Mankato, Minn. --- Seventh-rated Minnesota State scored the first three goals of the game and never trailed in skating past Alabama Huntsville, 5-1, Friday in Mankato, Minn.

After a scoreless first period in which the Mavericks outshot the Chargers by a 14-7 margin, sophomore defenseman Ian Scheid set up sophomore center Josh French after making a nice move to get past a UAH defenseman and French made no mistake on tallying his first career goal five minutes into the second period.  Senior captain C.J. Suess took advantage of a juicy rebound when he put one past Jordan Uhelski at 12:43 for his fifth goal of the year when Suess did it again when he finished off a tic-tac-toe passing play from Jake Jaremko and Scheid for a power play marker at 17:24 for his second goal of the game, the Mavericks held a 2-0 lead after two periods of play.

Tyler Poulsen broke up Jason Pawloski's shutout bid at 5:00 of the final period when he deflected a shot from Brandon Parker through Pawloski's pads.  Goals by Nick Rivera and Walker Duehr a minute a part (5:50 and 6:50) upped the Maverick lead to 5-1 and that's how the game ended.

Junior netminder Jason Pawloski stopped 14 shots for the Mavericks and now stands 4-3-0 for the year.  Ian Scheid and freshman center Jared Spooner both had two assists and Suess was credited with the game-winner, the ninth of his four-year collegiate career.
 
The Mavericks, who are 12-5-0 overall and 10-3-0 WCHA and have won their last three games by a combined score of 17-2, outshot the Chargers by a 41-15 margin in the contest. Minnesota State was one-of-six in power play chances in the contest, while UAH checked with a zero-of-five performance in opportunities with the man advantage.
 
The two teams close out the two-game league series Saturday night with a 7:07 p.m. face-off scheduled for Verizon Center in downtown Mankato.

Head coach Mike Hastings commented following the game.



 
-        30    -