Game Gab - Nightly Post-Game Analysis
Come here after the games for analysis and insights from CHN Staff members.
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Nebraska-Omaha 2, Minnesota State 1 - Saturday, March 16, 2013
Nebraska-Omaha weathered an early storm, allowing just one goal, which gave itself the opportunity to come back over the final two periods, which it did. Game 3 is Sunday. It figures the 6-7 seeds would go to three games, but these were teams seeming in opposite directions, with UNO losing seven of nine. And goalie John Faulkner has been taking heat from UNO fans, but coach Dean Blais stuck with him after Game 1, and Faulkner played perhaps his best game of the season. Dominic Zombo wound up getting the game winner in the third. "We needed a better net presence," MSU coach Mike Hastings said. "There's a price you gotta pay to score goals. We're just gonna have to do that tomorrow. ... When I watch the Tour de France, I think about fatigue. Fatigue's a state of mind. So, we're not fatigued. ... We had some good opportunities tonight with guys I thought this entire year were good at finishing. It didn't happen tonight. I don't have a problem with my team tonight. I thought the effort was there."
Friday, March 15, 2013
Minnesota State 4, Nebraska-Omaha 3 - Friday, March 15, 2013
Minnesota State battled from behind all night. It overcame Ryan Walters' 22nd goal of the season, rallying in the third to tie on a goal from Bryce Gervais. Then Chase Grant scored 7:04 into overtime on a setup from John-Paul Lafontaine. "They just almost scored at the other end," Grant said. "I was pretty tired from my shift. But I saw my guys go up and we had a 3-on-2, so I just had to stay on. I got a great pass from John-Paul and I just put it home. ... I've been needing to shoot the puck more, and I was really happy to see one finally go in. ... It's a big goal, but we did a lot of good things in that game and it's a total team effort. But I've been really trying to push myself in practice just to get more pucks on net, and score more goals, because I need to be able to contribute for the team in that way too."
It was the fifth straight overtime playoff game played in Mankato, dating all the way back to 2003. Since last reaching the Final Five in 2003, MSU has won the first game of a series four times, but lost the next two games each time. This is another opportunity.
Saturday, March 9, 2013
Minnesota State 2, North Dakota 1 - Saturday, March 9, 2013
Freshman forward Brett Knowles has five goals this season, but two of them now are huge OT game winners -- one previously against Minnesota, and now this one. The teams split the weekend, which was enough to give Minnesota State a home-ice bid for the playoffs, with an opponent still to be determined. The loss prevented North Dakota from sharing the MacNaughton Cup with St. Cloud and Minnesota. ND will be the third seed and host Michigan Tech next week.
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Minnesota State 7, Colorado College 2 - Saturday, March 2, 2013
Matt Leitner had a hat trick as Minnesota State got an important bounceback win off Friday's loss.
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Minnesota State 6, Michigan Tech 1 - Saturday, February 16, 2013
Four in a row and 6 of 7 now for Minnesota State, which is No. 7 in the Pairwise and still on the rise, under this remarkable first season under Mike Hastings. The reigning CHN Team of the Week now has 20 wins, just one shy of its best since joining Division I. Six different players scored, including Eriah Hayes (18) and Matt Leitner (12).
Saturday, February 9, 2013
Minnesota State 5, Minnesota-Duluth 1 - Saturday, February 9, 2013
Minnesota State has quietly sneaked up on the field this year. Maybe it's because the Mavs haven't done well the last few years, and didn't have a splashy start. And you look at the standings, and they don't look that high in the WCHA. Well, look again. MSU is now tied for fifth, and only one point out of third. And, the Mavs are No. 10 in the Pairwise. The 18 wins Minnesota State now has puts it just three away from its all-time high since joining Division I. It's been a remarkable first season for Mike Hastings, similar to what Norm Bazin did last year in Lowell. But Hastings knew he had plenty of talent to work with, and it's showing. Eriah Hayes had a hat trick in this game, including two third-period power-play goals. And sophomore forward Matt Leitner had three assists and now has ten goals and 23 assists for 33 points to lead the Mavericks in scoring.
UMD dropped to 9th in the league. “Our first 10 minutes wasn’t very good and I was very disappointed in some dumb penalties we took,” UMD coach Scott Sandelin told the Duluth News-Tribune. “We gave up way too many easy goals (in the series) and we weren’t very hungry around their net.”
