DULUTH, Minn. – It was senior night and the seniors did not disappoint in the University of Minnesota Duluth men's hockey team's 5-1 win over St. Cloud State University. The win snaps UMD's three-game losing skid and the Bulldogs improve to 13-8-2 on the season while the Huskies fall to 14-9-0. Senior forward Nick Swaney had himself a night, netting a hat trick and becoming just the 59th UMD men's hockey player to accomplish the feat. The last player to do so was defenseman Scott Perunovich last year, while the last forward was Alex Iafallo in 2016-17.
 
"It was a good team effort tonight. It was a much-needed win for our team against a good team," said UMD Head Coach Scott Sandelin. "The scoring was great, but I just liked the way we played. We didn't look like we had lost three games. It was great to get the lead and build on that lead. It was a good first period, it was a good start for our team, and we carried that over for the next 40 minutes."
 
Freshman goaltender Zach Stejskal got the nod in goal tonight. He had a solid night between the pipes, stopping 24 of 25 shots seen in his fourth win on the season. He carries a 4-2-0 record, a .932 save percentage and a 1.65 goals against average. The Huskies started goaltender David Hrenak, who was credited with the loss. He was pulled after UMD's fourth goal was scored, bringing in goaltender Jaxon Castor. Hrenak made 21 saves while Castor made eight.
 
Senior forward Nick Swaney scored his 11th goal on the season with 8:17 to go in the period. After pressuring in SCSU's zone, the puck found its way to sophomore forward Quinn Olson. Olson fired the puck towards the net where Swaney was crashing. The puck went off his skate and was declared a good goal for a 1-0 lead. Swaney found the back of the net again a short time later for his 12th of the year. The Bulldogs were pressuring hard, with junior forward Noah Cates battling deep in the Huskies zone. N. Cates dropped the puck to Swaney, who fired it to the net, scoring his second of the night with 5:33 to go. Senior forward Kobe Roth made it a three-goal lead less than two minutes later. Junior forward Jackson Cates shot the puck, and the rebound found its way to senior forward Koby Bender. Bender dished it to Roth, who was in the slot to first it past Hrenak for a 3-0 with 3:55 to go.
 
The Huskies found their way onto the scoreboard 6:15 into the second frame. While on the man advantage, SCSU worked the puck around. Defenseman Spencer Meier passed to defenseman Seamus Donohue. Donohue passed to forward Zach Okabe, who spun and fired a shot by Stejskal. Swaney netted his 13th goal of the season and 100th point of his career when he scored his third of the evening with 6:22 to go in the second. N. Cates fired a shot on net, Swaney corralled it and curled to back to the top of the slot where he fired it by Hrenak.
 
Things would go quiet for most of the third period. Senior forward Koby Bender scored the last goal of the night on an empty net with 3:41 in the final frame. Roth and J.Cates also grabbed assists on the play.
 
"That three-game losing streak, that's not the way we want to play," said senior forward Nick Swaney. "We worked all week on a lot of things. We wanted to get back to this kind of play and Bulldog hockey, being hard, getting pucks to the net, bodies to the net and that's how we scored the first two goals."
 
Swaney finished with three goals for three points and got the game winner. Roth and Bender had a goal and assist each. Jackson and Noah Cates both finished with two assists. Olson and Anderson each finished with an assist each.
 
The Bulldogs will see the Huskies again next weekend, Mar. 6 in St. Cloud, Minn. for each team's final regular season game.