ST. CLOUD, Minn. — Jami Krannila entered a pretty special club for St. Cloud State men's hockey players and the fifth-ranked Huskies picked up another win in a shootout.
Krannila, a senior center from Nokia, Finland, scored his 16th goal of the season at 9:27 of the first period on the power play for his 100th career point on Saturday at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center. Krannila became the 37th player in the NCAA Division I era at SCSU to have 100 career points or more.
"There was a scrum in front of the net and I tried to stay out of it," Krannila said of the power-play goal. "I ended up getting the puck. I tried to look for open passing lanes, but I decided to try to surprise the goalie. So surprise, surprise.
"It felt pretty sweet."
📹 HIGHLIGHTS
— St. Cloud State Men's Hockey (@SCSUHuskies_MH) February 5, 2023
Krannila joins 100-point club, #Huskies earn shootout victory in second consecutive tie.#GoHuskies | #HuskyHockey 🏒https://t.co/e4EgpoDi12
Krannila also ended up with the extra-point clincher. He scored in the second round of the shootout for the Huskies in an NCHC game that finished in a 1-1 tie after overtime. It was the second straight shootout win for the Huskies (over Miami (2-13-3, 7-17-4) in the series.
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So the Huskies picked up four out of a possible six points in the series. NCHC-leading Denver (12-4, 21-7) beat Colorado College 4-1 on Saturday and has a two-point lead over SCSU (10-6-2, 18-8-2) and Western Michigan (11-6-1, 19-10-1) in the conference race. Western Michigan beat Minnesota Duluth 4-1 on Saturday.
"Sometimes, the outcome is what it is, but I feel totally different about our team tonight than I did last night," said Huskies coach Brett Larson, who was not happy with his team's performance Friday. "I think the biggest difference in the game was we had multiple Grade 'A' chances to extend that lead and (goalie Ludvig) Persson came up really big.
"The disappointing part was we just couldn't extend that lead."
Krannila gave the Huskies a 1-0 lead with his 47th career goal. He also has 53 assists in 130 career college games.
That lead would hold up for most of the game. But Miami tied the game with an extra attacker on a scrum in front of the SCSU net when freshman forward John Waldron scored with 35 seconds left in regulation. Five of Waldron's nine goals this season have been scored against SCSU.
In overtime, the RedHawks got a power play and out-shot the Huskies 7-2, but junior goalie Dominic Basse made all seven saves to send the game to a shootout. Basse, starting for the second straight game, stopped both shots he faced in the shootout and had 28 saves in the game.
"Dom Basse made some huge saves tonight when he had to," Larson said. "Dom had a really good week of practice."
In the shootout, fifth-year senior Micah Miller, who ended a 10-round shootout on Friday with a goal, shot first for the Huskies and scored. Then Krannila scored in the second round to ensure the extra point for St. Cloud State.
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Welcome to the Century Club, Jami! 💯
— The NCHC (@TheNCHC) February 5, 2023
Krannila buries his 100th career point for @SCSUHuskies_MH on the power play
📺: FOX9+ // https://t.co/ZyUdpPaF0J#NCHChockey // #HuskyHockey pic.twitter.com/WGcEGX1jvt
Persson, a junior from Hindas, Sweden, made 30 saves for Miami.
SCSU was 1-for-5 on the power play Saturday and was 1-for-13 on the power play in the series. The Huskies were 4-for-4 on the penalty kill and was 8-for-9 on the penalty kill in the series.
The Huskies have a bye week coming up. SCSU returns to action when they play North Dakota (6-8-2, 12-11-4) at 7:07 p.m. Feb. 17 (CBS Sports Network) and 6:07 p.m. Feb. 18 at Ralph Engelstad Arena.
No. 5 SCSU 1, Miami 1
Miami 0-0-0-1—1
SCSU 1-0-0-0—1
SCSU wins shootout, 2-0. Micah Miller and Jami Krannila score for Huskies.
First period scoring — 1. SCSU, Jami Krannila 16 (Spencer Meier 5, Mason Salquist 2) 9:27 (pp). Penalties — SCSU, Cooper Wylie (interference) :39; M, Zane Demsey (interference) 6:38; M, Robby Drazner (tripping) 9:15; SCSU, Aidan Spellacy (holding) 9:41.
Second period scoring — None. Penalties — M, Dylan Moulton (tripping) 2:21; M, Artur Turansky (hooking) 17:05.
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Third period scoring — 2. M, John Waldron 9 (Matthew Barbolini 12, Max Dukovac 11) 19:25 (ea). Penalties — SCSU, Jack Rogers (hooking) 3:59; M, Waldron (tripping) 4:15.
Overtime scoring — None. Penalties: SCSU, Jack Peart (holding) 2:10.
Goalie saves — M, Ludvig Persson 7-12-9-2—30 (1 GA). SCSU, Dominic Basse 3-10-8-7—28 (1 GA).
Penalties-minutes — M 5-10; SCSU 4-8.
Power-play goals-opportunities — M 0-4; SCSU 1-5.
Faceoffs — SCSU 33-25.
Referees — Daniel Dreger, Nathan Wieler.
Linesemen — Elliott Bucholz, Justin Hills.
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Attendance — 4,189.
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