St. Cloud, Minn. --- Minnesota State earned a 5-4 overtime win over St. Cloud State in the first game of a WCHA play-off series played at the National Hockey Center in St. Cloud Friday.
Led by two goals by senior forward Kael Mouillierat, including the game-winning tally, the Mavericks battled back from a three-goal deficit and trailed by as much as two goals twice in stunning the seventh-rated Huskies.
SCSU took a 1-0 first-period lead when defenseman Garrett Raboin tallied at 5:56 with the Huskies on the power play.
SCSU took a 3-0 lead in the second period on a shorthanded goal by Travis Novak at 9:52 and an even-strength tally by Ben Hanowski at 13:08, but the Mavericks made it a two-goal deficit at 19:42 when freshman defenseman Evan Mosey one-timed a shot off of a pass from Ben Youds past Husky netminder Dan Dunn, with the Mavericks on the power play at 19:42.
It became a 4-2 SCSU lead at 11:21 of the third after Tony Mosey tapped a pass from Oliver Lauridsen past MSU goaltender Phil Cook. The Mavericks continued to battle back, however, with senior forward Kael Mouillierat pulling MSU within one with a shorthanded effort at 13:39. Then, with less than a second left in the game and with Cook on the bench for an extra attacker, Rylan Galiardi won an offensive zone face-off back to Jared Stewart, whose shot bounced off a SCSU player to Geoff Irwin. Irwin fired a shot from the rightside that went over Dunn's shoulder and under the cross bar with 0.3 left on the clock, sending the game into overtime.
Mouillierat then put the game away 20 seconds into the extra session when he took a pass from Irwin and beat Dunn with a wrist shot to the stick side.
Mouillierat's game-winner gives MSU its first overtime win of the year and is MSU's first overtime game-winner since Jerad Stewart accomplished the feat Feb. 27 of 2009 in a 4-3 home win over the University of Wisconsin. Irwin, MSU's senior captain had a goal and two assists in tonight's win and junior defenseman Ben Youds chipped in with two assists.
Cook, who upped his record to 8-4-2 with the win, stipped 28 shots, while Dunn was credited with 23 saves.
MSU (16-18-3) and St. Cloud State (20-12-5) play again in the second game of the best-of-three series Saturday with a 7:07 p.m. face-off scheduled.
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