Box Score
Eighth -rated Minnesota State entered the 2013 Red Baron WCHA Final Five coming off of a home 2-1 play-off series win over Nebraska Omaha and was optimistic that it could continue the success that saw the Mavericks win eight of its last 11 games.

But Wisconsin jumped out to a 3-0 first-period lead and MSU was not able to recover as the 14th-rated Badgers cruised to a 7-2 victory over the Mavericks in the opening game of this year's Final Fiver tournament in St. Paul.

Uncharacteristically, the Mavericks gave up more than five goals in a game for the first time this year.  The Mavericks have been used to winning the special teams battle and did score a couple of power play markers.  But they also gave up two shorthanded goals in a game for the first time in 2012-13.

Wisconsin opened the scoring when junior forward Tyler Barnes skated into the offensive zone and fired a shot past MSU freshman goaltender Stephon Williams on the shortside at 1:03. It became a 2-0 Badger lead on a shorthanded goal from Jefferson Dahl that came from the wing and beat Williams on the stickside at 6:11. Freshman forward Nic Kerdiles then scuck one through Williams pads at 8:11.

Dahl's second shorty at 8:50 of the second made it a 4-0 lead before MSU connected on the powerplay on as sophomore defenseman Zach Palmquist  took a pass from sophomore forward Jean-Paul Lafontaine and wristed a shot past sophomore Wisconsin goaltender Joel Rumpel at 10:53. Wisconsin came right back to make it a 5-1 game on a goal from Barnes at 12:24. MSU got its second power play goal of the game when senior forward Eriah Hayes, off a feed from Lafontaine at 13:51, got his 20th goal of the on the year with a shot that beat Joel Rumpel high on the glove side.

Goals from  junior defenseman Frankie Simonelli and sophomore forward Joseph Labate in the third period closed out the scoring.

Minnesota State, now 24-13-2 overall out shot Wisconsin 40-27 on the night. The Mavericks were two-for-nine on the power play, while Wisconsin was zero-for-two in power play chances. The game was played in front of 15,971 fans at  Xcel Energy Center.

The Mavericks will await their NCAA postseason fate with the NCAA announcing the 16-team NCAA Division men's hockey tournament field Sunday at 8:00 p.m.

Postgame press conference comments from Mike Hastings, Matt Leitner and Eriah Hayes.