As the final seconds counted down Saturday night at AMSOIL Arena in Duluth, Minn., the University of Minnesota Duluth men's hockey fans let the hometown team know how much they appreciated the effort, and without question, the Bulldogs heard it.

 

UMD knocked off No. 10 St. Cloud State University with a resounding 5-2 win to sweep the Huskies in National Collegiate Hockey Conference action, extending the Bulldogs current home winning streak against SCSU to six-games strong. It also marked the first home NCHC sweep of the season for the Bulldogs and second overall, and after a frustrating first half of hockey, UMD delivered the weekend in a big way.

 

"The sweep here feels unbelievable at home, a conference sweep in front of our fans," said Joey Pierce, who scored the lone goal by either team in the third period. "It doesn't get much better than that, that's why we put on that sweater, that's what we strive to do every weekend. It was awesome to deliver that to not only us mentally but the fans that keep coming out for us."

 

UMD took the game's first lead 12:57 into the opening period and never surrounded it. Aaron Pionk's shot from the point took a hard rebound off the boards to Max Plante on the right circle, and Plante one-timed the puck across the slot to Jayson Shaugabay on the other circle. Shaugabay's quick hit beat SCSU netminder Gavyn Thorson near post, his seventh goal of the season.

 

A slew of goals over a 10 minutes span upended the second period, and it began with Adam Kleber's first collegiate goal, a shot from the right point that hit traffic and fluttered up and past Enright at 7:00. 

 

"Honestly, I didn't even know I scored, I thought it was tipped," said Kleber about his first goal as a Bulldog. "I thought Bettsy (Kyle Bettens) tipped it or Joe (Molenaar), but I'll take it." 

 

Senior captain Dominic James followed Kleber's tally with one of his own just 1:28 later, holding on to the puck on an odd man rush for his 10th goal of the season in what would eventually be the game-winning goal for UMD.

 

The Huskies finally broke through on Bulldog netminder Klayton Knapp 12 seconds later, ending a shutout streak for Knapp that had lasted for 88:40 minutes to make it a 3-1 game. St. Cloud St. then struck again on its power play at 12:52, pulling within a single goal for what would be the final time on the night.

 

On its own power play at the 17:00 mark, the Bulldogs retook the two goal lead when Max Plante, from the extended goal line, banked it off Enright. It was Plante's second goal of the weekend and fourth-straight skate with a score. 

 

But arguably the biggest moment of the entire weekend came 4:36 into the third period. Having moved up to forward to fill in for players who had left the game, junior alternate captain Joey Pierce finally scored his first UMD goal 83 games into his college career.

Jack Smith had slashed through the slot with a backhand, creating a rebound that Joe Molenaar had a chance at, but it was Pierce, on the top of the crease, who calmly wristed it through. Pierce's first goal set off an energy at AMSOIL that's been long overdue, and despite a late UMD penalty kill with just over six minutes left, the celebration of the Bulldogs first sweep of 2025 was on.

 

Knapp made 20 saves on 22 SCSU shots, while Enright had 21 on 26 UMD shots on goal. Each team scored a power play goal – UMD was 1-of-6 in the game, while the Huskies were 1-of-4, and were held scoreless by the Bulldogs in three extra skater attempts in the third period. SCSU leaves Duluth 11-9-0 overall and 4-6-0 in the NCHC.

 

"I mean everyone's pumped up and it gives us a lot of confidence, especially going into Colorado College, which is another really good team," said Kleber about the sweep and AMSOIL energy. "I mean, we're playing a bunch of really good teams down the stretch here, so to get these wins kind of early and, you know, the second half is really big for us, just to kind of get on a roll. I mean everyone cheering, it's awesome. It's tough to see in the first half, people leave early, and I mean, that feeling just that hurts us all. And to just see them staying and sharing and clapping, that really feels great because, you know, the hard work is kind of paying off and we want to keep that feeling going."

 

The Bulldogs (8-11-1, 4-6-0) will try to do just that next weekend when they head to Colorado Springs to face Colorado College. The series will get underway Friday at 9:00 p.m. MT before concluding on Saturday with a 7:00 p.m. MT puck drop.

BULLDOG NOTES: UMD is now unbeaten in its last six games at home against the Huskies … 12 Bulldogs logged points in the game, including three players who recorded two … Max Plante (1g, 1a), Jayson Shaugabay (1g, 1a) and Aaron Pionk … Pionk has now scored seven points (1g, 6a) over a six-game span, the longest active scoring streak among all UMD players (six games) … Plante has notched points in his last four games (4g, 2a) and has registered a point in all but one of his first seven games as a Bulldog …Dominic James added to his team-high lead of career points against the Huskies, and now has 14 points (5g, 9a) in 15 skates … Klayton Knapp's back-to-back wins are the first of his career, and it marks the first sweep of his young career … the rookie netminder made a total of 48 saves on the weekend.