ST. CLOUD, Minn. – Despite grabbing a pair of second period leads, Miami was unable to hold the advantage as St. Cloud State scored two late goals to prevail 4-2 on Friday night.
The RedHawks (6-15-4, 3-10-2-1 National Collegiate Hockey) dropped their fourth straight despite having a lead or being tied in the third in four of those outings.
Miami went to a power play just over a minute into the contest, but came away with just one shot and took a minor penalty of its own to end its man advantage. The RedHawks were adept in killing off their penalty with relative ease to keep it scoreless five minutes in.
While the Red & White had some sustained possession in the offensive zone following the penalty kill, the Huskies managed to pick up four early blocked shots. SCSU (9-12-4, 6-9-0-0 NCHC) finished the first period with a 10-3 shot advantage as
Ryan Larkin was sharp with 10 stops to keep it scoreless through 20 minutes.
Play perked up in the second period and the RedHawks were the initial beneficiary when
Matt Barry won a puck battle at the boards behind the net and slung a feed to
Alec Capstick creeping in from the left point. The freshman blue liner wired home a wrist shot for his first career goal to give MU a 1-0 lead with just 2:25 gone by in the second.
The Huskies would pepper Larkin in the ensuing moments after Capstick's tally as the senior netminder steered aside six shots before the RedHawks would gain a power play at the 5:26 mark.
That man advantage proved fruitless for MU and SCSU used that momentum when Zach Okabe finished a backdoor feed from Nick Perbix to even it up with 11:13 left in the second. Miami would not blink from St. Cloud getting on the board however as
Ryan Savage blocked an SCSU outlet feed and then
Scott Corbett swatted the puck to Barry, who was left all alone atop the crease where he buried his second goal as a RedHawk just 48 seconds after the Huskies' tying marker.
Barry's goal fed Miami's play for the next several minutes and an extended shift in the St. Cloud zone drew another penalty with 5:02 remaining. However, MU was once again unable to find a goal on the man advantage and eventually SCSU would tie it up on an Easton Brodzinski redirect to leave it all square at 2-2 after two.
Both teams created some chances in the early stages of the third period with
Gordie Green's one-timer bid from the slot five minutes in representing the best chance on either side. David Hrenak steered aside the Miami captain's bid and the tie wore on late into regulation.
With 6:15 left, St. Cloud State caught Miami on a line change and the clean entry in the offensive zone allowed Jack Poehling to step into a slap shot and give the Huskies their first lead of the night. At one point from the 10 minute mark until roughly five to play in regulation, SCSU had eight-straight shots on goal.
As time became a factor, MU pulled Larkin for an extra skater and had one close range jam play that Hrenak kept out of the net. Eventually, Micah Miller corralled the puck after a block by one of his SCSU teammates and fired the puck into the empty net with 6.4 seconds left to seal the result. Larkin stopped 31 shots while Barry had a goal and an assist for his second multi-point game as a RedHawk.
St. Cloud State outshot Miami 35-21 on the evening. Neither power play found the net as MU went 0-for-3 on the man advantage while SCSU did not score on its lone man advantage.
These teams wrap up their weekend series on Saturday night with opening faceoff coming at 7:07 p.m. ET.
