Mavericks 1, Huskies 0

Freddy's three thoughts of the game ...

1. Another night in Houghton: The Mavericks forced a Game 3 in the best-of-three series with a strong defensive performance once night after giving up five goals to the Huskies. Minnesota State came out hard and, as I wrote about in my gamer (link below), survived a disallowed goal, a sometimes-ugly power play (thanks, in part, to Tech's tough PK) and a last-minute penalty that put the home team in a 6-on-4 advantage after pulling the goalie for an extra attacker. "We talked about being even-keel," said goalie Jason Pawloski, who had a 15-save shutout. "There are parts of the game you can't control, and I think we handled those really well tonight."

2. Block party: Minnesota State was credited with 17 blocked shots in the game, two more than shots on goal. Carter Foguth had four blocks. The Mavericks had five in the third period and allowed just three pucks to get to Pawloski. “It was awesome,” Pawloski said. “Those guys did a phenomenal job in front of me tonight. They made it easy. They blocked a lot of pucks, and that’s tough to do because that’s going to hurt. I can’t say enough about what they did.” Said coach Mike Hastings: "I thought the whole team had some conviction." They sure looked like a team that wasn't ready for their season to end.

3. Win and go home: Sunday's winner won't just be moving on to the Broadmoor Trophy championship game. It will be hosting it. Bowling Green defeated Bemidji State 2-1 for the upset sweep of the MacNaughton Cup winner, which means Minnesota State or Michigan Tech will be at home. Talk about even more being on the line."We kept our season alive," said Zeb Knutson, who scored the game's lone goal (and had the disallowed goal). "It was do or die tonight. It will be the same tomorrow."

Read much more in my game story here.