Mavericks 7, Seawolves 3

Freddy's three thoughts of the game ...

1. Power surge: The Mavericks' power play has shown a little more -- and some much-needed -- life over the last three games, but it exploded on Saturday. MSU was 5 for 6 with the man advantage, getting two power-play goals apiece from Jean-Paul LaFontaine and Johnny McInnis and three assists from Matt Leitner. LaFontaine and Palmquist each had three-point nights (Palmquist had an even-strength goal, along with two power-play assists). Zach Stepan had the other power-play goal. The Mavericks improved their power-play success rate by more than 6 percent (13.1 to 19.4).

2. Williams gets the win: Stephon Williams got the start in goal, a somewhat surprising move considering how well Cole Huggins had been playing. Williams, who stopped 23 of 26 shots, got an important confidence boost, winning for the first time since Oct. 19 against UConn. He's now 3-4-0 this season. "Obviously, I was always ready to get  in there," he said. "(Huggins) has played really well. Every day, I go back to work, get after it and hope I can take advantage of my opportunities." Coach Mike Hastings said Williams had a good week of practice. "You gotta go with history," he said. "The kid's won an awful lot of games in a short career, a lot of important games. And tonight was really important for us. He should take confidence out of tonight's game."

3. Starting to roll? The wins over Anchorage gave MSU its first WCHA sweep of the season. The Mavericks have won three games in a row and moved into a tie for third place in the conference standings. Is this team starting to look more like the one folks were expecting to see in the early going? With Zach Lehrke back on the ice and healthy freshmen Zach Stepan and Carter Foguth, they seem to be closer to that. "It came together tonight for sure," McInnis said. "There are some thing we have to continue to work on, but it's nice to have success during the process." Northern Michigan comes to town next.

Read my game story here. Not sure if the box score is going to get into the print edition due to a snafu. See that here.

Around the WCHA: Lake Superior 4, Bowling Green 3 ... Ferris State 1, Northern Michigan 1 (OT) ... Miami 6, Bemidji State 3 ... Western Michigan 1, Alabama Huntsville 0 ... Michigan Tech at Alaska (late)