Dogs Sweep St. Cloud

NSO – NEWS RELEASE

Over the past two seasons, the University of Minnesota Duluth has more than held its own on the road and this past weekend was proof of that. Major proof.

UMD got a couple of first-period goals from Dominic Toninato and Austin Farley and then held on for a 3-1 victory over St. Cloud State University Saturday night to complete its first series sweep of 2014-15 and its first at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center in almost 15 years.

The No. 17 Bulldogs, who toppled the No. 7 Huskies 4-3 in overtime Friday, improved to 6-4-0 overall and upped their National Collegiate Hockey Conference-leading record to 4-2-0.

Toninato gave UMD a lead it would not relinquish 3:22 into the first period when he pounced on a rebound and fired in his team-high seventh goal of the season. Junior right winger Justin Crandall picked up the lone assist after he picked off an errant St. Cloud State clearing pass in the high slot and fired a shot which Husky goaltender Charlie Lindgren kicked out near Toninato. With 37 seconds to go, that tandem’s linemate, left winger Austin Farley was credited with a goal which appeared to have come off a deflection while he was crashing the net.  St. Cloud State (3-5-0; 0-2-0), which was outshot 15-5 in the opening 20 minutes of play, sliced the UMD lead in half at 1:41 of the second period on Joey Benick’s power play shot that snuck under the arm of Bulldog goalie Kasimir Kaskisuo.  Crandall then iced the win — and UMD’s first road sweep of St. Cloud State since Nov. 12-13, 1999 — with an empty net goal with 61 seconds to go in regulation.

Kaskisuo finished the night with 27 saves and the weekend without allowing an even strength goal. The Vantaa, Finland, native is now 5-3-0 on the year with a 2.38 goals against average and a .923 saves percentage and has made seven consecutive starts.

For the first time in 10 games this season, the Bulldogs failed to score at least once on the power play (they were 0-of-3) while St. Cloud State was 1-for-3.

UMD, which is 15-7-1 away from Duluth since the start of the 2013-14 season, will remain on the road to face top-ranked University of Minnesota this Friday night before hosting those same Gophers the next night at AMSOIL Arena.