Women's Hockey Misses Opportunity for Home Ice

Mavericks blow three-goal lead for third consecutive weekend, lose pair at Ohio State

by Dan Myers
Issue date: 2/20/07
Section: Womens Sports

Most teams in hockey would tell you they enjoy having a three-goal advantage. But after losing yet another big lead at Ohio State this weekend, the Minnesota State women's hockey team might not be one of them.

The two weeks prior, the Mavericks (16-15-2 overall, 12-14-2 WCHA) had blown three-goal leads to Bemidji State and St. Cloud State, respectively. In those series, the Mavericks tied the Beavers 3-3 and scored a goal in overtime to beat the Huskies 4-3.

This weekend was more critical, however.

A three-point weekend in Columbus would have given the Mavericks a first-round playoff series against the Buckeyes this weekend at All Seasons Arena. Anything less, and MSU was heading back to Ohio.

And after a 3-0 lead 15 minutes into the second period, the Mavericks looked well on their way to accomplishing perhaps their biggest goal of the weekend: winning Friday's game. A win in game one would have put all the pressure on the Buckeyes to win game two, or risk flying back to Minnesota to play a confident Mavs bunch this weekend.

But like BSU and SCSU before them, OSU slowly chipped away at the Mavericks, digging into their advantage before sending the game to overtime.

At this point, even a tie would have been beneficial to the Mavericks. A win in game two Saturday would have still sealed the deal for a home playoff series.

Hayley Klassen's goal, however, 3:03 into overtime cemented the Mavs' fate and gave the Buckeyes a 4-3 win, in thrilling come-from-behind fashion.

"Honestly, I don't know," said Mavericks head coach Jeff Vizenor. "I think its one of those things, that the more we talk about it the worse it is going to get."

Ohio State finished off the sweep Saturday with a meaningless 6-4 win as MSU rested starting goaltender Britni Kehler in preparation for this weekend's more substantial games.

"A couple of things didn't go our way," said junior Jodi Helminen. "Some things you can't control, but I think we did our best."

In fact, the Mavericks were only eight seconds away from winning game one.

Kristina Bunker and Lindsay Macy scored first period goals to give the Mavericks a 2-0 lead after one. Jodi Helminen added a goal at 15:31 of the second, to give MSU a 3-0 lead with just over 24 minutes to play.

But the Buckeyes used almost all of the remaining time to tie the score at three.

Jody Heywood made it 3-1 with just under two minutes to play in the second. Erin Keys netted a power-play marker at 16:50 of the third to make it just a one-goal game. But it was Lisa Chesson's tying goal with just eight seconds to play that broke the Mavericks' back.

"We just can't break this three-goal curse," Helminen said. "I think we will this weekend, though."

Hayley Klassen scored at the 3:03 mark of overtime to assure the No. 10 Buckeyes of the home playoff series.

"I think once we get that third goal, maybe we relax a little bit," Vizenor said. "We feel pretty relaxed and comfortable. We haven't had these leads with only a couple minutes left; there has been half a game left, so you have to give the other team some credit, too, for not giving up."

But if their season is to continue past this weekend in Columbus, MSU must learn to hold the leads it gets. OSU is 4-0 this season against the Mavericks, but Vizenor still isn't worried.

"When we have played these guys, we haven't played a complete game yet," Vizenor said. "We haven't played the way we have played in spurts this season against other teams."

Minnesota State and Ohio State will have a rematch this weekend in a best-of-three series in first round action of the WCHA playoffs. Face-off is scheduled for 6:07 p.m. Friday and 3:07 p.m. Saturday from OSU Ice Arena on the campus of Ohio State University. If a third game is necessary, it will begin on Sunday at 3:07 p.m.

In other action around the conference this weekend, Wisconsin will host North Dakota, St. Cloud State travels to Minnesota-Duluth while Bemidji State plays at Minnesota. The four winners of the playoff series will advance to the WCHA Playoff Championship in two weeks at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis.

Dan Myers is the Reporter Sports Editor