Huskies Outlast Irish To Earn NCAA Tournament Win Saturday

The St. Cloud State Huskies beat Notre Dame 4-3 in overtime in front of 9,232 fans at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul Saturday. The Huskies will take on the University of Minnesota with a bid in the Frozen Four on the line Sunday night at the X.

Ryan Papa started the scoring for SCSU at 6:54 of the opening period on a shot neatly tucked underneath the crossbar from in close for a 1-0 lead. Papa's sixth goal of the season was assisted by Kalle Kossila and Jonny Brodzinski.

The Irish answered with a Bryan Rust goal at 10:30 to make it a 1-1 game. Rust's 17th of the year was assisted by Andy Ryan and TJ Tynan.

St. Cloud state appeared to have the go-ahead goal a couple of minutes later but saw that tally immediately waved off due to a high stick. However, if the Huskies were deflated it didn't last long, as Brooks Bertsch scored with just :35 in the second period to give SCSU a 2-1 lead. Bertsch's tenth of the season was assisted by Cory Thorson and Joey Benik.

The Irish outshot the Huskies 9-6 in the opening period of play.

Notre Dame tied the game at 8:18 of the second period on a goal from Kevin Lind, his third of the season.

The Huskies received a power play opportunity with just 1:10 left in the second and capitalized with a Brodzinski goal with just :25 left in the period. Assists were credited to Ethan Prow and Kossila.

Again, the Irish outshot SCSU in the second period 18-4 and led the category 27-10 through two periods.

Notre Dame tied the game about halfway through the third period when Thomas DiPauli beat SCSU netminder Ryan Faragher to make the score 3-3.

The teams went to overtime with shots on goal favoring the Irish 36-12.

The Huskies amped up the offense and outshot the Irish 16-6 in the extra period, with the final shot being a goal from captain Nic Dowd at 17:21 of OT.