MANKATO — Finally, Friday night felt all right for the Minnesota State men’s hockey team.

The Mavericks won a series-opening game for the first time since Dec. 9, breaking a streak of five Friday-night losses — eight in Western Collegiate Hockey Association play — beating Michigan Tech 5-3 before a crowd of 2,923 at Verizon Wireless Center.

“We’ve been stressing Friday nights the whole second half,” said goaltender Phil Cook, who stopped a season-high 43 shots, including 22 in the second period.

The Huskies, who were coming off a three-point weekend at No. 1 Minnesota Duluth, didn’t make it easy on the Mavericks (10-18-1, 6-14-1 in WCHA). They erased Minnesota State 3-0 first-period lead and seemed to have all of the momentum as the two teams went into the third period tied 3-3.

But MSU freshman Matt Leitner scored a power-play goal just 76 seconds into the final frame, and sophomore Johnny McInnis added an insurance goal with 8:18 to play.

“It’s big for us,” coach Troy Jutting said. “You can’t win both games unless you win the first one. … We talked about it during the week. We could have easily scored goals the last couple of Fridays, too.”

The Mavericks’ three goals in the first period were one more than they totaled in their previous three Friday-night games combined.

Rookie defenseman Zach Palmquist got the scoring started at 10:46 with his fifth goal of the year, a pretty backhander over goalie Josh Robinson’s shoulder.

Later, Zach Lehrke and Eriah Hayes made it 3-0 with a pair of goals just 64 seconds apart.

On Hayes’ goal, Jean-Paul LaFontaine made a perfect pass out of the corner across the ice to the far circle for Hayes to slap in. It was the first of two assists for LaFontaine.

As they did in Duluth when they came back from a 4-0 deficit to tie 4-4 and win 5-0 the next night, the Huskies whittled away at their deficit to the Mavericks.

David Johnstone scored a power-play goal with 53 seconds left in the first period. And in the second, as they outshot MSU 24-13, the Huskies tied the game on a pair of deflected goals — one by Dennis Rix at 8:38 and a power-play goal by Tanner Kero with 5:29 to go.

Cook made several tough saves in the frame and even got a little help from defenseman Brett Stern on one flurry, to keep the game tied.

“They scored three unanswered,” Cook said. “We needed to put a halt to that growing snowball rolling down the hill.”

Leitner and McInnis did that at the offensive end, and Cook stopped all 15 shots he faced in the third.

“We were on the bench just staying positive,” Leitner said. “They whole team was staying positive, trying not to get down. It was important for us to be positive.”

The Mavericks and the Huskies will conclude the series at 7:07 p.m. today.

Michigan Tech   1-2-0—3

Minnesota State  3-0-2—5



First period

Scoring: 1. MSU-Palmquist 5 (Zuck 8) 10:46; 2. MSU-Lehrke 11 (Gaede 3) 15:45; 3. MSU-Hayes 12 (LaFontaine 11) 16:49; 4. MTU-D. Johnstone 9 (Seigo 16, Furne 11) ppg 19:07

Penalties: Stern, MSU (interference) 18:17



Second period

Scoring: 5. MTU-Rix 3 (Stebner 4, C. Pietila 2) 8:38; 6. MTU-Kero 9 (Sweeney 9, J. Johnstone 3) ppg 14:31

Penalties: Gaede, MSU (hooking) 5:55; Mueller, MSU (high-sticking) 13:10; D. Johnstone, MTU (high-sticking) 18:59; Knoll, MSU (high-sticking) 18:59; Sova, MTU (unsportsmanlike conduct) 19:12; Zuck, MSU (unsportsmanlike conduct) 19:12

Third period

Scoring: 7. MSU-Leitner 8 (Palmquist 8, LaFontaine 12) ppg 1:16; 8. MSU-McInnis 6 (Jokinen 7, Schiller 13) 11:52

Penalties: B.Pietila, MTU (holding) :24; Sova, MTU (holding) 5:29; Mueller, MSU (boarding) 8:16; Stern, MSU (holding) 12:17

Summaries

Shots on goal: MTU 7-24-15—46, MSU 17-13-9—39. Penalties: MTU 4 for 8 minutes, MSU 7 for 14 minutes. Power plays: MTU 2 for 5; MSU 1 for 2. Goalie saves: MTU Robinson 14-13-7—34 (5 GA); MSU Cook 6-22-15—43 (3 GA).

Referees: Brad Shepherd, Todd Anderson. Linesmen: Rick Nelson, Sterling Egan.

Attendance: 2,923