ST. CLOUD — The Minnesota State men’s hockey team was 20 minutes away from a victory over St. Cloud State on Saturday night, and that had been a good position   for the Mavericks to be in throughout the season.

Going into the second game of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association first-round playoff series, the Mavericks were 14-0-0 when leading after two periods.

But trends tend to get torn up and tossed aside during the postseason, and the Huskies scored three goals in the first seven minutes of the third period to win 3-2 and knot the series at one game apiece.

The deciding Game 3 will be played at 7:07 p.m. tonight at the National Hockey Center.

 “We knew it wouldn’t be easy,” Mavericks coach Troy Jutting said. “We didn’t expect it to be easy. We knew it would be a task.”

Like the Mavericks did in their 5-4 overtime win in the series opener, the Huskies eliminated a two-goal deficit in the final period.

Playmaking center Garrett Roe scored two goals 20 seconds apart to tie the game and give his team the lead at 6:51 of the third. The score came after David Eddy got St. Cloud on the board and his quiet home arena finally rocking just 52 seconds after intermission.   

“We wanted to keep up the pressure (in the third period), and we gave up a couple opportunities you can’t give up,” Mavericks captain Geoff Irwin said. “We have to tighten that up for tomorrow night and play like we’ve got no tomorrow – because we don’t.”

The Mavericks have never won the third game of a WCHA playoff series. In all four of their opportunities since they became an affiliate member of the conference in 1999, they won the first game in overtime and lost the next two games. They’re hoping that’s another trend that gets thrown out.

“The playoffs are all about moving forward and putting the last game in the past,” Irwin said.

After a scoreless first period, the Mavericks (16-19-3) scored both of their goals in the second. The heroes of Friday night’s victory, Irwin and Kael Mouillierat teamed up for the first goal, as Irwin finished off an odd-man rush from his linemate at 6:39.

Ten minutes later, Irwin and Mouillierat assisted on Ben Youds’ power-play blast from 40 feet away to make it 2-0.

Goalie Phil Cook was solid in that stretch, stopping 16 shots as his teammates put 18 on the Huskies’ Mike Lee.

Quickly, St. Cloud State got back in the game with Eddy’s quick wrist shot over Cook’s glove. Roe assisted on the play.

 The seventh-ranked Huskies (21-12-5) poured on the pressure, and during a delayed penalty, Roe tied the game with a long, low shot from the blue line. On the very next shift, Roe got the puck in the corner and centered it to Eddy crashing down the slot. Eddy appeared to be checked into Cook as the puck went in, and after video review, the goal stood.   

“Apparently (Eddy) was pushed into the goaltender, so (Cook) didn’t have a great opportunity at that one,” Jutting said. “There are some very good hockey players (at St. Cloud State). We did a pretty good job of shutting them down.”

The Mavericks got into desperation mode that worked for them on Friday, even pulling Cook for the final 71 seconds. They put 17 shots on Lee in the third period to finish with 35 for the game. Lee, a highly touted freshman who has been splitting time with Friday’s starter Dan Dunn, slid across the crease to make a brilliant save on Tyler Pitlick in the closing minutes.

“We were down but continued to battle,” Jutting said. “We had several quality chances there.”

Tickets for tonight’s game will go on sale at 10 a.m. at the St. Cloud State box office (877-SCSUTIX). The game will be one of three Game 3s in the conference, as the Minnesota-North Dakota series and the Colorado College-Minnesota Duluth series also were knotted on Saturday.   

“We’re playing for our lives tomorrow,” Irwin said.

 

Minnesota State                  0-2-0--2

St. Cloud State                  0-0-3--3

 

FIRST PERIOD

Scoring: None.

Penalties: Hepp, SCSU (roughing) 7:02; Lauridsen, SCSU (boarding) 11:16; Mouillierat, MSU (interference) 12:08; Youds, MSU (interference) 17:25.



SECOND PERIOD

Scoring: 1. MSU-Irwin 8 (Mouillierat 11, Stewart 12) 6:39; 2. MSU-Youds 3 (Mouillierat 12, Irwin 15) ppg 16:39. Penalties: Hayes, MSU (interference) 7:20; Mosey, SCSU (hooking) 15:30

 

THIRD PERIOD

Scoring: 3. SCSU-Eddy 10 (Roe 25, Johnson 11) :52; 4. SCSU-Roe 17 (Marvin 8, Barta 4) 6:31; 5. SCSU-Roe 18 (Hepp 2, Raboin 15) 6:51. Penalties: None.



SUMMARIES

Shots on goal: MSU 6-12-17--35; SCSU 7-9-10--26. Penalties: MSU 4 for 8 minutes; SCSU 4 for 8 minutes. Power-play opportunities: MSU 1 for 3; SCSU 0 for 3. Goalie saves: MSU-Cook 7-9-7--23 (3 GA), SCSU-Lee 6-10-17--33 (2 GA).

MSU called its timeout at 19:19 of the third period.

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