MANKATO, Minn. – Skating to a 2-2 overtime tie and a shootout win against Northern Michigan Friday, Minnesota State men's hockey moved into a three-way tie for second place in the CCHA standings with one game to play Saturday at 6:07 p.m. CT.
 
Augustana (50 pts), leads the standings and is idle this weekend. That leaves St. Thomas, Michigan Tech and Minnesota State all with 48 points and Bowling Green with 47 points. With a regulation win on Saturday, the Mavericks can win at least a share of the MacNaughton Cup. Seeds 1-5 in the conference remain undecided, with the top four seeds earning the right to host games in the Mason Cup quarterfinals.
 
Scoreless after the first period, NMU's Kyle Betten used his speed around the edge to slide a backhand past Alex Tracy at 11:20 of the second period.
 
Campbell Cichosz answered for the Mavericks at 16:44. Ralfs Bergmanis assisted on Cichosz' right point shot that deflected in, tying the score 1-1.
 
Mason LeBel cleaned up a rebound for the Mavericks near the mid-point of the third period, after Oliver Auyeung-Ashton made the initial stop against Bryce Strand. Fin Williams also assisted on LeBel's fifth of the season.
 
With the Wildcat net empty, Caiden Gault tied it 2-2 with 1:36 remaining. Gault wristed a dart from the top of the left circle. Tracy was forced to make a series of saves on his back at the goal line with 14.8 seconds left, sending the game into overtime.
 
Jordan Ronn and Jack Smith scored in the shootout and Tracy stopped Aidyn Hutchinson and Gault on successive shots.
 
Auyeung-Ashton, a freshman, made 42 saves for the Wildcats. Tracy finished with 21 saves for the Mavericks. The Mavericks went 0-2 and NMU 0-3. MSU outshot NMU 16-4 in the third period and 4-1 in overtime.