The University of Minnesota Duluth men's hockey team held its home opener on Friday night, taking on No. 6 St. Cloud State University. The Bulldogs would ultimately fall to the Huskies in a tightly fought battle, 4-3. UMD now sits with a 6-4-2 record on the season while SCSU climbs to 8-4-0.
 
"I didn't think we played a great sixty minutes," said head coach Scott Sandelin. "We had moments but we didn't have a good start and spotted them a couple goals. I thought we had a good second until the last minute where we turned the puck over which lead to their third goal which I think gave them momentum into the third."
 
Sophomore goalie Ryan Fanti got his 11th nod of the season tonight, making 19 saves on 23 shots in the contest. Fanti now carries a 5-4-2 record, holding a .903 save percentage and a 2.51 goals against average. Huskies goalie David Hrenak made 27 stops in tonight's contest.
 
In the opening frame, SCSU struck first 5:33 into the period. A shot from the point coming from defenseman Spencer Meier was tipped out in front of Fanti by forward Jami Krannila and snuck through for a 1-0 lead. The Huskies struck again with 48 seconds to go in the period. A draw to Fanti's left was won by SCSU forward Nolan Walker back to Chase Brand. Brand found a hole and put the puck by Fanti for a 2-0 lead.
 
A pair of UMD rookies got the Bulldogs back to even in the second period. Freshman forward Luke Mylymok scored his first career collegiate goal off his own rebound in the slot. Senior defenseman Matt Anderson dished the puck to sophomore forward Luke Loheit at the point. Loheit sauced a pass to Mylymok and he ripped it at the net, grabbing his own rebound and beating Hrenak for UMD's first goal. Freshman forward Blake Biondi also netted his first. Biondi took a pass from junior forward Cole Koepke and raced down on a 2 on 1. He took a shot and found a hole short side to tie things at two a side. Senior forward Nick Swaney put the Bulldogs ahead for the first time in the evening when Koepke came to the top of the circles and ripped a puck towards the net. Swaney happened to be in the right place at the right time, tipping it in with 5:25 to go in the second. The Huskies would even things up with 1:01 to go in the frame. Walker crashed the net hard on an odd man rush and found a rebound from forward Micah Miller. Walker jammed it past Fanti.
 
SCSU would score the final goal of the evening in the third period. Forward Kevin Fitzgerald tipped a shot from defenseman Luke Jaycox and found a hole to put it in past Fanti just 2:29 into the final frame.
 
"In an environment where there's no fans or anything, we have to create that momentum ourselves," said senior forward Nick Swaney. "When you get down a goal, you have to stay up on the bench. Mentally, everyone has to stay with it and put together a full sixty minutes and tonight, I don't think we did that."
 
Mylymok, Biondi and Swaney all scored in the contest. Swaney scored his fifth of the season. Anderson, junior forward Noah Cates, Kopeke and Loheit each grabbed an assist. Freshman defenseman Wyatt Kaiser and Koepke finished with a team high five shots.
 
The Bulldogs will come back to Amsoil tomorrow night (Jan. 9) to take on SCSU again at 6:00 pm.