Box Score
St. Cloud State scored four straight times in the opening 17 minutes of play and went on to upend the University of Minnesota Duluth 5-3 in a battle of National Collegiate Hockey Conference frontrunners and nationally-ranked clubs Friday night in St. Cloud.

The setback was the Bulldogs' first in their last eight outings (4-1-3) and also snapped UMD's seven-game road unbeaten streak. The Bulldogs are now 13-10-4 overall and 8-7-2-2 in the NCHC while St. Cloud State is 16-6-5 and maintained its hold on first place in the NCHC standings at 10-4-3-0.

The No. 6 Huskies sandwiched a pair of even strength goals around two power play score to take a 4-0 lead into the first intermission. No. 16 UMD got on the board 22 seconds into the second period when sophomore defenseman Andy Welinski's shot from the left point snuck through traffic and past a screened St. Cloud State netminder Ryan Faragher. Junior Kyle Osterberg cut the deficit to 4-2 midway throught that same period, tapping in a loose puck inside the Husky goal mouth for his team-leading goal of the season, but St. Cloud State all but put the game away by striking on the opening shift of the third period. Sophomore left winger Austing Farley, who returned to the UMD lineup after spending the previous four games nursing an upper body injury, took a feed from senior right winger Joe Basaraba in the low slot and buried it to close out the scoring with 2:59 left in regulation.

Senior goalie Aaron Crandall took the loss for UMD -- just the second in his last 12 starts -- after stopping four of 14 shots in the first period. He was relieved at the start of the second by sophomore Matt McNeely, who wound up making 16 saves the rest of the way. 

"We obviously didn't start very well, but I believed after the first period that we could make a comeback," said UMD head coach Scott Sandelin. "We had a good second period and cut the lead in half. Then, we didn't come out ready in the third, but kept fighting right until the end. That's all you can do."

The two intrastate rivals will meet for the final time in the 2013-14 regular season Saturday night at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center.

Notes: Junior Caleb Herbert was credited with an assist to stretch his personal scoring streak to a career-high six games ... Andy Welinski, who is the only Bulldog defenseman to score a goal this season, picked up his fifth tally Friday ... UMD is 9-5-1 away from AMSOIL Arena in 2013-14.