MANKATO — Coming out of the holiday break, Minnesota State men’s hockey coach Luke Strand felt he had a good handle on who was best suited to play on the special teams units.
It takes awhile to learn all the strengths of a new group of players, which Strand spent much of the first half doing. There was plenty of experimentation, and players had to learn Strand’s systems.
“Just getting guys in the right spots. Then you’ve got to make them happy in that spot,” Strand said with a smile. “It’s not maybe the spot they were happiest in at another time in their life.”
MSU scored two shorthanded goals in a game for the first time since 2016 in a 4-2 CCHA victory over Ferris State in front of 4,244 fans at the Mayo Clinic Health System Event Center Friday.
The MSU penalty kill went 4 for 4 in the victory.
“Our penalty kill isn’t where we want it to be recently,” MSU forward Jordan Steinmetz said. “Tonight it came up big.”
The Bulldogs took a penalty at 3:55 of the first period and the Mavericks capitalized at 5:20. Josh Groll fired home Kaden Bohlsen’s rebound after a lot of possession and some nice puck movement from Luc Wilson, who also got an assist on the goal.
MSU had several other nice scoring chances and a 16-4 shots advantage in the opening frame, but only took a 1-0 lead into the intermission.
The Mavericks went 1 for 4 with the man-advantage, and have now scored a power-play goal in all three games since returning from the holiday break. Strand was happy with the team’s smooth zone entries.
“You’ve got to get to possession and then you’ve got to get to position,” Strand said of the power play. “When you get in clean, you’re adding seconds.”
Lucas Sowder gave MSU a 2-0 lead at 15:55 of the second, scoring a shorthanded goal off the rush. His wrist shot slipped past Ferris goaltender Logan Stein.
The Bulldogs scored an even-strength goal at 19:00 of the second to make it 2-1, but MSU took control back in the third.
Steinmetz scored the second shorthanded goal of the game, stealing a puck near the blue line in the defensive zone and scoring on the ensuing breakaway. Steinmetz deked to his forehand before tucking it around Stein on his backhand.
“We’ve stressed holding the blue line a lot recently,” Steinmetz said. “Just held the blue line and picked off a pass.”
Added Strand: “He’s a team guy. … He really gives us an opportunity there with a big goal.”
The Bulldogs scored late in the third to make things interesting in the final minutes, but Sowder secured the win with an empty-net goal with 39.7 seconds remaining.
Shots on goal favored MSU 33-28. Keenan Rancier, who won CCHA Goaltender of the Week honors earlier this week, made 26 saves to get his fourth win of the season.
The Mavericks never trailed in the victory.
“They’re a pain to play against. They play the right way,” Strand said of Ferris. “We were fortunate to play from the front, because I think that changes maybe the way they have to go play.”
The Mavericks (10-8-3, 6-4-1 in CCHA) will finish their series with the Bulldogs at 6:07 p.m. Saturday at the Event Center.
Follow Kevin Dudley on Twitter @Dudley7Kevin