Dogs Win Streak Ended

NSO – NEWS RELEASE

The nation’s longest active winning streak came to an end Saturday night as the University of Minnesota Duluth fell 4-1 to the University of Nebraska Omaha and exited Omaha with a National Collegiate Hockey Conference series split.

The No. 8 Bulldogs, who rallied for a 3-2 victory over the No. 13 Mavericks on Friday night for their sixth consecutive victory, grabbed a 1-0 lead 4:40 into the first period on sophomore left winger Kyle Osterberg‘s second goal of the year (with assists from junior center Tony Cameranesi and rookie right winger Karson Kuhlman), but were kept in check the rest of the way by netminder Ryan Massa. Massa made 39 saves for an Omaha club that was outshot 40-18 on the night and 13-3 in the final 20 minutes of play.

Forwards Tyler Vesel and Austin Ortega scored even-strength goals 2:27 apart later in the first period to put Omaha (7-2-1 overall and 3-1-0-0 in the NCHC) up for good and Jake Guentzel tacked on another score with 4:03 remaining in the second period to propel the Mavericks to just their second win in their last eight confrontations with the Bulldogs. Oretega’s empty-netter at 19:12 capped off the scoring and handed UMD its first loss in an opposition’s building since Feb. 15, 2014. The Bulldogs were 8-0-0 on the road (not including neutral site games) over that stretch.

Rookie Kasimir Kaskisuo, who had been the Bulldogs’ goaltender during their entire six-game victory run, had a career-low 14 stops while dropping to 8-4-0 on the year. The two teams were whistled for just three penalties combined and had only three power play opportunities between them (two by UMD) the entire evening.

UMD (9-5-0; 5-3-0-0), which also lost for the first time in seven series’ rematches/second nights of tournaments this season, is now off until Dec. 5 when it opens up a two-game home set with NCHC rival Colorado College.