HOUGHTON -- (Courtesy of MTU Athletics) St. Cloud scored two early goals and added two more in the third to defeat Michigan Tech 5-2 in WCHA play tonight at the John MacInnes Student Ice Arena. The visiting Huskies (14-15-4, 11-11-3 WCHA) earned two points in the league standings with the win and moved ahead of Tech (13-16-4, 10-11-4) into seventh.
Goaltender Mike Lee stopped 34 shots for SCSU while Michigan Tech used three different netminders to make 25 saves in the contest.
The first five minutes were rough for the home team. St. Cloud State scored on two of their first three shots on goal for a 2-0 lead. Jared Festler tallied a power-play goal just 3:36 into play on a nice passing play. Less than a minute later, Joey Holka tipped home a shot that was going well wide.
Tech’s star goaltender Josh Robinson was replaced by Kevin Genoe, and the whole team seemed to respond.
The Black and Gold got back into the game as Ryan Furne blasted home a one-timer from the right circle on the man advantage at the 8:15 mark.
The goaltenders—Genoe and SCSU’s Mike Lee—both made great saves in the second period. St. Cloud went back up by two goals with a shorthanded tally at 7:29.
SCSU added to its lead just 2:07 into the third as Joe Rehkamp’s flip through the crease squeezed past Genoe on a 2-on-1.
Alex MacLeod gave the crowd of 2,938 something to cheer about when his shot from the left circle hit Lee and trickled over the goal line with 13:00 remaining into the contest. That made the score 4-2, but it didn’t take long for SCSU to regain its three-goal lead.
Garrett Milan poked home a puck that was sitting on top of Genoe’s pad after Genoe had made the initial save.
Senior Corson Cramer replaced Genoe following St. Cloud’s fifth goal and played the final 9:50. He tallied four saves.
“I thought our effort was good, but our goaltending was not up to par tonight,” said head coach Mel Pearson. “Our goalies have been good all year, but I thought that was the part of the game that favored St. Cloud. I think if you looked at grade A opportunities, we out-chanced them by a pretty good margin. You’re just not going to win when you give up five goals.”
Michigan Tech finished 1-for-3 on a much improved power play tonight. The unit fired eight shots on net. SCSU was 1-for-4 on the man advantage.
The teams will wrap up their two game series tomorrow night at 7:07 p.m. Tech’s six seniors will be honored in a postgame ceremony.
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