St. Cloud State swept Miami in Oxford on Dec. 6-7, but overall this regular season has been a disappointment for the Huskies, who won 30 games in 2018-19.
Even in a down year, SCSU is one of the toughest places for visitors to win. St. Cloud State – which went 17-0-1 on home ice last season – is 4-1 in its last five at Herb Brooks National Hockey Center.
The RedHawks have been better on the road than in Oxford, going 4-5-1 on hostile ice, winning 2 of 3 road games since the start of 2020.
A look at this weekend’s games:
WHO: Miami RedHawks (6-14-4) at St. Cloud State Huskies (8-12-4).
WHEN: Friday – 8:37 p.m.; Saturday – 7:07 p.m.
WHERE: Herb Brooks National Hockey Center (5,159), St. Cloud, Minn.
ALL-TIME SERIES: St. Cloud State leads, 22-17-4.
ST. CLOUD STATE RADIO: KZRV-FM (96.7), St. Cloud, Minn.; KVSC-FM (88.1), St. Cloud, Minn.
MIAMI RADIO: Both nights – WMOH-AM (1450), Hamilton, Ohio; WFMG-FM (101.3), Richmond, Ind.
TV: Fox 9-Plus (Minneapolis-St. Paul area only).
STREAM: Both nights – NCHC.tv.
NOTES: Since its series win at Miami, St. Cloud State has struggled to find the net.
The Huskies have just 15 goals in their last seven games, and they are 2-5 in that stretch.
No SCSU skater has reached double-digits in goals, and only Sam Hentges has eclipsed the 20-point mark.
Hentges, a Minnesota draft pick, has seven tallies and leads the team in assists (15) as well as points (22).
Easton Brodzinski is tops on the Huskies in goals with nine and tied for second with 19 points.
Nick Poehling is at 6-9-15, but all other SCSU forwards have 10 points or fewer.
Chase Brand, Jack Poehling, Jake Wahlin and Jami Krannila have exactly 10, and Micah Miller, Kevin Fitzgerald and Nolan Walker enter the weekend with nine.
On defense, Jack Ahcan is the corps leader in goals (5), assists (14) and points (19). The senior captain has 97 career points.
Tampa draftee Nick Perbix has chipped in four goals and 10 points from the blue line, and Spencer Meier is at 3-4-7 and Luke Jaycox has four markers.
David Hrenak, a Los Angeles selection, he has logged 84 percent of St. Cloud’s State’s minutes in net this season, going 7-8-4 with a 2.99 goals-against average and a mercurial .898 save percentage.
Jaxon Castor is the primary backup and has a 3.65 GAA and .859 save percentage.
Amazingly, three of the worst six penalty-killing teams in college hockey play in the NCHC. St. Cloud State is ranked No. 58 at 72.5 percent, and Miami is 55th (75.3 percent).
Colorado College is last in Division I (68.0 percent).
The Huskies are in sixth place in the NCHC with 15 points, three ahead of the seventh-seeded RedHawks. So Miami could overtake SCSU with a strong showing or could find itself buried even deeper in the bottom tier of the conference.
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