With a hard-fought victory over the Vermont Catamounts last night, the Wisconsin men’s hockey team is one step closer to a trip to Detroit and the Frozen Four. The Badgers’ reward for their 3-2 win is a sixth meeting with St. Cloud State, who they faced last Friday in the WCHA Final Five semifinal, which the Huskies won 2-0.

UW’s power play was the X-factor in last night’s win, with all three of Wisconsin’s goals coming on the man advantage. Senior tri-captain and Hobey Baker Award candidate Blake Geoffrion got the game-winner near the end of the second period, firing a shot from the high slot to the far post and beating UVM goaltender Rob Madore.

Justin Schultz and Michael Davies also scored for UW, which in addition to its power play success, killed five of six penalties.

SCSU had a tougher time of it against Northern Michigan, needing two overtimes to gut out a 4-3 win. Tony Mosey redirected a shot just 23 seconds into the second overtime to give the Huskies their first NCAA tournament win ever. Prior to last night, St. Cloud was 0-7 in the tournament.

Recap of last night’s win: Game recap

So does Wisconsin continue its march to a national title, or can St. Cloud State double its tourney wins tonight? We’ll find out at 8 p.m. at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.