By Shane Frederick
Free Press Staff Writer
MANKATO — All week, Minnesota State men’s hockey coach Troy Jutting has said that his team hasn’t had to do much more than its been doing over the last couple of weeks.
With one exception: Score on the power play.
On Friday night against fourth-ranked St. Cloud State, the Mavericks did just that, taking advantage of three penalties in the first period en route to the 4-2 upset before a Verizon Wireless Center crowd of 4,407.
“We got a bounce or two,” coach Troy Jutting said. “We were opportunistic tonight where we hadn’t been before on the power play.”
It was the final home game of the year for the Mavericks, who will close out the season tonight at St. Cloud and then go on the road to a still-unknown destination for the first round of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association tournament.
“We’ve played a lot of tough teams really hard,” said junior Rylan Galiardi, who scored the Mavericks’ first two goals and assisted on another. “The biggest thing is: We’re battle tested. We know what its like to be in close-game situations.”
Minnesota State (15-18-2, 9-17-1 in WCHA) built up a lopsided score after the first period thanks to what had been an almost-dormant power play in previous weeks.
Galiardi, a junior forward, gave his team a 1-0 lead on a blue-line steal and mini-breakaway just 70 seconds after the opening faceoff. After that, the Mavericks scored three consecutive power-play goals to grab a 4-0 lead on the Huskies, who were playing without two of their top penalty killers — suspended forward Aaron Marvin and injured defenseman Garrett Raboin.
Galiardi redirected a pass from Kurt Davis by goalie Dan Dunn at 11:31 then assisted and possibly screened Dunn on a Davis goal less than two minutes later.
Galiardi’s power-play post is the crowded space between the hash marks right in front of the goaltender.
“I love it out front; that’s where all the pucks go,” he said. “Some people think you’re just sitting there, but I love it there.”
Dunn was pulled in favor highly touted freshman goalie Mike Lee after that. But that did little to change the tide before the period ended. With 1:57 remaining, Mike Louwerse slammed back the rebound of a Michael Dorr shot. Davis also assisted on the play for a three-point game. Dorr finished with two assists.
The Mavericks outshot the Huskies 21-5 in the first period, making life easy for freshman goalie Phil Cook.
But a fast, physical game tightened in the second period, as St. Cloud State erased half of their deficit on goals by their top two scorers. Ryan Lasch scored his 18th goal of the season at 2:17 and Garrett Roe tallied his 15th goal 10 minutes later.
From there, the rookie goaltenders put on a show. Lee finished with 26 saves, including a spread-eagle toe save at the left post that kept Galiardi from getting a hat trick in the third period. Cook finished with 27 saves, including a quick slide across to the right post to take away a sure shot by Tony Mosey that would have cut the lead to one goal with about five minutes remaining.
“(Cook’s) been very good,” Galiardi said. “He just seems to make the big save when we need him to. … He never gives up on a plays.”
Though the Mavericks have struggled to win close games this season, one thing they’ve done well is secure leads. They improved to 14-0-0 when leading after two periods.
While all of the scoring and the goaltending were done by underclassmen, Jutting credited the old players for their third-period defense.
“We have a lot of seniors,” the coach said, referring to six players who were playing in their final game in Mankato. “We have guys who have been through it before.”
The Mavericks and the Huskies will close out the regular season at 7:07 p.m. tonight at the National Hockey Center in St. Cloud.
St. Cloud 0-2-0—2
Minnesota State 4-0-0—4
FIRST PERIOD
Scoring: 1. MSU-Galiardi 9 (unassisted) 1:10; 2. MSU-Galiardi 10 (Davis 16, Pitlick 8) ppg 11:31; 3. MSU-Davis 5 (Dorr 8, Galiardi 13) ppg 13:25; 4. MSU-Louwerse 7 (Dorr 8, Davis 17) ppg 18:03
Penalties: Barta, SCSU (contact to the head) 7:12; Youds, MSU (interference) 7:15; Roe, SCSU (slashing) 11:15; Zabkowicz, SCSU (tripping) 11:48; Eddy, SCSU (elbowing) 17:12; Elbrecht, MSU (interference) 20:00.
SECOND PERIOD
Scoring: 5. SCSU-Lasch 18 (Mosey 18, Johnson 9) 2:17; 6. SCSU-Roe 15 (Mosey 19, Eddy 8) 12:10
Penalties: Irwin, MSU (hooking) 12:59; Hepp, SCSU (instigating) 17:50; Lauridsen, SCSU (roughing) 17:50; Harrison, MSU (roughing) 17:50;
THIRD PERIOD
Scoring: None
Penalties: Roe, SCSU (interference) 6:11; Mosey, MSU (tripping) 8:40; Youds, MSU (slashing) 19:23
SUMMARIES
Shots on goal: SCSU 5-16-8—29; MSU 21-10-5—36. Penalties: SCSU 7 for 14 minutes; MSU 6 for 12 minutes. Power-play opportunities: SCSU 0 for 5; MSU 3 for 6. Goalie saves: SCSU-Dunn 6-x-x—4 (3 GA) Lee 11-10-5—26 (1 GA); MSU-Cook 5-14-8—27 (2 GA).
SCSU called its timeout at 19:23 of the third period
Referees: C.J. Beaurline, Jon Campion. Linesmen: Chris Olson, Jarod Moen.
Attendance: 4,407
