Even before his Huskies were swept at home, St. Cloud State men’s hockey coach Bob Motzko broke down Minnesota Duluth’s recipe for success this season.

The key ingredients, according to the longtime Huskies coach, was the return of three seniors who all could have gone pro.

One of those seniors, top-line wing Alex Iafallo, has been one of the most potent ingredients this season for the second-ranked Bulldogs (8-2-2 overall, 5-1-0 NCHC).

The native of Eden, N.Y., leads UMD and the NCHC in scoring with 16 points on eight goals and eight assists heading into 7:07 p.m. games Friday and Saturday against Nebraska-Omaha (6-3-1, 3-1-0) at Baxter Arena.

Iafallo is riding a six-game point streak that began with a hat trick to start NCHC play three weeks ago at home against North Dakota. He has six goals and six assists in six conference games, putting him comfortably atop the NCHC in league points. Iafallo’s teammate, defenseman Carson Soucy, is second with nine points in league play.

“Forget the points. The players get caught up in that, we all get caught up in that. It’s nice to see them doing that. (Iafallo) has had a good start to the year regardless of the (points), even before the hat trick that springboarded him,” UMD coach Scott Sandelin said. “He’s competing hard. Obviously he’s got great hands and his speed. He’s shooting the puck more, which is good. I think previous years he didn’t shoot the puck as much.

“Good players are satisfied with certain things, and great players want to get better. They get three goals, they want four the next game. Those are the things I see that he’s kind of grown into as the year has gone on.”

Iafallo, Soucy and senior center Dominic Toninato were all considered flight risks last spring after the Bulldogs’ season ended with a 3-2 loss to Boston College in the Northeast Regional final in Worcester, Mass. All three appeared ready to skip their senior seasons at UMD and sign professional contracts, but all elected to stay in school another year.

Iafallo may have had the biggest incentive to sign because his future in professional hockey is cloudier than Soucy or Toninato. Unlike Soucy, a 2013 fifth-round draft pick of the Minnesota Wild, and Toninato, a 2012 fifth-round pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Iafallo is an undrafted free agent.

It would be tough to blame Iafallo for striking when the iron is hot, like what sophomore goaltender and undrafted free-agent goalie Kasimir Kaskisuo did last spring when he signed with the Leafs.

But Iafallo said he never was a flight risk. He wasn’t ready for the pros and he wanted to finish his degree in business management, he said.

Most importantly, Iafallo said he wanted to honor his commitment to the Bulldogs hockey program by playing all four years.

“My advisor talked to everybody. I had some options but I wanted to come back for my senior year,” Iafallo said. “I’m happy I did. I love it here. Duluth is the best - the coaching staff, everybody on down, the players. I knew I’d get better and better if I came back. I stuck with that throughout the end of the year. I knew I was coming back.”

History hinted Iafallo wouldn’t rush his development. Just go back to his days of junior hockey playing with the Fargo Force of the United States Hockey League. Iafallo posted 19 goals and 17 assists in 2011-12 and had the chance to jump to the NCAA and UMD. He elected to stay another season in Fargo to improve and further smooth his transition to college.

Iafallo ended up sharing a line that season with Toninato, a young rookie center out of Duluth East. Iafallo scored 20 goals and added 23 assists in 50 regular-season games.

“He’s a great player,” Toninato said of Iafallo. “It’s good to see him getting the points he deserves. He’s another one of those guys that wants to get better every day. He’s one of our best players and you need your best players to be good like that. He’s definitely been one of our best players the last few weeks.”

Iafallo, with 35 goals and 51 assists in 122 career games at UMD, said his mind was made up about returning to college well before last season ended, but a second consecutive one-goal loss in the regional finals cemented his decision.

Iafallo spent the summer becoming a better college player rather than taking the time to feel out his professional future. Two summers ago, Iafallo attended two NHL development camps - the Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning. This past summer, he only went to Tampa Bay’s camp because he didn’t want to lose any workout days to travel.

“I just wanted to focus. The summer is short,” Iafallo said. “I really wanted to focus on my game. I’m happy it’s paying off.”

And the NHL scouts are still flocking Iafallo’s way, too, making him one of the more requested players after games again this season, just as he was as a sophomore and junior. The undrafted free agent likely will have just as many options - if not more - after this season as he did last spring.

Iafallo said his focus remains centered on this team.

“I don’t find it tough anymore,” Iafallo said about NHL scouts and what his life could be like come April. “I feel like it’s been happening so much you just know them now, the scouts. They’re like, ‘We don’t want to intrude or anything, just keep talking to you.’ It’s good to keep the distance, because you want to stay focused on the team.”

And focused on winning a regional final, reaching the Frozen Four and playing for a national championship.

“I knew we could always go farther than that, just those little inches to score a goal, make a big block,” Iafallo said of the regional final losses. “We’re going to get those this year and, hopefully, we keep it going near the end.”