Mankato, Minn. --- #12 Minnesota State jumped out to a 2-0 first-period lead and never trailed in powering past Michigan Tech 4-1 Friday in Mankato.
The Mavericks, who outshot the visiting Huskies by a 12-3 margin in the opening period, got rolling early when junior winger
Nick Rivera scored from a bad angle at the 59-second mark for his fifth goal of the season. Michigan Tech won a face-off in Minnesota State's offensive end and Rivera gathered a lose puck and took a shot below the left face-off circle beating the Huskies' netminder,
Robbie Beydoun with the puck bouncing in off of the netminder's skate.. At the 18:26 mark, the Mavericks extended their lead when freshman blueliner
Andy Carroll came out of the penalty box, took a pass from junior center
Josh French and beat Beydoun with a shot just under the pipe for his first collegiate goal.
Michigan Tech was able to cut into the Minnesota State 2-0 lead at the 14:33 mark in the second period when freshman forward
Andrew Bellant jumped on a rebound before depositing the puck past
Dryden McKay after the initial save. The Mavericks answered quickly when sophomore winger
Walker Duehr fed sophomore forward
Dallas Gerads along the left boards in the neutral zone and Gerads beat Beydoun stick side for his seventh of the season at the 15:30 mark.
The lone goal scored in the third period was an empty net goal by Duehr for his fifth goal of the season at the 18:52 mark. With his goal and assist in the game, Duehr has extended his point-scoring streak to five games, during which he's racked up three goals and three assists for six points. Junior forward
Marc Michaelis assisted on Duerh's goal in collecting his 100th career point at Minnesota State.
Minnesota State's goaltender
Dryden McKay had 25 saves in the game and improves his record to 8-4-1 on the season.
The Mavericks outshot the Huskies by a 34-25 margin in the game and both teams went zero-for-five on the power play.
The win improves Minnesota State's record to 15-5-1 (10-3-0 WCHA) on the season.
The Mavericks and Huskies will return to action tomorrow night with the puck dropping at 7:07 p.m., at Verizon Center.
Associate head coach
Todd Knott commented following the game.
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