Minnesota State coach Jeff Vizenor didn’t have much to say after the Mavericks’ game on Saturday. Thanks to St. Cloud State’s 6-1 whitewashing, he didn’t have to.
Coupled with Bemidji State’s win over Ohio State, Vizenor and the slumping Mavs (11-16-3, 8-14-2) fell into a tie for sixth place with the Beavers, while the Huskies (15-14-1, 12-11-1 WCHA) all but wrapped up home ice for the first round of the WCHA playoffs.
“It’s extremely disappointing,” Vizenor said. “I think our players know what we have to do but we need to do it on a more consistent basis.”
That consistency begins with the Mavericks scoring first, something they were unable to do on Friday. When their opponent scores first, the Mavericks are only 1-12-1 this season. And like Friday, the Huskies got on the board first.
Megan McCarthy put SCSU up 1-0 14:34 into the first period on a rebound shot she slipped past MSU’s Brit Kehler. Kristy Oonincx and Ashley Stewart earned assists, the first of three for Oonincx on the afternoon.
That score held until just past the midway point of the second, when SCSU pulled away for good. At 11:44, Stewart put the Huskies up 2-0, the first of a trio of St. Cloud goals in the period. Just under three minutes later, Denelle Maguet scored the Huskies third goal and just a minute after that, Marie-Michel Lemieux buried yet another. In just four minutes, the Huskies had essentially ended any hope of a Maverick comeback.
“That was definitely a huge point in the game for us,” said SCSU coach Jason Lesteberg.
The Huskies extended their lead to 5-0 just past the four minute mark of the final period on a tally by Hailey Clarkson, her third point of the day.
“The power-play I think helped, but I think some of my assists were ghost assists, I don’t know how I got them,” Clarkson said. “We were just moving the puck around and it was going in the net for us.”
The Mavericks finally beat Husky net minder Lauri St. Jacques 15:40 of the third on a goal by MSU’s leading scorer Maggie Fisher. The unassisted goal came just seconds after Fisher was robbed on a 2-on-1 break with teammate Felicia Nelson. It was the first goal given up by St. Jacques since the 4:33 mark of the second period in the St. Cloud game last Friday against Wisconsin, a time span of 211 minutes and seven seconds.
“I’m in that zone,” said St. Jacques. “I’m just seeing the puck well, and the team is playing well in front of me.”
Just ten seconds after the Maverick goal, the Huskies extended their lead to 6-1 on a breakaway goal by Brittni Kuyper, which came right off the face-off. The goal wrapped up the scoring for the teams.
The win puts the Huskies up six points in the race for home-ice in the WCHA playoffs, with a home-and-home series against Minnesota next weekend. The Mavericks will travel to Wisconsin to take on the first-place Badgers.
“Every game is a must-win for us,” said MSU forward Amanda Stohr. “It’s what happens when you put yourself in the position we are in now.”
