Mavericks Dominate Gophers

What started out as another classic Minnesota State vs. Minnesota matchup after one period, soon turned into a game with two disqualifications, one game misconduct and 94 total penalty minutes.

And in between all of it the Mavericks scored five second period goals — two by Kael Mouillierat, including the game winner — in dominating the Gophers 6-2 in a WCHA matchup in front of a record-breaking 5,201 fans at the Alltel Center.

“We know they need points in league play right now and they played like men out there,” said Gophers defenseman R.J. Anderson. “We played like babies or little boys out there.”

Both teams capitalized on their only power-play chance of the first period. The first came from the Mavericks when Mick Berge netted his sixth goal of the season on what was a five minute power play after a boarding penalty by Jake Hansen.

Hansen made up for his penalty at 14:56, when his shot from near the goal line slid through Mike Zacharias’ pads to make it 1-1, but as the second period started, everything seemed to go downhill for the Gophers.

Mouillierat netted the first two goals of the period on two breakaway goals, the first after a Sam Lofquist turnover at 7:37 and the second at 12:41 when he exited the penalty box and took a pass from Geoff Irwin to find himself alone skating toward Alex Kangas.

“We left our goalie hung out to dry and you can’t do that,” said Gophers coach Don Lucia. “Minnesota State played well and capitalized on those chances.”

Before the period was over, Rylan Galiardi, Mike Louwerse and Jerad Stewart all added goals. Stewart’s goal was a short-handed tally on yet another breakaway chance for the Mavericks with just 17 seconds left in the period.

“It looked like a couple breakdowns [in the second period],” said Zacharias, who made nine saves in the period. “I felt bad for Kangas. I think it was three breakaways and two backdoor one-timers. Those are always tough.”

“I thought after the first period, ‘1-1, we’ll get better,’” Lucia said. “But unfortunately we got worse.”

As the Mavericks added to their lead, so did the hostility between the in-state rivals. MSU’s Trevor Bruess was disqualified after an elbow to Tony Lucia in the second, and Minnesota’s Brian Schack was disqualified during the third in another scuffle between the teams. Channing Boe also took a game misconduct in the third during the same altercation and was carted off the ice. Neither Lucia or Boe returned, but Boe’s injury seems to be more long term.

“There’s two proud hockey teams out there,” Jutting said. “Both teams played pretty physical tonight. For the most part I thought it was a very good college hockey game.”

Lucia, however, was less than pleased with the game and the way it was played.

“It didn’t look like college hockey to me at times,” he said.

The Gophers scored the only goal of the third period, a power-play goal by Aaron Ness at 3:08. Zacharias made 28 saves in the game, Kangas made 19. Kent Patterson, who relieved Kangas at the beginning of the third period made five saves. Both teams finished with 30 shots.

The Mavericks (12-13-3, 8-11-2 WCHA) and Gophers (12-6-5, 9-5-3) finish the series at 6:07 p.m. CST Saturday at Mariucci Arena.

“The good thing about getting your butt kicked on Friday is you get to come back and try to salvage something on the weekend on Saturday,” Anderson said.