Box Score St. Cloud, Minn. --- Minnesota State capitalized on its opening power play chance and netted a short-handed goal to defeat the Huskies Saturday, 3-1, avoiding the sweep.
Minnesota State improves to 8-21-3overall and 7-18-1-0 in the WCHA, while St. Cloud State drops to 1-29-1 overall and 1-24-1-1 in the WCHA.
St. Cloud State sophomore defenseman Lisa Martinson put the Huskies up 1-0 at 6:50 in the first frame when she ripped a screen shot past MSU netminder Alli Altmann.
The Mavericks evened things up when senior forward Lisa Edman cleaned up a rebound in front of SCSU goaltender Ashley Nixon, making the score 1-1 at the end of the first. Freshman Kari Lundberg and junior Emmi Leinonen both earned helpers on the equalizer.
Minnesota State freshman and points leader Kathleen Rogan gave Minnesota State its first lead of the weekend when sophomore center Lauren Smith capitalized on a 2-on-1 with a nice cross-net pass to Rogan who beat Nixon for the short-handed, game-winning goal.
The Mavericks added an insurance tally at 15:25 of the third period courtesy of freshman Tracy McCann who buried the puck. Junior Moira O’Connor and Lundberg assisted on the goal.
Rogan’s team-high point total is 21 (12-9--21) after scoring her 12th goal of the season, while Smith, who owns the second most points on the team this season increased her total to 15 (11-4--15) after recording her team-best 11th assist of 2010-11.
Lundberg finished the afternoon with two assists.
Altmann Earns her fourth win of the year on 30 saves, while Nixon stopped 29 MSU shots.
The Mavericks had 32 shots to SCSU’s 31.
The Mavericks return home next weekend as they host first-rated Wisconsin at All Seasons Arena for their last regular-season series with Friday’s contest starting at 7:07 p.m. and Saturday’s at 3:07 p.m.
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