Men's Hockey Earns Split at Wisconsin
Mavericks win Friday, lose Saturday; keep pace in WCHA home-ice race
by Dan Myers
Issue date: 1/30/07 Section: Mens Sports
The standard goal among many coaches in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association is to sweep your series at home and split on the road.
Minnesota State faced that challenge in Madison, Wis. this past weekend against a surging Wisconsin team looking to continue their rise up the WCHA standings.
Considered by many pundits as a must-sweep series for the Badgers in the race for home-ice advantage in the first round of the WCHA playoffs, the Mavericks (9-15-4 overall, 6-11-3 WCHA) used a solid performance in net from Mike Zacharias and some timely scoring to win game one 3-1 Friday at the Kohl Center, and end any hopes UW had of earning four points on the weekend.
Wisconsin turned the tables Saturday as Madison-native Jack Skille buried three goals en route to a 4-1 Badger victory.
MSU's victory Friday put them in a 24-hour tie for sixth place in the WCHA standings, their highest rise this season. Geoff Irwin and Jon Kalinski scored second period goals to pace the Mavs offensively.
"Anytime you can go into the building of the national champions and get two points, it is a good weekend," Zacharias said.
"We really limited them offensively," said Mavericks head coach Troy Jutting. "We came out there in the second and got a couple of key goals. It was a great job defensively, though."
"If you can get a lead and quiet the crowd in that building, it gives me and the team a lot of confidence," Zacharias said. "It allows us to go out there and play our game."
Leading 2-0 early in the third period, Kael Mouillierat scored perhaps the biggest goal of his young Maverick career - ripping a slap shot past UW goalie Brian Elliott at 1:54 to give MSU a key three-goal cushion.
"It was a huge goal for us," Jutting said. "A three-goal cushion in the third is big. Two goals can sometimes be tricky. But a three-goal lead is tough to come back from."
But the news wasn't all good for the Mavericks.
Kalinski was injured during the third period of Friday's game and was unable to play Saturday - a big loss for the offensively starved Mavericks.
MSU also missed leading scorer Travis Morin for a large chunk of Saturday's game, as well as Mick Berge. The absences were critical for the Mavs, who unlike the night before, fell behind UW 2-0.
Jack Skille was the star for Wisconsin, scoring his first career hat trick, including the weekend's most talked about play.
Leading 1-0 near the end of the second period, Mavericks defenseman Chad Brownlee took a shot from the blue line that was blocked and deflected down the ice. Skille and Brownlee took off in a foot race to gain control of the puck. Brownlee won the race and as he turned to go back up the ice, appeared to be tripped by Skille. Referee Marco Hunt did not see the infraction, and Skille scooped up the puck, slipping a back hand shot over Zacharias' shoulder and into the net at 18:21 of the second.
Joel Hanson made the game 2-1 shortly into the third period, but Skille put the nail in the coffin just 15 seconds later to give the Badgers a two-goal lead once again.
"We played well defensively all night, except for that third goal," Jutting said.
MSU did not allow a power-play goal all weekend, extending their successful penalty kill streak to 27 chances.
"Our special teams played well," Jutting said. "We were able to get a goal each night and kept them off the board."
The loss dropped MSU back into a tie for eighth place in the WCHA with Alaska-Anchorage. It trails Wisconsin and Michigan Tech - which comes to Mankato this weekend for a two-game set - by two points for sixth place, and North Dakota by five points for the final home ice slot.
The Huskies and Mavericks get underway from Midwest Wireless Civic Center Friday at 7:37 p.m. and Saturday at 7:07 p.m.
Dan Myers is the Reporter Sports Editor