Tigers 5, Mavericks 2 - postmortem

Here is Friday's game story for The Free Press, with some additional reaction that was not able to make it into Saturday morning's paper:

By Shane Frederick
Free Press Staff Writer

COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- Frustration is beginning to set in for the Minnesota State men’s hockey team.

“More than ever,” senior defenseman Blake Friesen said after Friday’s 5-2 loss to No. 10 Colorado College at the World Arena. “For a team with this much potential, it makes no sense for us to lose seven out of eight games. ...

"We have to figure it out soon, very soon."

The Mavericks (9-10-3, 5-8-2 in WCHA) have lost five consecutive conference games in that stretch.

“We’re not playing as hard as we can,” said Friesen, a defenseman, who scored the Mavericks’ second goal. “We’re not playing the Maverick style that we’ve played in the past that’s wore down teams.”

Instead, it was Colorado College that wore down the Mavericks, thanks to three power-play goals. The Tigers have scored eight power-play goals in three games against MSU this season. But they finally scored an even-strength goal Friday, getting two from junior forward Brian McMillin.

McMillin’s first goal, at 12:32 of the second period, stood as the game-winner, and it was a killer.

With the game tied 2-2 after Friesen first goal of the season at 5:10 of the second period, McMillin finished off a play that started after the Mavericks’ Andy Sackrison partially fanned on an open shot at the other end of the rink. McMillin scored his other goal in the third period.

“We miss a wide-open shot in the middle of the zone, and they end up with a 3-on-1 on it,” Mavericks coach Troy Jutting said.

Five minutes after that goal, Tigers winger Stephen Schultz blew a power-play shot by goalie Mike Zacharias from the hash marks for a 4-2 lead.

Zacharias stopped 24 of 29 shots. At the beginning of the game, he looked like he had returned to the form that helped the Mavericks beat the Tigers 2-1 back on Oct. 14. He kept the Mavericks in the game early with a trio of amazing saves, including two on Eric Walsky and one on Mike Testwuide who was trying to finish off a short-handed 2-on-1 rush with Chad Rau midway through the period.

That led to a Kael Mouillierat power-play goal at 11:59 that put the Mavericks up 1-0.

But a pair of back-to-back hooking penalties by Mouillierat and Mike Louwerse led gave Colorado College life, and it scored on both power plays, first by Andreas Vlassopoulos at 15:25 and then by Tyler Johnson exactly one minute later to take a 2-1 lead into the first intermission.

Zacharias appeared to get a piece of both shots, but the pucks trickled in over the goal line behind him.

"Mike's better than that," Jutting said. "He's played better than that."

But Jutting wasn't happy with the entire penalty-killing unit.

"On two of their power-play goals, we cheated and they caught us on it," he said. "You gotta stay sound, and we cheated."

Meanwhile, Tigers goalie Richard Bachman was solid, as usual, making 31 saves, including a top-notch save on Rylan Galiardi in the first period after Galiardi coaxed him about 10 feet out of his crease. Geoff Irwin also put a breakaway shot "right in his breadbasket."

"You gotta out-wit him on your shot," Irwin said.

The Mavericks penalty problems didn't just result in power-play goals. A Zach Harrison interference penalty behind the net midway through the second period was called just as James Gaulrapp shot in a puck that would have put MSU up 3-2.

Notes: Minnesota State athletic director Kevin Busiman is on the trip. He said he did some skiing on Wedneday and Thursday and will be at an MSU alumni event during today’s game. … Mavericks defenseman Ben Youds (knee) left the game early in the second period with an injury. Jutting said he wasn't sure the extent of the injury. "It hurt losing Ben Youds early in the game," Jutting said. "It's hard with five defensemen, especially with the speed (the Tigers) have got." … The Tigers (12-6-5, 8-5-2) snapped a stretch of Friday-night futility with the win; they had not won a series opener since Oct. 17, a stretch of nine games (0-5-4). At the end of the game, the arena's PA announcer annouced that the jinx was over.

It's been a long day folks. I left Mankato around 8 a.m., checked into the hotel around 5 p.m. local time and now it's nearly midnight in Minnesota. Time for a Fat Tire and a good night's sleep.