Box Score     Mankato, Minn. --- Minnesota State won for the fifth straight time with the Mavericks skating to a 3-1 victory over Alaska Anchorage in a men’s Western Collegiate Hockey Association game played in Mankato Friday night.

UAA got on the board first on a goal scored by Matt Bailey, who took a pass from Kory Roy and backhanded a shot that got past freshman goaltender Stephon Williams at 01:49. MSU responded quickly on a power play goal scored by senior forward Eriah Hayes, who tipped a shot by Zach Palmquist from the point at 02:59.   The goal is a team-best ninth of the year for Hayes and extends his point-scoring streak to seven games.

It became a 2-1 MSU lead at 15:24 of the first when junior forward Johnny Mcinnis collected a rebound off of Brett Stern's shot from the point.

MSU added to its lead in the second period with Brett Knowles scoring his first career goal at MSU, when tallied off a rebound in jamming the puck past Kamal at 4:42.

Minnesota State, now 8-5-2 overall and winners of its last five games, stands 6-5-0 in WCHA games on the season. The Mavericks outshot Alaska Anchorage 40-21 in the game and went one-for-four on power play opportunities.  Alaska Anchorage was held scoreless on three power play chances. 

The game was played in front of 3,041 fans at the Verizon Wireless Center.

MSU and UAA will close out the two-game series Saturday night with a 7:07 p.m. face-off scheduled at the Verizon Wireless Center.

Minnesota State head coach Mike Hastings commented after the game.