Box Score OMAHA, Neb. – No. 5 St. Cloud State broke a 3-3 tie late in the third period and held on to beat the Omaha hockey team, 5-3, on Friday night at the CenturyLink Center.

The Mavericks fell to 9-12-2 overall and 6-5-2-1 in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference, putting them in fourth place.  With the win, St. Cloud State moved back into first place over idle North Dakota and Denver, improving to 14-5-2 overall and 8-3-2-0 in the conference.

Trailing 3-2 entering the third period, the Mavericks tied the game when Zahn Raubenheimer took a pass from Tanner Lane and wired a slap shot over the shoulder of St. Cloud State goalie Ryan Faragher.

But with 3:22 remaining in the game, David Morley won a faceoff from Brock Montpetit in the UNO zone.  Tim Daly took the puck and fed Kevin Gravel whose wrist shot from the point beat Maverick goalie Reed Peters who was screened on the play.

Brooks Bertsch added an empty netter with seven seconds remaining to ice the game.

The Huskies never trailed in the game, building three separate one-goal leads.  They scored first just past the eight-minute mark of the first period.  Jonny Brodzinski set up Kalle Kossila who fired a shot over the glove hand of Peters for his ninth goal of the year.

Josh Archibald added to his NCHC-leading goal total when he tied the game just past the half-way mark of regulation.  He took a pass from Jake Guentzel and fired a wrist shot just under the crossbar for his 18th goal of the year.

St. Cloud State retook the lead just 50 seconds later when Joey Benik got loose in front of the UNO net and knocked home a pass from Andrew Prochno.

The Mavericks replied at 14:04 when Ryan Walters, stationed at the right wing boards, whipped a pass to the slot that Dominic Zombo steered past Faragher for his ninth goal of the year.

But the Huskies again took the lead with the two teams skating 4-on-4.  They broke into the UNO zone 2-on-1, and Kossila set up Benik for a backhander to the top corner to make it 3-2.

Peters made 25 saves in just his third appearance and second start of the season.  He hadn't played since starting against Michigan on Nov. 16.  Faragher made 31 stops to improve to 13-4-3.

The games was played in front of a season-best crowd of 10,368.

The two teams finish the weekend series on Saturday at 7:07 p.m.