Mankato, Minn. --- A balanced scoring attack helped lead #1-rated Minnesota State to a 4-2 win over Arizona State in nonconference men's college hockey action in Mankato Friday night.
The Mavericks, who have won four games in a row and have 13 wins in the last 14 games, got goals from four different players in the game.
Minnesota State owned a 9-4 shots on goal advantage in the opening frame and by the end of the period, the score stood 1-1. ASU jumped out to a 1-0 lead when
Matthew Kopperud grabbed the puck after
Jack Jensen put it off the end boards and tallied his 15
th goal of the season at the 1:01 mark. But when senior defenseman
Andy Carroll skated to the top of the slot and took a nice feed from sophomore center
Ondrej Pavel to score his first goal of the season at 8:06, the Mavericks evened things up and that's how the score stood after 20 minutes of action.
Minnesota State scored twice in the second period to take a 3-1 lead. The first goal came at the 1:10 mark on the power play when senior winger
Reggie Lutz, who had missed the seven previous games due to injury, fired a one-timer from the right circle past ASU netminder
Ben Kraws for his ninth goal of the year. Pavel scored for the seventh time this season on a partial breakaway, chipping the puck over Kraws' glovehand on the backhand at 5:37.
The Mavericks continued to build on their lead in the third period. Senior forward
Julian Napravnik made it 4-1 after he found a loose puck to tally his 13
th goal of the season at 3:09. ASU's Kopperud notched his second goal of the game at 14:07 to make it a 4-2 game.
Senior netminder
Dryden McKay, who turned aside 34 shots, stands 24-4-0 on the year with tonight's win. With 99 career victories, McKay stands tied for third all-time in NCAA Division I men's hockey in wins.
Marty Turco (Michigan 1995-98, 127 wins) ranks first,
Steve Shields (Michigan, 1991-94, 111 wins) is second and McKay is tied with
Scott Clemmensen (Boston College, 1998-01, 99 wins).
The Mavericks (24-5-0) and the Sun Devils (15-13-0) close out the two-game series Saturday with a 6:07 p.m. face-off scheduled for Mayo Clinic Health System Event Center.
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