Box Score For the second straight night, St. Cloud State University skated out of the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center with a 4-3 victory at the expense of the University of Minnesota Duluth,  but this time the host Huskies didn't need overtime -- just a late goal -- to do it.

St. Cloud State's Sam Hentges pushed in a loose puck with 1:11 to go in regulation to break a 3-3 deadlock and lift the National Collegiate Hockey Conference regular season champions to a hard-fought series sweep with the defending NCAA champion Bulldogs. The two teams combined to score four power play goals on the evening and eight on the weekend.

The No. 3 Bulldogs jumped out to a 1-0 lead 9:01 into the first period when freshman center Jackson Cates, with the Bulldogs on the power play, unleashed a missile near the top of the right faceoff circle. A little less than two minutes into the second period, Riley Tufte's hard wrister from nearly the same spot (but on the opposite end of the rink) while the Bulldogs were a man up doubled the UMD advantage. The goal was  Tufte's eighth of the season and second of the weekend. Top-ranked St. Cloud State struck for two power play scores of its own before the second intermission and then took its first lead of the game at 7:59 of the third period. UMD Jade Miller, who scored once in the series opener, went top shelf with a shot from between the circles with 3:44 remaining in the third to draw UMD even.

Junior goaltender Hunter Shepard finished with 21 saves while his  St. Cloud State counterpart, Jeff Smith, was credited with 22 stops.

"We were close," said UMD head coach Scott Sandelin. "Tonight we weren't good enough in front of our net. We need to have three good periods."

The Bulldogs (21-11-2 overall and 14-9-1-0 in the NCHC) will return to AMSOIL Arena next Friday (March 15) to host a best-of-three NCHC playoff series against either Miami University or the University of Nebraska Omaha.