MANKATO, Minn. – Boasting the second-best power play in the nation, Minnesota State went 3-for-4 with the extra man and scored three unanswered goals in the third period to earn a 7-2 win in a Central Collegiate Hockey Association semifinal game at the Mayo Clinic Health Systems Event Center and advance to defend the Mason Cup trophy.
 
It was the Bulldogs, however who struck first when Bradley Marek passed the puck out of the right corner to Connor McGrath, who snuck in behind the Maverick defense and buried the pass from just outside the crease to give Ferris State a 1-0 lead 15:32 into the first.
 
With 1:28 to play in the opening frame, Christian Fitzgerald broke into the Ferris State zone on the right side but his initial shot was stopped by Bulldog netminder Noah Giesbrecht. David Silye fought off a backcheck in the slot to collect the rebound but Giesbrecht stopped the second shot as well.
 
However, the puck slid underneath the goaltender and Fitzgerald, who had moved over to the left side, came sliding in and swept home the puck to tie the score.
 
Just 17 seconds after tying the scoring, the vaunted Maverick power play unit got a chance to go to work and they needed just 11 seconds for Silye, in the left circle, to take a pass out of the left corner from Jake Livingstone to grab a share of the national lead with his 12^th power-play goal of the season.
 
Less than two minutes into the middle stanza, the Maverick power play was back on the ice and it took just 39 seconds for the hosts to extend the lead to 3-1.
 
Andy Carroll held the puck at the blue line and moved to the middle of the ice, getting the Bulldog defense to move with him. He passed the puck back to the right side and Lucas Sowder, who quickly moved the puck to Brendan Furry and he became the 11^th Maverick to record a power-play goal this season, notching his ninth tally of the season.
 
Cade Borchardt got into the scoring parade at the 9:07 mark of the period when he took a pass across the slot from Sowder and blasted a one-time into the back of the Ferris State net.
 
The Bulldogs took advantage of their first power-play chance of the game when Stepan Pokorny's shot from the far side of the right circle was deflected by Marek and into the back of the MSU net to send the teams into the final period with the McNaughton Cup champions holding a 4-2 lead.
 
The score would hold for more than 20 minutes before Livingstone picked up the puck behind his own net and delivered a long lead pass to Ondrej Pavel at the far blue line. Pavel broke in on goal all alone and deposited his fifth goal of the season.
 
With 4:54 to play and trailing by three goals with an offensive zone faceoff, Ferris State pulled its goalie for an extra attacker but Furry won the faceoff and Livingstone tapped the puck to Sowder, who turned and fired the length of the ice into an empty net.
 
MSU would then add a seventh and final goal, once again on the power play, with 3:18 to play as Fitzgerald took the puck at the right point, moved it to Ryan Sandelin to the right of the Bulldog goal, and his pass went through the top of the crease to Livingstone for a backdoor tap in.
 
The hosts dominated in shots on goal with a 39-21 advantage as Keenan Rancier, who ranks second nationally in goals against average, stopped 19 of the 21 shots he faced for his 17^th victory of the season.
 
The Mavericks (24-12-1) will host next week's CCHA championship game, taking on Northern Michigan (21-16-0), a 4-1 winner at Michigan Tech, in a 6:07 p.m. affair at the MCHSEC.