The right mix

Minnesota State coach Troy Jutting has mixed and matched his forward lines all season, experimenting with matchups and looking for the right chemistry.

A week ago, he put freshman center Andrew Sackrison between sophomore wings Geoff Irwin and Jason Wiley.

It's been a combustible combination.

The trio was responsible for the Mavericks' first four goals in a 5-1 Western Collegiate Hockey Association victory over No. 4 Denver Friday at the Alltel Center.

"It's a good combo," said Wiley, who scored his first collegiate game-winning goal. "When it's working it's working."

Before a crowd of 4,102, Wiley had one goal, Irwin had a goal and an assist and Sackrison had a goal and two assists.

Over Minnesota State's last three games -- all wins -- the three forwards have combined for seven goals and 14 points.

"They've got confidence," Jutting said, "and when the puck starts going in the net it's good for everybody."

The win moved the Mavericks up to a tie for 16th in the all-important Pairwise rankings and into sixth place in the WCHA standings.

Irwin gave the Mavericks a 1-0 lead in the first period, and Wiley broke a 1-1 tie at 9:21 of the second. Less than four minutes later, Sackrison scored. Both goals came off R.J. Linder assists.

 "It just seems like the whole team's pretty confident," said Sackrison, who leads all MSU rookies with 14 points. "It started when we came back last week. We're feeding off last week. If something doesn't go your way, just keep your head up and keep going."

In the third period, freshman defenseman Ben Youds scored his first career goal on assists from Irwin and Sackirson at 7:14. Joel Hanson scored the Mavericks' final goal for their third five-goal game in a row.

Mavs goalie Mike Zacharias finished with 22 saves for his 11th win. Denver's Peter Mannino stopped 24 of 29 shots.