The margin for error in the NCHC is thin, a point that was reinforced to No. 2 Denver on Friday night at Magness Arena.

The Pioneers started slowly,  twice seized one-goal leads, twice lost them and ultimately fell to No. 4 St. Cloud State, 4-3, on Veeti Miettinen’s goal from between the circles with 1:38 to play in overtime.

The Huskies scored three of the game’s final four goals over the final 13:39. Denver had a 4-on-3 power play to start overtime but only generated one shot on goal during it.

“It just took a little bit to find our groove, and we didn’t do what we needed to do as far as sealing the game away when we got some leads,” DU forward Casey Dornbach said. “We’ve just got to build on some of the momentum we built in the third period.”

The loss was only the second for the Pioneers (6-3, 2-1 NCHC) in their past 26 home games dating to the start of last season.

Denver had to overcome a sluggish start, which gave St. Cloud some early momentum in the fast-paced matchup.

“It’s a weird thing we have to figure out,” assistant captain Kyle Mayhew said. “We didn’t seem to ready right off the hop, the first 5, 10 minutes. I don’t know if our heads were in it. Starts are huge, especially in the best conference in college hockey. You can’t be taking off 10, 20 minutes a night.”

Late goal gave Pioneers a chance to win

The top line, as it has most of the season, made its mark on this game as well, with center Massimo Rizzo scoring the Pioneers’ second go-ahead goal with 2:11 to play in regulation.

However, the Huskies (8-1, 1-0) promptly tied it with 1:17 to go on Zach Okabe’s goal with goaltender Jaxon Castor pulled for an extra attacker after both DU defensemen – Mike Benning and Justin Lee – blocked shots.

“Justin Lee made a great block, and Benning made a block too,” Dornbach noted. “We got an unlucky bounce back to (Okabe), it’s one of those things we obviously didn’t get it done, but guys were trying and it didn’t happen for whatever reason.”

That capped a wild third period, and one in which Denver held a territorial edge.

Grant Cruikshank, who played his first NCAA three seasons at Colorado College and another at Minnesota, brought the Huskies back to even at 2 with a one-timer from between the circles 9:43 in.

Rizzo’s goal came off a nice feed from defenseman Sean Behrens, who had wheeled around the left side of the zone to the goal line before passing to Rizzo in the low slot. There was extra real estate available in front of Jaxon Caster because Carter Mazur had leveled Huskies captain Spencer Meier behind the goal during a puck battle that kept DU’s pressure intact.

The adrenaline rush from that play might have worked against Denver, Mayhew said.

“It’s really hard when you get one that late to calm the bench down and get the right mindset,” he said. “I think our 6 on 5 was good. We had huge blocks. It was just one of those throw it on net and it goes in.”

The defensemen boost Denver’s offense

Speaking of Lee and Benning, they provided some run support to the top line, scoring DU’s first two goals.

Benning’s weave through the Huskies zone after taking a drop pass from Mazur near the left point, finished with him moving Castor to his left and off his angle a bit, creating an opening to his right that Benning capitalized on with 2:11 to go.

That salvaged a lackluster first period for DU, which was outshot (11-6) and out chanced in the first 20. Time and again the Huskies sustained attack time, and Denver didn’t help itself with some sloppy clears.

“In the second we were able to have some of our own O zone time, especially in the second half of that,” DU coach David Carle said. “They were dangerous in their O zone play and off the rush tonight.”

Benning’s goal offset Jami Krannila’s, which came 4:05 into the game. Magnus Chrona (21 saves) made the initial save, but the rebound went to his left and Krannila had an empty net to shoot at from close range.

Lee gave the Pioneers their first lead seconds after he hopped on the ice. Rizzo dropped him a pass at the outside of the left circle, and DU’s captain beat Castor (24 saves) far side.

“We had our D active, that really helped,” Dornbach said. “We need those 5-on-5 goals.”

This was the first game other than the 2-0 shutout at Massachusetts that Denver did not score a power-play goal.

“It was nice to be able to score 5 on 5,”Carle said. “We scored three 5-on-5 goals, and I don’t think we’ve done that yet this year. And I thought we generated some other looks as well. … They made it hard on us. We weren’t able to do it consistently enough.”

The outcome spoiled what had been a pretty solid night for Chrona. He’d probably like the rebound that led to St. Cloud’s first goal back as well as the winner, but in between he made a several strong saves, including a big stop of Cruikshank shortly before his goal and another on Okabe after he raced out of the box when his penalty expired in overtime.

“I thought Magnus was really good,” Carle said.

Notes: Freshman center Aidan Thompson, the lone Coloradan on the Pioneers’ roster, made his NCAA debut after missing the first eight games because of a lower-body injury sustained during Team USA’s World Junior Championship evaluation camp over the summer. Thompson centered sophomores Tristan Broz and Jack Devine. … The teams combined to block 33 shots, 19 by Denver – five by Benning.

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