ST. CLOUD — Perhaps Geoff Irwin keeps a crystal ball in his hockey bag, or maybe he’s got some tarot cards tucked in his gloves.

Whatever it was, the Minnesota State men’s hockey captain had a premonition as his line skated onto the National Hockey Center ice for overtime on Friday night.

Before the extra intermission, Irwin tied St. Cloud State with just three-tenths of a second remaining in regulation to keep the game going, and he envisioned a quick ending to the Western Collegiate Hockey Association playoff game.

“I told (Kael Mouillierat), ‘You’re going to get the overtime winner right now,’” Irwin said. “We’re going to get one on the first shift.”

Irwin proved to be psychic, as Mouillierat indeed scored just 20 seconds into the extra period and gave the Mavericks a stunning 5-4 victory over the Huskies, as well as a leg up in the best-of-three-games first-round series.

It was the second goal of the game for Mouillierat, as Minnesota State came back from a two-period deficit (3-1) for the first time this season and also won its first overtime game of the year.

“Good,” coach Troy Jutting said. “It’s the right time. If you’re going to do it, this is the right time.”

Jerad Stewart and Irwin each got his second assist of the game on the winning goal, which Mouillierat shot from just inside the circles, beating goalie Dan Dunn on the stick side.

Mouillierat raised his arms in the air and pumped his fists in celebration as his teammates mobbed him while a small but stunned crowd of 2,992 exited the arena.

“Geoff called it,” Mouillierat said. “He said we’re going to get it on the first shift. I couldn’t believe it. We said, ‘You called it, Geoff.’ It was pretty exciting.”

St. Cloud State, the WCHA’s third-place team, built a 3-0 lead late in the second period and was ahead 4-2 with 61⁄2 minutes to go in the third.

Mouillierat scored a short-handed goal to make it a one-goal game at 13:39. Then, with goalie Phil Cook pulled for an extra attacker in the closing moments, Irwin managed to beat the clock and tie the game.

With just 3.2 seconds remaining in regulation, Rylan Galiardi won a faceoff back to Stewart, who fired the puck. Somehow, the puck headed straight for Irwin, who was stationed at the right post, and he slammed it behind Dunn.

“It was just a gift,” Irwin said. “I knew I had to rip it at the net. You work on shots like that, short angles, tight angles, one-time shots.”

Irwin, Mouillierat and Stewart are all seniors, hoping to reach the WCHA Final Five for the first time. Now, they are one game away.

“The seniors, obviously, stepped up big,” Jutting said. “I’ve said it a million times … I’m a firm believer that your old guys have to step up at this time of the year.”

The Mavericks outshot the Huskies 35-31, but they were bombarded in the game’s first six minutes. Cook kept them in the game, allowing Garrett Raboin’s power-play goal at 5:56.

“I think we had some nerves,” Jutting said. “Cookie made some real big saves early in the game that were critical. He held us in there while our nerves were still affecting us.”

Minnesota State calmed down and came back with 17 shots in the second period. But it was the Huskies who built on their lead and appeared to quiet the talk of the Mavericks’ dominance in their rink — now 8-1-1 in the last 10 games at the NHC.

Travis Novak scored short-handed at 9:52 of the second, and Ben Hanowski finished off a pretty play from Ryan Lasch a little more than three minutes later.

Minnesota State finally got on the board with 27.1 seconds remaining in the second period when Evan Mosey blasted a one-timer past Dunn during a power play. It was Mosey’s second career goal.

His first came last Saturday from nearly the exact same spot on the Huskies’ ice sheet.

“That was critical,” said Jutting, whose team was the only WCHA road team to win on Friday night.

Andrew Sackrison made it a 3-2 game midway through the third period, but St. Cloud’s Tony Mosey (no relation to Evan) answered just 43 seconds later.

When Jason Wiley went to the penalty box for a boarding penalty a minute after that, the Mavericks could have started thinking about extending the series to three games. But Mouillierat’s short-hander and Irwin’s desperation shot got them thinking about a having a series lead. Game 2 of the series will take place at 7:07 tonight.

“We were down by two, three goals, and nobody was giving up on the bench,” Mouillierat said. “Nobody lost hope.”



Minnesota State    0-1-3-1—5

St. Cloud State    1-2-1-0—4



FIRST PERIOD

Scoring: 1. SCSU-Raboin 6 (unassisted) ppg 5:56

Penalties: Louwerse, MSU (goaltender interference) 1:35; Schiller, MSU (high-sticking) 5:14; Hanowski, SCSU (interference) 7:39



SECOND PERIOD

Scoring: 2. SCSU-Novak 9 (LeBlanc 21) shg 9:52; 3. SCSU-Hanowski 9 (Lasch 23, Festler 13) 13:08; 4. MSU-Mosey 2 (Youds 22, Irwin 13) ppg 19:32

Penalties: Roe, SCSU (interference) 9:41; Hanowski, SCSU (interference) 18:25



THIRD PERIOD

Scoring: 5. MSU-Sackrison 3 (Schiller 4, Wiley 1) 10:38; 6. SCSU-Mosey 12 (Lauridsen 6, Roe 24) 11:21; 7. MSU-Mouillierat 12 (Youds 22, Elbrecht 5) shg 13:39; 8. MSU-Irwin 7 (Stewart 10, Galiardi 14) ex 19:59

Penalties: Stewart, MSU (goaltender interference) :19; Wiley, MSU (boarding) 12:20; Dorr, MSU (holding the stick) 17:49; Zabkowicz, SCSU (roughing) 17:49



OVERTIME

Scoring: 9. MSU-Mouillierat 12 (Stewart 11, Irwin 14) :20

Penalties: None.



SUMMARIES

Shots on goal: MSU 7-17-10-1—35; SCSU 13-7-11-0—31. Penalties: MSU 7 for 14 minutes; SCSU 6 for 12 minutes. Power-play opportunities: MSU 1 for 4; SCSU 1 for 5. Goalie saves: MSU-Cook 12-5-10-0—27 (4 GA), SCSU-Dunn 7-16-7-0—30 (5 GA).

MSU called its timeout at 19:35

Referees: Don Adam, Tim Walsh. Linesmen: Jeff Schultz, Jarod Moen.

Attendance: 2,992