Badgers and Mavericks Skate to Deadlock

For the second-consecutive night, Minnesota State and No. 16 Wisconsin needed overtime to break their 3-3 tie Saturday at the Alltel Center. But this time nothing was decided, as the teams took a point apiece in downtown Mankato.

Like a blueprint of Friday’s game, the Badgers scored three second period goals and led 3-2 after two periods. But the Mavericks came back to score the lone goal of the third to tie — on a power play just like Friday night — to push the game into overtime, where nothing was decided.

“The big thing though is that we got the point in a difficult place and during difficult times for us,” said Badgers coach Mike Eaves. “And we’ll take that home with us.”

Maybe even more similar to Friday’s game, though, was two more reviewed goals, one of which that was overturned in Wisconsin’s favor after a lengthy review. Andy Sackrison skated through defenders and into the slot early in the third period but his shot was somewhat fanned as in trickled to the doorstep and off Jason Wiley’s skate before finding the net.

About 10 minutes later — due to technical difficulties with the review — the goal was taken away due to a kicking motion.

Five goals were reviewed over the weekend with one getting overturned each night.

“I’ll say the same thing I said [Friday] night,” said Mavericks coach Troy Jutting. “Sometimes they go for you and sometimes they go against you. Tonight unfortunately it went against us. Last night it went for us.”

Despite the overturned goal the Mavericks still tied the game during the third, with a power-play goal by Rylan Galiardi at 10:26. Kael Mouillierat took the puck at the top of the right circle and found Galiardi on the goal line, who swung in front of the net and beat Shane Connelly over his glove.

Neither team found the net in the final 9:34 of the third period and each team had three shots on goal during overtime. The Mavericks had a power play at 2:02 of the overtime session when Jerad Stewart split a couple defenders and was hooked in the slot by Brendan Smith, but the Mavericks fell short of their second overtime win in as many nights.

“I would have wanted [the referees] to make that call if that was one of our guys,” Eaves said. “[Stewart] beat us wide and we were talking about their speed — I would want them to make that call for us.

“Their speed is very good,” Eaves added. “We have some pretty good D-core and [Minnesota State’s] ability to push us wide and turn us was pretty impressive.”

The Mavericks had the early lead Saturday, getting on the board at 12:47 of the first period with a power-play goal by Mouillierat. Trevor Bruess scored at 5:14 in the second period for a 2-0 Minnesota State lead, but it was short lived.

The Badgers rattled off three second period goals, two by Michael Davies, in just more than four minutes during the middle of the period. Davies’ first goal came on the power play and his second minutes later was on a two-on-one where he took the shot himself. Tom Gorowsky gave the Badgers the lead at 12:42 with an even-strength goal.

The tie snapped the Badgers’ three game losing streak, but after giving up the tying goal in the third period for the second consecutive night, it seems the Badgers’ third period woes haven’t left them yet.

“I don’t know what the problem is but there is a problem clearly, it keeps happening,” Gorowsky said. “Every time we get in the third period with the lead we get a bad bounce or have a mental error and we can’t hold onto the lead. But we got to find a way to fix it.”

Mike Zacharias made 33 saves in the game, and Connelly made 29. Mouillierat finished with two assists, and Derek Stepan and Ryan McDonagh had two assists each.

Both teams have just one series remaining in the regular season. Minnesota State (14-15-5, 10-13-3 WCHA) competes in a home-and-home series with St. Cloud State next weekend, with Friday night’s game at the Alltel Center. Wisconsin (16-14-4, 13-10-3 WCHA), who sits in fourth place in the conference, hosts North Dakota next weekend.