DULUTH, Minn. -- The third periods have generally belonged to No. 6 Minnesota-Duluth this season and that was certainly the case Friday night.
The Bulldogs erupted for four goals in the final 17 minutes of regulation and skated out of AMSOIL Arena with a 4-2 National Collegiate Hockey Conference triumph against St. Cloud State. UMD, which has now outscored the opposition 40-22 in the third period this season, extended its winning streak to four games while improving to 18-10-1 overall and 10-6-1 in the NCHC. The Bulldogs are also unbeaten in eight of its past nine homes games (7-1-1).
Blake Winiecke's goal with 52 seconds to go in the first period gave St. Cloud State (12-14-1, 7-9-1-0) a lead it would maintain until 3:06 had elapsed in the third.
That's when center Jared Thomas, the reigning NCHC Rookie of the Week, skated down the left side, cut in front of the Husky goaltender Charlie Lindgren and tucked in a backhand for his fifth goal of the year. At the 6:30, senior defenseman Derik Johnson carried the puck around the St. Cloud State net, whirled, and then took a wrister from just just north of the goal line extended that snuck past Lindgren for his second collegiate goal. Exactly 10 minutes later, senior right winger Justin Crandall scored the eventual game winner, taking a pass from Alex Iafallo (who had just made an end-to-end rush) and blasted in a one-timer from down low. Senior right winger Adam Krause, who was selected the NCHC Offensive Player of the Week this past Monday, iced the victory with an empty-netter in the game's waning seconds.
Kasimir Kaskisuo, who is now 15-8-1 on the year (3-0-0 vs. St. Cloud State), finished with 18 saves while Lindgren was credited with 30 stops.
