ST. CLOUD, Minn. – Friday the 13^th proved to be a nightmare for the No.1 college hockey team in the country, thanks to the Hockey Dutchmen.  Ninth-ranked Union never trailed in handing St. Cloud State a 4-1 defeat Friday night on the Olympic-sized sheet before 4,265 at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center.  

The victory extended Union's win streak to nine games while St. Cloud saw its unbeaten streak snapped at seven.  Coach Rick Bennett's squad is 5-0 this season against ranked opponents as the Dutchmen remain unbeaten (6-0-1) on the road.
 
Union used a pair of power play goals to stake a 2-0 lead after one period.  Max Novak buried a wrister at 15:01, followed 74 seconds later by a Eli Lichtenwald's wrister that floated just under the cross bar.  Ltchtenwald now has points in nine of 10 games played this season.
 
St. Cloud cut the lead in half when goaltender Alex Sakellaropoulos was screened on a slapshot from Joey Benik at 10:29 of the second period.

The Garnet and White answered just 43 seconds into the third period when Bodie's wrister from along the board deflected off a Husky defender past goaltender Ryan Faragher. Faragher was lifted at that point in favor of Charlie Lindgren.

The Dutchmen added an insurance goal at 11:40 when Daniel Ciampini stole the puck behind the net and feed Nick Cruice who buried a slapshot from 10 feet away.

Sakellaropoulos finished with 34 saves, starting in place of Colin Stevens, who had played three games in six nights.

"When you're playing the No. 1 team in the country, you have to keep it simple, and I thought we did just that," said Bennett.  "We stayed within our system and the whole team benefited.  It was just a super team win."
 
The non-conference series concludes tomorrow night with an 8:07 start time.