St. Cloud State men's hockey runs out of rallies against Quinnipiac

With three teams from Minnesota already in the final eight, St. Cloud State was hoping to become the fourth advancing to a regional final.

Twice the Huskies rallied to tie but Quinnipiac ultimately won 5-4 on Friday night in a first-round game in the Allentown (Pa.) regional of the NCAA men's hockey tournament.

The Bobcats (32-6-3) broke a 3-all tie on Griffin Mendel's goal 27 seconds into the third period. Jaydon Lee made it 5-3 eight minutes later

Their freshman goalie Yaniv Perets did the rest. He came into the game with a 0.96 goals average and had not given up more than three goals in any game this season. The Huskies (18-15-4) got a fourth when Noah Walker scored his second goal of the game with 1:16 left but not a fifth.

Perets finished with 30 saves; SCSU goalie Jaxon Castor had 11.

Brendan Less and T.J. Friedmann scored in the opening period to give the Bobcats a 2-0 lead.

But St. Cloud State got a quick goal in the second from Walker at 1:08 and tied it at 2-all on Sam Hentges' goal at 7:21.

Quinnipiac got the next goal. The Huskies responded again, though, about 2½ minutes later. Kyler Kupka tied the score again at 3-3 at 12:39.

Western Michigan 2, Northeastern 1 (OT): Sophomore Luke Grainger's goal 1:33 into overtime at the DCU Center in Worcester, Mass., regional gave the Broncos the victory.

Grainger, a 5-10 forward from Montreal, scored on a wraparound goal, barely beating Devon Levi, who dove to the ice and with his right arm stopped the shot and threw it back out — but not before an official ruled it had crossed the goal line.

The goal was his eighth of the season.

It was the first win ever for the Broncos (26-11-1) in the NCAA tournament. The top seed in the Worcester regional will play the Gophers on Sunday in the final.

Cole Gallant had the first goal for Western Michigan in the opening period. Aidan McDonough scored for Northeastern (25-13-1) with 3:20 left in the third.

Brandon Bussi stopped 30 shots for the Broncos in his 26th win — a program single-season record. Levi finished with 34 saves for the Huskies.

Michigan 5, American International 3: Brendan Brisson and Matty Beniers each scored their 20th goal of the season early in the second period to give the Wolverines (30-9-1), the top seed in the Allentown, Pa., regional and overall, a 4-1 lead.

Even when Yellow Jackets (22-13-3) of Springfield, Mass., got within two goals, Michigan's Dylan Duke scored 28 seconds later, at 6:43.

Erik Portillo made 29 saves for Michigan, a nine-time national champion; Alec Palvaruso had 26 stops for American International, an automatic NCAA qualifier after winning the Atlantic Hockey Conference tournament.

NCAA Division III semifinal

Adrian 5, Augsburg 1: Zach Goberis' first of two goals at 8:26 of the third period was the backbreaker as No. 1-ranked Adrian beat Augsburg in the first semifinal of the NCAA Division III men's Frozen Four at the Herb Brooks Arena in Lake Placid, N.Y.

Goberis' goal made it 3-1 after the No. 4 Auggies (25-5) had closed within 2-1 on Austin Dollimer's goal at 6:20 of the third. Fritz Belisle had the lone assist.

Adrian (30-1), which beat Augsburg 5-2 on Dec. 30 at home in Michigan, added two empty-net goals in the final two minutes.

"It's a tough team to spot a two to nothing lead and try to chase," first-year Auggies coach Greg May said. "We gave it our best effort there and we were just missing one final push in the third period that we couldn't quite dig out of us."

Cameron Gray made 20 saves for the Bulldogs. Samuel Vyletelka stopped 30 shots for Augsburg.