MANKATO — In the end 60 minutes wasn’t enough, and apparently home-ice advantage meant nothing this weekend.
No. 18 Minnesota State dropped Saturday’s series finale 4-3 in overtime to St. Thomas at the Mayo Clinic Health Systems Event Center. The Mavericks claim three of four points in the series after taking a 3-1 road win over the Tommies Friday in the series opener.
“The points in November will have the same meaning as they will in February,” MSU head coach Luke Strand said. “We have to keep grinding.”
The Tommies were picked as the preseason CCHA favorite by coaches. The Mavericks were picked as the preseason CCHA favorite by the media.
Overtime on Saturday, in reality, didn’t come as a surprise. But the end result did leave the MSU faithful surprised.
A turnover in the MSU end set up a 2-on-1 chance for the Tommies. Vegas Golden Knights prospect Lucas Van Vliet connected on a pass with Nathan Pilling. MSU goalkeeper slid to his right in hopes of denying the Tommies scoring chance.
But Pilling buried a top shelf shot over Tracy’s right shoulder 2:06 into overtime to seal the win.
“Our game management got a little bit away from us, ” said sophomore Liam Watkings, who tallied two assists. “(We had) some poor turnovers, me included. But I think moving forward, if we can be better at managing our pucks and what’s going on during the game I think we’ll be in a great spot.”
But getting to overtime in the first place brought its own fair share of dramatics.
With under 90 seconds remaining while staring down a 3-2 deficit the Mavericks pulled Tracy for an extra attacker. Second later senior Tristan Lemyre fed senior Jack Smith, who fired a laser of a shot from the slot to beat Will Ingeman top shelf blocker side to tie the game with 1:13 to go.
“Big-time players make big-time plays,” Watkins said. “He stepped up in that moment. That’s a big goal for us.”
The game-tying goal came as a massive sigh of relief. The Mavericks saw their 2-1 third period lead turn into a one-goal deficit.
It also didn’t help that the Mavericks committed four minor penalties in the third period. Reid Morich went to the box for charging, Jack Smith served two minutes for hooking, Felikss Gavars served two minutes for slashing.
Lemyre went to the box for holding after having a Tommies player in a headlock and slamming him to the ground. In wrestling it was worth two points, but on the ice it was worth two minutes in the penalty box.
But MSU was up for the challenge. The penalty kill went a perfect 6 for 6 on the night.
Strand said he can live with boarding and charging penalties, but hooking and slashing penalties can not happen for the Mavericks. On the flip side, he was happy to see MSU successfully get 200-foot clearings on power plays.
“We were able to get a lot of fresh bodies over the boards because we got our clears,” Strand said. “There’s a lot of sacrifice out there. You watch (Campbell) Cichosz eat flank pucks, (Mason Wheeler) eating flank pucks… that’s the commitment there. The warrior mentality you need on the kill.”
Late in the second period the Mavericks faced a 1-0 deficit and appeared unable to get anything going. Pucks were rolling off sticks. Players were becoming frustrated. Fans were restless.
But once the Mavericks got off the penalty kills Lemyre found himself in the right place at the right time, deflecting a shot to tie the game 1-1 with 52 seconds remaining in the period. It was the spark MSU needed entering the locker room at intermission.
“We were kind of struggling to put one in the back (of the net),” Watksin said. “I don’t think we got as many bounces as we’d like to, but we stuck with it.”
The momentum carried over. Watkins won a face-off in the Tommies zone. Junior Luigi Benincasa stepped up and fired a shot which bounced off a St. Thomas defender and found the back of the net for a 2-1 lead 31 seconds into the third period.
Senior Ralfs Bergmanis added an assist. Tracy turned away 24 of 28 shots.
The Mavericks stay home next weekend to entertain Bowling Green. The series starts at 7:07 p.m. Friday.