Men’s Hockey Works Overtime In Sweep
Seniors Rankin and Becker lead Mavericks to four-point weekend vs. St. Cloud State.
by Joey Burns
February 21, 2006
If a hockey team could be arrested and booked, the Minnesota State men’s hockey team would be behind bars on charges of theft, entrapment and murder.
The Mavericks stole a pair of games over No. 14 St. Cloud State last weekend. Outshot, MSU also committed more penalties, but still upset the Huskies in overtime in both games at the Midwest Wireless Civic Center.
What haunted the Huskies was the Mavericks dominance of special teams play, especially MSU’s penalty kill. SCSU was held scoreless on 15 power play chances for the weekend, a welcome sight for the Mavs, who were outplayed in the same situation last week at Denver.
With 3:55 remaining in the final period Saturday, the Mavericks began a key kill in a tie game. The swarming short-handed crew stymied the Husky rush, giving up few shots, controlling play and sending the game into overtime.
“That was a big one,” said Maverick head coach Troy Jutting. “We got a power play late [Friday] and took advantage of it to win the game. To kill it off late in the game was obviously huge for us.”
Conversely, the Mavericks’ power-play capitalized on special teams once in both games. Friday night, it came in overtime as senior Rob Rankin knocked the puck past Bobby Goepfert for the game-winning goal.
The power-play goal on Saturday also changed the face of the game. With time running out in the second period, MSU was threatening in the Huskies’ zone after a penalty on Grant Clafton for tripping. With under 10 seconds remaining, the Mavericks’ Brent Cummings found Steve Wagner at the top of the zone. Wagner rocketed the puck past Goepfert at 19:56 to tie the game.
On Saturday, it was another senior — Brock Becker— who scored the game-winning goal. After an initial shot by junior David Backes was deflected, Goepfert drifted out of position.
“Travis Morin did his job. He went through the middle and took two guys with him,” said Becker, who had to sit out Friday’s game due to a disqualification in their last game at Denver. “The puck took a funny hop right onto my tape. [Goepfert] had already committed to the first shot, so I couldn’t ask for anything easier.”
“This time of the year, you need your seniors to play well,” Jutting added. “With Robbie [Friday] and Becker [Saturday]…and Christian Toll for not having played for two or three weeks to play the way he did. The seniors really came to the table.”
Maverick goaltenders, which have given up 15 goals in their previous three losses, were also vital contributors. Freshmen Mike Zacharias and Dan Tormey combined for a pair of wins, giving up three goals between them. Tormey was back in top form, stopping 46 shots on Saturday.
“I really came out and felt sharp,” Tormey said. “It just goes back to coming out and being confident with my angles. Every time they came on a rush I wanted that puck—I wanted them to shoot it and I wanted to save it.”
On Friday, Zacharias started his first game since December and stopped 33 shots en route to his first WCHA Rookie of the Week honor.