MANKATO — Managing leads has been a point of emphasis for the Minnesota State men’s hockey team.
However, despite being in total control with a 3-0 advantage at the end of the second period, MSU saw that lead evaporate quickly in the third.
“For our guys and the maturity of our group, we’ve got to understand that the scoreboard doesn’t matter,” MSU coach Luke Strand said. “We dug out of it, it didn’t bite us. But it’s close enough to feel like it did.”
Minnesota State stayed in the fight and Rhett Pitlick eventually scored the game-winning goal with 42.8 seconds remaining in a 4-3 nonconference win over Omaha on Friday night at the Mayo Clinic Health System Event Center. The game was played in front of 4,461 fans.
Trailing 3-0 going into the third, Omaha scored at 13 seconds, 5:15 and 8:06 to stun what had been a noisy crowd at the Event Center. To make matters worse, UNO’s third goal came early in a five-minute power play, so the game easily could’ve slipped away.
MSU ended up killing the rest of the penalty and was able to reestablish a forecheck down the stretch.
“I thought we actually came out and played some pretty good hockey again,” Strand said. “We’ve got to learn that we’re better when we’re boring. … We’re better when we stay on the same script.”
Pitlick scored the game-winner after burying a cross-ice feed from Josh Groll.
Before shooting from the right circle, Pitlick realized he had some time and briefly paused, causing Omaha goaltender Simon Latkoczy to go down. He then fired a high shot over Latkoczy’s left shoulder, sending the Event Center into a frenzy.
“He works on that pretty much every day before and after (practice),” Brian Carrabes said of Pitlick. “I wasn’t surprised.”
Brett Moravec got MSU on the scoreboard at 14:26 of the first period, banging home Carrabes’ rebound after establishing great net-front position. Steven Bellini also got an assist on the goal, and MSU took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission.
UNO came out strong in the second period and nearly got on the scoreboard when Tyler Rollwagen hit the post, but MSU did a good job of limiting mistakes during the push.
Minnesota State added to its lead when Carrabes scored at 16:15 of the second, and Groll scored off a faceoff play to make it 3-0 at 17:38.
MSU’s first line of Pitlick, Adam Eisele and Groll combined for four points in the win.
“They bring such a balance of pressure that the depth of our team shows up because of the attention they get,” Strand said.
Shots on goal favored MSU 30-29. Alex Tracy made 26 saves to get his fourth win of the season.
Minnesota State (4-3) will finish its series with Omaha at 6:07 p.m. Saturday at the Event Center.
The win is nice, but MSU realizes it could’ve easily gone the other way, just as it did last weekend in Game 1 against North Dakota, when MSU lost after leading 2-0 at the end of the second period.
The Game 2 performance last weekend was desperate in a 3-0 win over the Fighting Hawks, and there will be a similar sense of urgency Saturday.
“A common theme I see every weekend is that we come out stronger on Saturday,” Pitlick said. “I think everyone can expect us to have more energy.”