notes: There were only five total penalties in the game…The first penalty wasn’t called until 14:29 of the second period… Attendance at the Berry Events Center was 2,831.