Canton, N.Y.  ---  Minnesota State traded goals with St. Lawrence in a nconference men’s hockey contest at in Canton, N.Y., Friday night with the host Saints eventually coming out on top of a 4-3 decision.

With a pair of  Mavericks in the penalty box, the host Saints jumped out to a 1-0 first-period lead when their leading scorer Kyle Flanagan one-timed a cross ice pass past MSU’s Austin Lee at 12:28.

Freshman forward Matt Leitner scored from in front of the net after taking a nice pass from freshman defenseman Zach Palmquist at 3:27 to tie the game.  But SLU regained the lead on a wrist shot from Mark Armstrong that beat Lee over his right shoulder at 9:19.  MSU sophomore Johnny McInnis deflected Michael Dorr’s shot past Matt Weninger with the Mavericks on the power play at 12:59 and the two teams entered intermission with the game tied at 2-2.

Freshman forward Jean-Paul Lafontaine gave the Mavericks their first lead of the night with his team-high 11^th goal of the year coming on the power play at 11:14 of the third.  St. Lawrence responded with a power play goal at 14:41 tie it and then scored the game-winning goal at 15:57 off of the stick of Gunnar Hughes.

Lafontaine, who leads the Mavericks in scoring and also had an assist on Leitner’s goal, extended his scoring streak to eight games.

St. Lawrence, which went two-for-eight in power play chances, outshot the Mavericks by a 32-25 margin.  MSU was successful two-of-five power play opportunities.

Now 5-15-1 overall on the year, the Mavericks close out the two-game set at St. Lawrence Saturday with a 7:00 face-off (EST) scheduled.

Head coach Troy Jutting comments following the game:


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