Mankato, Minn. --- Minnesota State battled hard against top-rated University of Denver Saturday night in Mankato, but eventually fell in overtime by a final score of 4 to 3.
The Mavericks struck first at 13:40 in the first period on a goal by freshman forward Tyler Pitlick. Sophomore Michael Dorr made a nice move along the ice before setting up Pitlick, who beat DU goaltender Mark Cheverie on a beauty of a play.
MSU didn’t hold its lead for long as the Pioneers got on the board at 16:34 of the first period. DU took advantage on the power play when junior Anthony Maiani was able to beat sophomore goaltender Austin Lee to tie things up at one a piece. Sophomore Joe Colborne and senior Tyler Ruegsegger picked up assists on the goal. Then just when the period was about to expire, Colborne was able to beat not only Lee, but also the buzzer as he scored at 19:59 of the first. Receiving assists on the play were Patrick Wiercioch and Rhett Rakhshani.
The Pioneers padded their lead when junior Jesse Martin flipped in a quick shot that found the back of the net at 10:24 of the second period. Maiani and sophomore John Ryder were credited with assists.
The Mavericks answered back at 14:14 of the second period while on the power play as freshman Eriah Hayes beat Cheverie to put MSU only one goal back. Hayes was set up on the play by senior Geoff Irwin and junior Ben Youds.
Pitlick evened things up for MSU at 17:22 of the second period, as he created a breakaway for himself and finished it with a nice goal, his second of the night.
After no scoring in the third period it took almost all of overtime before Rakhshani put home the game winner for DU at 4:46 of the overtime period. Picking up assists were Ruegsegger and Wiercioch. It was the second assists for both of them on the night.
The game was played in front of 4,110 fans at the Verizon Wireless Center.
The loss puts Mavericks record at 14-18-2 overall on the season and 7-17-1 in WCHA play. With the victory Denver improves its record to 24-6-4 overall and 17-4-4 in conference play. The Pioneers have now won their last ten games.
MSU closes out the 2009-10 regular season with a league home-and-home series with St. Cloud State.
