HOUGHTON, Mich. - The Michigan Tech hockey team jumped out to an early 1-0 lead but No. 15 Minnesota Duluth scored the next four goals to claim a 4-1 victory Friday (Feb. 20) at the John MacInnes Student Ice Arena. Michigan Tech (5-22-6, 1-18-6) finished one-for-five on the power play and Minnesota Duluth (16-9-6, 10-8-5) was two-for-four.

"You have to bury your bounces. We had a number of wonderful opportunities in the first period but Stalock made the saves," said head coach Jamie Russell. "I think we had great opportunities after we were up 1-0 to go up 2-0, 3-0, but we didn't capitalize. In the third period we need someone who is going to step up. You got to be the guy who is sitting on the bench who gets the tap on the shoulder that is going to get the chance to go out and make the play and make the difference when the score is 1-1. We are down 2-1 and we had two power play opportunities and we didn't convert in those situations. In fact I thought we lost battles. We were not executing, we fell down, we give up a short handed goal. You need to rise to the occasion and we didn't do that."

The Huskies took advantage of its first power play of the evening. Sophomore Deron Cousens skated in towards the Duluth net and then sent a pass over to freshman Brett Olson who scored his team-leading sixth power play goal of the season. Senior Geoff Kinrade also picked up an assist on the goal at 4:26 of the first period to extend his point streak to four games, the longest of his career. He has five assists in his last four games.

The Michigan Tech lead was short lived as Duluth tied the game just over one minute later. Senior MacGregor Sharp sent a pass across the Tech net to sophomore Justin Fontaine who beat freshman Josh Robinson for his 13th goal of the season at 5:31 of the first period.

Michigan Tech had the best scoring opportunity in the second period when its shot hit the inside of the post and rested on the goal line. After a video review it was ruled that the puck did not cross the line.

UMD scored what would hold up to be the game-winning goal at 3:58 of the third period. The Bulldogs second goal was much like its first, but Fontaine assisted Sharp for his 13th goal of the season.

Senior Andrew Carroll created a turnover on the power play in Tech's defensive end before scoring an unassisted short handed goal at 18:28 of the third period. The goal was just his fourth of the season.

After a time out, the Huskies pulled Robinson with a face off in the Bulldogs end to go on a six-on-four advantage. Duluth was able to clear the puck out of the zone to center ice but junior Trent Palm came out of the penalty and intercepted a pass from a pair of Tech players. He then passed to Sharp who scored an empty net goal. Sharp finished the game with two goals and one assist.

Junior Alex Stalock (15-9-6) made 24 saves on 25 saves for the Bulldogs and Robinson (3-8-1) made 19 saves on 23 shots for the Huskies.

The two teams will wrap up the series Saturday (Feb. 21) at 7:07 p.m.