OMAHA, Neb. – No. 1 St. Cloud State built a four-goal lead and held off the Omaha hockey team down the stretch, winning 4-1 on Friday night at Baxter Arena.

The Mavericks fell to 9-18-2 overall and 5-13-1-0/1 in the NCHC.  They have lost all three games to the Huskies in the season series.  SCSU improved to 22-4-3 overall and 14-2-3-1/1 in the conference.

St. Cloud State opened the scoring at 3:41 of the first period when Brendan Bushy picked off a clearing attempt and fed Sam Hentges for a back-door goal, his seventh of the year.

The Huskies doubled their lead on a power play at 17:03.  Ryan Poehling fired home a pass from Blake Lizotte, making it 2-0 after one.

The lead grew in the second for St. Cloud State with goals from Nick Poehling and another from Ryan Poehling to make it 4-0.

The Mavericks got on the scoreboard at 9:01 of the third period.  Mason Morelli finished off a strong shift by his line, knocking in the rebound of a chance by Taylor Ward for his NCHC-leading 19th goal of the season.

Evan Weninger made 27 saves in the loss as the Huskies outshot the Mavericks, 31-23.  David Hrenak made 22 saves for St. Cloud State.

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

GAME NOTES:

• With a point each, Morelli and Fredrik Olofsson moved to within one point of SCSU's Patrick Newell for the NCHC scoring lead for all games.  Both players now have 31 points.
• The Mavericks were 0-for-2 on the power play, marking the second straight game they've been held without a power play goal.  The only other time they've been held without a power play goal in consecutive games was a stretch of three straight that included two losses at St. Cloud State in December.
• The Mavericks have now lost eight straight to the Huskies and are 0-5-0 against SCSU at Baxter Arena.

Three Stars:  1.  Ryan Poehling/SCSU – Two goals; 2. Nick Poehling/SCSU – One goal; 3. Sam Hentges/SCSU – One goal