Mavericks 1, Huskies 1 (OT)

Freddy's three thoughts of the game ...

1. Run to the Cup comes up short: The Mavericks needed to win nine games in a row to clinch a conference championship, and instead they went 8-0-1. The anticlimactic ending left the Mavericks without a share of the MacNaughton Cup (Ferris State won it outright), and it also left the Huskies to go on the road for next week's playoffs. With 13.1 seconds left in overtime, the Mavericks called timeout before an offensive-zone faceoff. Coach Mike Hastings put five forwards on the ice but didn't pull goalie Cole Huggins, figuring a loss might hurt the team's Pairwise Ranking and NCAA tournament chances. That might not have made a difference There wasn't much time for number crunching at that point but a loss would have been a big blow. Bryce Gervais scored MSU's lone goal.

2. Tech tightens up (so does MSU): The Huskies blocked 25 shots, the same number goalie Pheonix Copley stopped. Minnesota State had trouble generating goals against a team that had allowed 24 goals in its previous five games before this weekend. Matt Leitner and Jean-Paul LaFontaine lost out on the league's scoring title, as they were held without a point in the game. Meanwhile, MSU allowed just one goal in the series, and Huggins (25 saves) won the goaltending title with a 1.73 goals-against average in league play. That marks the second year in a row that a Maverick goalie won that honor. Stephon Williams won it last year.

3. Penalty problems: The Mavericks did themselves no favors on the penalty front. While they did not allow a power-play goal, they still got themselves in trouble. Dylan Margonari's unnecessary hit late in the first period put his team down a man for five minutes and also got him kicked out of the game. The latter likely hurt more, as he has been one of MSU's better players over the course of the unbeaten streak. At the end of the second, when Tech's Bradley Stebner got a major/game for a hit to Johnny McInnis' head, the first two minutes of that penalty were nullified by Jon Jutzi's retaliatory cross-check to Stebner. Minnesota State ended up scoreless on the power play for the weekend.

Read my game story here.

Around the WCHA: Ferris State 2, Lake Superior State 1 ... Bowling Green 5, Bemidji State 2 ... Northern Michigan 5, Alabama Huntsville 2 ... Alaska Anchorage 3, Alaska 1

First-round playoff matchups: Bemidji State at Ferris State ... Northern Michigan at Minnesota State ... Alaska Anchorage at Alaska ... Michigan Tech at Bowling Green