Huskies hang on for shootout win

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MENDOTA HEIGHTS, Minn. – No. 15 Michigan Tech settled for a 4-3 shootout win at St. Thomas on Friday night. The Huskies scored three straight goals to take a 3-1 lead, but the Tommies came back to force overtime for the second straight meeting.

"You have to be ready to compete and battle every night in this league," Tech coach Joe Shawhan said. "We lost some battles and coverage in our zone and gave up three goals on 11 shots. It wasn't Blake's fault.

"We had a good second period and did a good job killing off the penalty in overtime."

Down 1-0 early in the second period, the Huskies got the power-play unit working to take the lead. Trenton Bliss sniped in his eighth of the season, and fifth on the man advantage, to tie it up at 4:01. Colin Swoyer assisted on the play.

Tommy Parrottino scored for the third straight game when he tipped in a feed from Brian Halonen with 38.6 seconds left for a 2-1 lead. Tech was on a 5:00 power play as Parrottino notched his seventh of the season, and third on the power play, with Brett Thorne also assisting.

Justin Misiak gave Tech a two-goal lead 1:45 into the third period when he cleaned up a great individual effort by Brian Halonen out front. Trenton Bliss created a turnover in the neutral zone to begin the play on Misiak's fifth of the season.

Joey Sofo deflected a shot by Nolan Sawchuk for the second goal of the night for St. Thomas at 8:55 of the third.

Blaine Warnert tied the game with 4:58 left when he banged in a rebound with assists going to Tim Piechowski and Trevor Ledonne.

Alec Broetzman had a drive to the net with 2:04 left in the 3-on-3 overtime and was sent off on a 5:00 major for charging the goaltender. The Huskies killed off the penalty and went on to the shootout.

Brian Halonen and Trenton Bliss scored in the shootout, and Blake Pietila stopped the final four chances by the Tommies. Attempts by Tristan Ashbrook and Logan Pietila were steered aside.

Tech (15-8-2, 12-5-1 CCHA) dominated in shots 35-14, including a 21-3 advantage in the second period when the Huskies had almost 7:00 of power-play time.

UST (2-24-1, 2-18-1 CCHA) scored the first goal of the game when a shot by Trevor Ledonne deflected off of Kyler Grundy's skate and into the net.

The Huskies were 2-for-4 on the power play and 3-for-3 on the penalty kill.

The last time Tech won a shootout was December 2018 at the Great Lakes Invitational over Michigan.

Brian Halonen and Trenton Bliss extended their point streaks to seven games and Tommy Parrottino extended his to four games.

The Huskies and Tommies will play for a fourth time at 8:07 p.m. (Eastern) Saturday back at St. Thomas Ice Arena.