For the third time in four years, the Minnesota State men's hockey team's season ended in overtime of the WCHA playoffs. Denver freshman Jason Zucker sent the Mavericks home just 1:29 into OT with a blast from the high slot during a rush. The puck hit goalie Austin Lee in the shoulder but bounced straight into the air before landing in the net behind him.
"In terms of how hard we played, I'm really proud of the kids," coach Troy Jutting said. "They battled the whole game, start to finish."
Indeed, it did not look like a matchup between the WCHA's 11th-place team and the second-place team.
Shots were even 34-34 for the game, and the Mavericks got goals from Ben Youds (5x3) and J.P. Burkemper for leads of 1-0 and 2-1. MSU led 1-0 after two periods, marking the fourth game in a row against Denver in which they've had a third-period lead. However, the Mavs did not win any of those games.
The problem continued to be goal scoring, and they were unable to cash in on some top-notch scoring opportunities, as they played solid defense.
"For some reason, it wasn't meant to be," Jutting said. "The guys worked their tails off."
Two Denver defensemen, Matt Donovan (4x3) and David Makowski tied the game with power-play goals. Makowski's goal made it 2-2 with 6:15 remaining in the third period.
The Mavericks' season ends with a 14-18-6 record. See Saturday's box score here.
15 comments:
Same old story. This team can't and could not finish. Now we lose those three seniors on defense and mark my words we are going to miss them next year.
We shall see Nation...
25 + 2 make a TEAM, not 3 Sr D. Make my words...
BIGhkyfan nothing in the world would make me happier than for you to be right. Hopefully 21 year old Mat Knoll comes in and can be consistent right away (or one of the other freshmen for that matter). He is Canadian so he has that going for him.
P.S. not sad to see Davis go. He can take his ego that will not fit in the locker room and position it over another team.
Shane, thanks for the coverage during the year. Please let us know the players leaving right after the season on all the teams. It is always interesting. Your thoughts on which seniors leave right away if any on our team ? When do we name captains for next yr?
Year after year of the same mediocre blah hockey. Jutting will hang his hat on the goofer sweep earlier in the season and something like that is usually enough for him to keep his job each year. Hey, if Lucia gets canned, would the geniuses consider firing Jutts and go after Lucia? At least he's had success.
While there are always players that are frustrating, the problem is clearly the coaching. Same crappy results, year after year with different kids. MSU needs to get a clue and fire Jutting already.
Why would any kid want to come to MSU, other than to play in the WCHA? Right now the only school we can recruit better than is MTU...and that's becasue of the GPA needed! At least MTU has an excuse for being bad. I used to think we could get recruits away from UAA but I'm starting to wonder with that now too.
FIRE JUTTING!! No more lame excuses, blaming players or bad luck. Look at the hard numbers...wins and losses and lack of attendance...and on attendance, no blaming the economy. I know a lot of people that quit getting tickets due to the coaching and not the money!
I agree, partially, with Nation. The senior D are going to be missed. More specifically, Ben Youds and Kurt Davis are going to be missed. It's obvious that those two were the best players on the ice, night after night. Heck, Davis and Youds might have been the two best forwards on the ice, given the opportunity. I'm pretty sure they were the only two Mavericks who knew how to make a move to elude a defender, and still manage to hang onto the puck.
I love Michael Dorr and Chase Grant, but outside of those two this team is sorely lacking talent.
Hopefully J.P LaFontaine can come in next year and add a touch of his playmaking ability. We all know the Mavericks have none of that. Add in Matt Leitner and maybe they'll be able to muster up a goal or two from game to game. Wouldn't that be nice.
Just to reiterate the fans' stance on the state of the Mavericks and our unwillingness to settle for mediocrity (at best), FIRE TROY JUTTING!
Don't kid yourself...the Mavs are going to miss Boe a lot next year. He's a true defensive defenseman...and those players often get overlooked. I'm guessing next season it'll be like "what the heck is wrong here?" Oh yeah...Boe is gone. Just like when RJ Linder left. Gotta have a D man dedicated to just D and not the points and recognition.
I too am not sure who to be excited about other than Dorr and Grant. In fact, I posed that question to an alum last weekend for some insite of "who to be excited about".
Oh I'm a fan of Boe, but he's no Davis or Youds. Tyler Elbrecht is turning into one heck of a defensive defenseman.
The thing this team clearly lacks is skill, playmaking, the ability to finish, and coaching. When Youds and Davis are taken out of the equation, what do the Mavs have left? Pretty much just Dorr and Grant. Davis and Youds could skate, stick handle, and make plays. And that comes in handy in both the offensive and defensive zones. That will be missed more than anything, if you ask me.
Outside of Grant and Dorr, I'd say the only players Mavericks fans should get a little excited about are Leitner, LaFontaine, and maybe Max Gaede. He started off hot in the USHL this year, but has fallen off since. Still, he's a big kid with a lot of potential.
Nothing to get excited about? Are you guys kidding me?
