Mavericks lose, tie in desert

Freddy's three thoughts (from afar) ...

1. Slump continues: Associate head coach Todd Knott was happy to be talking about a tie instead of a loss on Saturday, but the Mavericks have now gone four straight games without a win after losing to Minnesota Duluth in overtime on Friday and tying Arizona State on Saturday at the Desert Hockey Classic. In both games, MSU had a third-period lead but was unable to extend it and then allowed the game-tying goal.

2. Power outage: The Mavericks were 0 for 6 on the power play in the tournament. Certainly not having Parker Tuomie (lower-body injury), one of their better PP players, in the lineup hurt, but they needed to find a way to score on a 5-minute major power play in the third period on Friday. They were 0 for 3 on Saturday but didn't get any power-play time in the third period. They did kill off two periods in the third, something they were unable to do Friday.

3. Rankings slide: Minnesota State was ranked third in the last U.S. College Hockey Online poll and will undoubtedly slip well below that mark this week. Already, though, the Mavericks have fallen to No. 13 in the Pairwise Rankings, right at the time when it's OK to start looking at them and talking about them. They teams they've played in this slump are fifth (UMD), eighth (Bowling Green) and ninth (ASU). The nonconference teams they beat early? 38th (Boston U), 25th (Minnesota) and 17th (North Dakota).

Read my game story here.