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January 11, 2010

Lack of goal scoring a disturbing trend for MSU

The goals scored by Ben Youds and Channing Boe during the Minnesota State men’s hockey team’s series against North Dakota last weekend were certainly notable.

For Youds, a junior defenseman, Friday night’s goal was his first of the season and the first since February of his freshman year when he scored for the first time as a Maverick. The power-play goal sits among his team-leading 19 assists this season and the 38 helpers he’s compiled in college.

Meanwhile, Boe netted his second goal of the season and the third of his career. Boe is also a junior defenseman but does not display the offensive skills that teammates like Youds and Kurt Davis do. He has 13 points in 77 career games. However, Boe’s Saturday-night goal — a rocket from the right point that rattled around the piping and into the net — was part of nice personal rebound after a particularly rough Friday night at Ralph Engelstad Arena.

What was disturbing about the rare goals, of course, was that they accounted for two-thirds of the Mavericks scoring against the fifth-ranked Sioux, who moved up to No. 4 in the nation after Monday’s polling.

North Dakota won the games 4-1 and 3-2, possibly burying Minnesota State in the lower division of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association standings.

When the season started in October, the big concern surrounding the Mavericks was goaltending. They entered the year with not one minute of experience in net.

Few considered goal scoring to be an issue at the time.

But here the Mavericks sit, allowing 3.25 goals per game in conference play while scoring just 2.56.

On Friday at North Dakota, Minnesota State played like it was skating in wet cement. With one or two exceptions, there was no speed or fire in the purple uniforms.

Coach Troy Jutting benched Mike Louwerse (nine power-play goals last season, two this year) and Rylan Galiardi (six, one) on Saturday and probably would have scratched more from the lineup if he could have.

The Mavericks played a grittier game and scored just one more goal — getting Boe’s score, which made it a one-goal game for the final five minutes, and a power-play goal by Geoff Irwin — but they still suffered their 11th straight defeat in Grand Forks, N.D.

The Mavericks delivered high praise for the Sioux, with Jutting saying, “They’re a good hockey team,” and senior forward Jerad Stewart adding, “They’re such a good team every year, especially in their own building.”

Stewart leads MSU with 11 goals, a career-high that has been a pleasant surprise this season.

Freshman Tyler Pitlick is next with seven, followed by seniors Irwin and Kael Mouillierat, who have six goals apiece but combined for 29 last year.

The Mavericks are a veteran team that includes six senior forwards, but the finishers have yet to come through this year.



Shane Frederick is a Free Press staff writer. Click here to access his college hockey blog or e-mail him at sfrederick@mankatofreepress.com.

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