- Not excited to watch a couple guys like Lehrke and Leivermann grow into scorers? These guys have scored their entire lives. They'll grow into it, if you give them time.
- Not excited to see the continued development of a guy like Cameron Cooper continue his development? If he makes as many strides next year as his this past year, he's gonna be pretty damn good.
- Not excited to see guys like Eriah Hayes and Eli Zuck continue to grow and get better? Those guys are gonna be pretty good next year.
- It'll be fun to see someone like Justin Jokinen, especially if he can put together a second good offseason in in the weight room and step his game up another notch.
- It'll be fun to watch a guy like Joe Schiller continue to develop as a true shutdown defensive forward and special teams ace.
- It'll be fun to see a pair of returning, experienced goaltenders battle night in and night out for playing time. Hopefully these guys really push each other next year.
There's plenty to be excited about if you're a Maverick fan. Like Jutting or not, this team is never going to out-recruit Minnesota or Wisconsin for talent. With how things are turning out in the facilities race, it's gonna be tough to out-recruit Minnesota Duluth and St. Cloud State. Nevermind the fact those teams have decades worth of tradition and a proven track record of developing NHLers. The Mavericks have done a lot in their first 10 years or so to put themselves in position. In 25 years, people that are my age are going top be truly proud of this program because you were around to see it develop, step-by-step, from its infancy. Have the Mavericks gone to as many Final Fives or NCAA Tournaments as we all would like? Heck no. But those will come.
In the mean time, enjoy watching this program get built. Because unlike the NFL or the NHL, nobody is gonna take this thing away. Nobody is gonna move the team. Enjoy the little things and watching this team year-by-year.
VOR has some good points. I don't know if scoring at a lower level always translates to the WHCA but I hope it does with these kids. I hope Lee gets more time. I think Cook is good but needs to know that if he's not stellar he'll be watching Saturday's game. I get excited every year to watch the upper classmen mature and see the freshman come in. I hope Leitner and Grant can click and Dorr steps up. I like the Mueller-Shiller grinder line and hope they continue to get minutes. I hope the D-corp comes together quickly or I think the start of next year might be rough. Nelson has to get better, Heath only played 3 games and we are going to have to play Freshman D that are unproven.
What is LGM's real problem with Davis and Youds? It must be something personal because they had pretty good careers playing on teams that could never put the puck in the net. Yes, they may have missed a play every now and then, but ALL defensive players do (including Boe LGM). Boe, yea, he's a fine player, but he wasn't in the same class as Youds & Davis. I'm worried that next year we'll have a much harder time getting the puck out of our zone. Youds and Davis made that look so easy the last few years and many people took that for granted. We will need to get some big time scoring next year for us to have any chance. Hopefully someone will step up.
Did I say I have an issue? Well, technically I do with Davis but I won't open that can of worms.
I was just pointing out that while everyone thinks we'll always miss the offensive defensemen the most, it's often times the defensive D that we do miss and that get over looked (Fransen, Brownlee, Linder, etc.). Just pointing that out. Jutting likes to focus on offensive defensemen, a bit too much in my opinion. He seems to think it's normal for your top scorer to be a D guy and let's face it...it's not.
Just trying to point out that the Mavs need a good D guy that's committed to playing D and not concerned with stats of goals and assists.
I don't believe we're saying we don't have talent out there, we have proved that in the first two periods all year. Crossjcek and VOR have valid points about the talent we have now and the players that are going to surprise us in a couple of years(maybe next).
Adam Mueller is the spark that we need(reminds me of Jared Stewart). I hope the D doesn't go back to the days of Peto, I think we finally realized that, when Wagner unleashed his rocket of a slapshot for the first time. A good offensive D-man is almost a must on a power-play like ours(Chris Pronger?). Crossjcek's concern over our D next year is well received, but when the Linder era left we got pretty lucky with our freshman, let's cross our fingers.
Our goalies are great, Cook is awesome but we can't wear this guy down. Our third stringer has yet to show what he's got, I think he'll be able to step up if needed.
We need leadership on the ice and bench though. Galliardi is a great player but I think he was under a lot of pressure(TJ on the Avs, senior year). We have a senior forward goal scoring curse(Morin, Berge, Irwin and Sackrison). For that matter, you could include Backes on that list. However, we always seem to have a junior ready to step up.
I think next year will surprise us, there hasn't been a year when the Mavs have ever lacked in intensity.
Wyatt, I don't think this team has any sort of senior goal scoring curse. Travis Morin scored 17 goals as a senior. Sackrison had 5 this year, which was two more than he had each of the past two seasons. Irwin had 8, but that was only 4 off his junior total. Mick Berge finished with 7 goals, which was definitely down from his 20 as a junior. Still, he added 24 assists to finish with his highest point total (31) as a Maverick. And David Backes? He left the team after his junior season.
As for the goaltender situation, I think Cook and Lee have had stretches of solid play, but neither one has proven they should be starting over the other. What I'm really looking forward to is 2012 when Stephon Williams comes to town. That kid can flat out play and he's still very young. I think he could be special for our Mavericks.
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