University of Minnesota Athletics
Minnesota State Breaks Away to Beat Gophers
1/31/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Hockey
Minnesota State had just nine second period shots, but had four breakaways and scored five goals in the period to post a 6-2 victory over Minnesota on Friday in Mankato.
The Mavericks scored six goals in the game’s first 40 minutes after totaling four goals in over 262 minutes during Minnesota’s last visit to the Alltel Center, which was a three-game Western Collegiate Hockey Association playoff series that featured three overtime games last March. The game was played in front of a school-record crowd of 5,201.
Minnesota State, which had lost 10 of its previous 13 games, is now 12-13-3 overall and 8-11-2 in the WCHA. It was only the Mavericks’ fourth victory over the Gophers in 37 all-time meetings and just the second in the past 26 encounters. Minnesota has now allowed six goals in four consecutive road games while dropping to 12-6-5 overall and 9-5-3 in the WCHA.
The hard-hitting game featured four major penalties and three ejections. The physical play started early as the Gophers’ Jake Hansen was whistled for a five-minute major for boarding just 1:12 into the game. Minnesota’s national-leading penalty kill nearly kept the Mavericks off the board until Mick Berge whistled a high shot past Alex Kangas with 27 seconds left in the penalty. Minnesota State had nine shots on the power play and finished with a 16-7 advantage for the period.
Hansen tied the game with a power play goal at 14:56 of the period, shooting from a sharp angle at the goalline and getting a deflection off Minnesota State goaltender Mike Zacharias. Patrick White and Tony Lucia also had assists.
Minnesota State’s second-period eruption started with the first of back-to-back solo breakaways by Kael Mouillierat at the 7:37 mark. Mouillierat picked off a pass from Gophers’ defenseman Sam Lofquist and beat Kangas between his legs for the unassisted goal. His second tally came at the 12:41 mark shortly after coming out of the penalty box and taking a pass from Geoff Irwin.
Rylan Galiardi added a power play goal less than two minutes later and Mike Louwerse converted an even-strength goal on the Mavericks’ only non-breakaway score at the 17:57 mark to put Minnesota State ahead 5-1.
Minnesota gained an opportunity for a comeback late in the second period when the Mavericks’ Trevor Bruess delivered a hit on Tony Lucia that sent Lucia’s helmet flying and resulted in a major penalty and game misconduct. However, Minnesota State ended up with another breakaway when Mike Hoeffel fanned on a shot and it came free to Galiardi, who passed ahead to Jerad Stewart for the goal with 17 seconds left in the period.
The Gophers finally converted on the major penalty with 35 seconds remaining in the man-advantage. Aaron Ness scored when Jordan Schroeder found him wide open on the far side of the net. Jay Barriball also assisted the goal at the 3:08 mark of the period to cut the lead to 6-2.
The fights started again with 12:34 left in the game when the Mavericks’ Channing Boe was given a five-minute major for checking from behind. Boe, who was given a game misconduct, was taken from the ice on a stretcher following the play. Minnesota State ended up with the power play when the Gophers’ Brian Schack was called for instigating and given a five-minute major for fighting and a game disqualification, meaning he will miss Saturday’s rematch.
Shots finished even at 30 apiece for the game. Kangas finished with 19 saves on 25 shots and Kent Patterson made five saves in the third period. Zacharias had 28 saves for the Mavericks.
The teams meet again Saturday at 6 p.m. at Mariucci Arena.
