HOUGHTON, Mich. — November may seem a little early in the college-hockey season to start talking about must-wins, but Minnesota State wanted to make a statement for itself over the weekend.

“We needed a sweep — badly,” junior forward Trevor Bruess said. “A lot of guys played like men tonight.”

The 11th-ranked Mavericks defeated Michigan Tech 4-2 Saturday night at MacInnes Ice Arena for their first Western Collegiate Hockey Association sweep of the season. It was also their first Saturday-night win since Oct. 11.

Minnesota State is unbeaten in five of its last six games.

Bruess scored two goals and is now tied for the team lead with seven. Rylan Galiardi had a goal and an assist and Kurt Davis had two assists, as each posted a four-point weekend.

“We needed to get four points (for the WCHA standings),” said defenseman Nick Canzanello, who scored his first goal of the season for the game-winner. “They’re a team that’s struggling and that everybody else is getting points against.”

The Huskies, who won three games against Minnesota State last season, have just two wins in 12 games this season. Only one of the wins came in conference play.

The Mavericks (7-3-2, 5-3-2 in WCHA) jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals by Bruess and Galiardi and had answers for each time the Huskies cut the deficit to one goal in the second and third periods.

Canzanello gave his team a 3-1 lead with 3:50 remaining in the second period, and Bruess scored a power-play goal at 11:48 of the third to make it 4-2.

“If you’re going to sweep on a weekend, you need your big players to play well,” coach Troy Jutting said. “(Bruess) really stepped it up tonight and played very well for us.”

Bruess opened the scoring 3:44 into the game when he kept the puck during a 2-on-1 rush with linemate Mick Berge.

Bruess cut in front of the net and stuffed the puck past freshman goalie Josh Robinson.

At 15:19, Galiardi scored on the power play. Defenseman Kurt Davis split the defense with a blue line-to-blue line pass through the middle of the rink that gave Galiardi a breakaway.

“Rylan played like an absolute savage tonight,” Bruess said.

The Huskies’ Jordan Baker made it 2-1, finishing off a nice pass from Brett Olson as he beat a defender and crashed the net at 7:40 of the second.

But MSU allowed just three other shots to reach goaltender Mike Zacharias (26 saves) in the period and got its cushion back on Canzanello’s goal.

Canzanello walked the puck in from the blue line and fired a shot through Robinson’s legs from the bottom of the right circle.

It was the third career goal for the junior blueliner but his second game-winner.

“They give us the option,” Canzanello said of defensemen carrying the puck deep, “as long as you can beat the backchecker up the ice, see an opening and get to it without much of a risk.”

Just 44 seconds into the third, Tech got a lucky bounce to make it 3-2. Alex Gagne fired a shot from the right circle, and the puck pinballed off two MSU players, including defenseman Blake Friesen, and went in behind Zacharias who was playing the initial shot.

Bruess all but sealed the win with his power-play goal. Last season’s leading scorer, the Mavericks’ assistant captain fired a shot into the upper right-hand corner after taking a cross-ice pass from Ben Youds, who also had two assists in the game.

“I thought we played a smart hockey game tonight,” Jutting said. “We kept our composure.”

Up next for the Mavericks will be a nonconference series Friday and Saturday at Bowling Green State (Ohio).



Minnesota State 2-1-1—4
Michigan Tech 0-1-1—2M

FIRST PERIOD
Scoring: 1. MSU-Bruess 6 (Irwin 4, Youds 4) 3:44; 2. MSU-Galiardi 3 (Davis 13, Zacharias 2) ppg 15:19
Penalties: Davis, MSU (cross-checking) 11:52; Angelow, MTU (hooking) 14:46

SECOND PERIOD
Scoring: 3. MTU-Baker 6 (Olson 5, MacLeod 3) 7:40; 4. MSU-Canzanello 1 (Galiardi 5, Louwerse 4) 16:10
Penalties: None.

THIRD PERIOD
Scoring: 5. MTU-Gagne 3 (Dobson 9, Kinrade 3) :44; 6. MSU-Bruess 7 (Youds 5, Davis 14)
Penalties: Kilburg, MSU (slashing) 2:04; Royer, MTU (cross-checking) 8:08; Kivisto, MTU (checking from behind) 11:21; Canzanello, MSU (tripping) 12:01

SUMMARIES
Shots on goal: MSU 8-9-8—25; MTU 13-4-11—28. Penalties: MSU 3 for 6 minutes; MTU 3 for 6 minutes. Power-play opportunities: MSU 2 for 3; MTU 0 for 3. Goalie saves: MSU-Zacharias 13-3-10—26 (2 GA); MTU-Robinson 6-8-7—21 (4 GA)

Referees: Jon Campion, C.J. Beaurline. Linesmen: Damon Beiring, Charlie Hurley.

Attendance: 2,510