ST. CLOUD, Minn.MANKATO, Minn.WORCESTER, Mass. — Travis Novak and Nic Rioux each scored their first college goals as St. Cloud State beat the fourth-ranked University of Denver 2-1 on Saturday night to complete a two-game sweep.
The Pioneers are 2-4-1 in their last seven games.
Rioux, who had to sit out all of last season and the first 10 games this season because of his participation in a Canadian major junior training camp, was playing his first game for the Huskies (7-4-0, 2-3-0 WCHA).
Early in the third period during a delayed penalty, Rioux fired a shot from the left point that hit a defender’s stick and deflected into the upper left corner behind Pioneers goalie Marc Cheverie.
Shortly after DU (6-4-1, 4-3-1) killed a penalty to start the second period, Rhett Rakh- shani scored on a deflection at 2:16.
Novak tied it three minutes later. John Swanson passed to Aaron Marvin, who tapped the puck to Novak at the left post for a point-blank, hard-angle shot.
Colo. College 4, Minn. St. 3 Eric Walsky’s power-play goal at 11:08 of the third period gave the third-ranked Tigers (7-2-3, 4-2-1 WCHA) a victory over the 11th-ranked Mavericks (5-3-2, 3-3-2).
Walsky’s goal spoiled a comeback effort by the Mavericks, who trailed 3-1 after two periods, then tied the game with less than 11 minutes remaining.
Air Force 5, Holy Cross 1All four of Air Force’s lines scored in the 13th-ranked Falcons’ win.
Air Force remained perfect at 10-0-0 overall and 8-0-0 and in first place in the AHA. Air Force, off to the best start in school history, remains the only unbeaten and untied team in the nation. AFA also set a school record with six straight road wins.
