Friday night fright continued for No. 2 Denver at St. Cloud, Minn.

The Pioneers lost on the road for the second Friday in a row, and failed to win a road series opener for the fourth time in seven tries, when the host Huskies struck 2:27 into overtime for a 3-2 NCHC victory.

The Huskies (11-11-1, 6-8-1 NCHC) ) won when Ryan Poehling redirected Mikey Eyssimont’s shot past Evan Cowley.

Poehling’s brother, Jack, had tied the score with 27 seconds left in the second period on a shot that eluded Denver goaltender Tanner Jaillet, who was replaced at the start of the third period after making 28 saves by Cowley (12 saves).

“Tanner was not tracking pucks well, there were a lot of rebounds and he was off his angles tonight,” DU coach Jim Montgomery said. “Once their second goal came in we were like let’s make a change.

“Cowley made some big stops in the third period that got us to overtime.”

The Pioneers (15-6-4, 7-3-3) gave up a season-high 43 shots (the previous high had been 42 against Wisconsin on Nov. 26) and seemed back on their heels at times.

“St. Cloud was just a far superior team tonight,” Montgomery said. “They outworked us, they outhustled us. Usually we have real good puck support, that allows us to gain momentum and we just never could get it, because St. Cloud just outwilled us and outskilled us tonight.”

DU took a hooking penalty right off the opening faceoff, and the Huskies made them pay, with Robby Jackson cashing in on the power play 51 seconds into the game.

Freshman Henrik Borgstrom scored his team-high 13^th goal to tie it for Denver just 2:03 later, and fellow freshman Liam Finlay gave DU what would turn out to be its only lead, 2:48 into the second off assists from Kevin Conley and Evan Ritt, his fourth point in two games.

The Pioneers held on until Jack Poehling’s late-period strike.

Since Denver started the second half of the season it has just one win on Friday – vs. Arizona State two weeks ago. It tied at Providence on Dec. 30 and was shut out last Friday at Western Michigan. It also tied at North Dakota in early November.

“St. Cloud, they were the better team, and we’ve got to be better tomorrow night or else we’re going to be in trouble after this weekend,” Montgomery said. “They were just that much better than us. Hopefully it’s not a case that they are that much better than us. We can regroup and have a better effort collectively.”