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Minnesota 4, Minnesota State 1 - Saturday, January 26, 2013
A split on the weekend dropped Minnesota a point behind St. Cloud for first place in the WCHA, though still No. 2 in the Pairwise. Minnesota State played a strong game Friday for the win, getting a goal from Brett Knowles in the final minute of regulation. Minnesota bounced back and gritted out a 4-1 win Saturday. Credit to Minnesota State, though, for continued good play; the Mavericks sit in a three-way tie for fourth.
Saturday, January 19, 2013
Minnesota State 4, Alaska-Anchorage 0 - Saturday, January 19, 2013
Do we know why Fairbanks does pretty well in recent years, and Anchorage can't make any headway at all? Sigh.
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Wisconsin 2, Minnesota State 1 - Saturday, January 12, 2013
John Ramage scored the OT winner for the second straight night, this time with 6.2 seconds remaining, to give Wisconsin its first-ever sweep in Mankato, and extend its unbeaten streak to six. Just a night prior, the Badgers won their first WCHA regular-season overtime game since 2006. Ramage found himself in scoring position following assists from Ryan Little and Jake McCabe. Stick handling his way through the MSU defense, the senior captain found a hole left side, stepped into his shot and blasted the go-ahead score into the net for the win. Although the streak has coincided with the return of big cogs Nic Kerdiles and Mark Zengerle, many questioned whether the Badgers really had turned the corner, since the wins came against a soft part of the schedule. But while Minnesota State may not be the elite of the WCHA, it came into the weekend, at home, on a hot streak of its own, and is certainly a quality opponent.
Saturday, January 5, 2013
Minnesota State 4, Providence 0 - Saturday, January 5, 2013
It certainly didn't help not having goalie Jon Gillies, who was at the World Junior tournament. But it's hard to pin two straight weekend losses in Mankato on that. Friday night's game was lost in overtime on a goal by Chase Grant. And this one, the Friars just didn't score. But let's credit Minnesota State, which has now won 11 of 12, and moved to No. 12 in the Pairwise. Stephon Williams stopped 24 shots for the shutout, the third of the season for the freshman, who has clearly wrested the No. 1 job from senior Phil Cook; and Eriah Hayes contributed his 12th goal of the season. The Mavericks may not have played the toughest schedule in the world so far, but they are getting it done under first-year coach Mike Hastings. That, and a healthy lineup.
Saturday, November 10, 2012
Denver 3, Minnesota State 2 - Saturday, November 10, 2012
Denver gets the sweep, with a pair of one-goal wins. Sam Brittain stopped 33 shots on Friday. J.P. Lafontaine scored a late shorthanded extra-attacker goal to bring Minnesota State within one, but 30 seconds later, he was tossed from the game for a hit from behind. Back in there Saturday, he helped the Mavericks get within one late in the first period. In the second, MSU had three power plays but couldn't convert to tie, but finally got a power-play goal early in the third. That set up Chris Knowlton for some late heroics for Denver, giving the Pioneers the sweep. ... “It was one of those games that we knew was going to be a real tough test for us,” said Denver head coach George Gwozdecky. “We weren’t able to generate a lot of offense, a lot of it because we were in the penalty box more than we were playing even strength. I’m really proud of the way this team played. They played hard and battled like crazy. Some people would say that it wasn’t a very pretty game, but it was a game where we had to just keep fighting."
Juho Olkinuora picked up the win this time. “Olkinuora was very strong in goal, very consistent for us tonight,” Gwozdecky said. “Probably one of the unsung heroes, aside from Chris Knowlton who scored two goals, was Gabe Levin who had an outstanding game. It was one of those night for Ty that he would want to have back, as he spent more time in the penalty box than he did on the ice. We decided to make a change and even thought Gabe went in cold, he made some great plays in the offensive zone to give us an opportunity and help us win the game.”
Said Minnesota State coach Mike Hastings, "There's no 'Let's get 'em tomorrow.' At the end of the day, tonight is not acceptable because we're at home. Yes there are things that were positive, but not positive enough, because at the end of the day, the scoreboard is really all that matters. ... I do see some things there with this group and I don't want to -- the effort was there. ... We want to achieve more and we expect to achieve more."
Saturday, November 3, 2012
Minnesota State 5, Minnesota 3 - Saturday, November 3, 2012
Dylan Margonari scored late in the third to give Minnesota State the win, and a split of the home-and-home weekend. The Mavericks finally put it all together, finally keeping the penalty minutes in check, for the most part, and killing off four of five Minnesota power plays, which is a big improvement over what they have been allowing so far this season. "It's a great weekend," the freshman Margonari said. "It's huge for our team. It will definitely set up our team for many wins to come."
"We came out and played a poor first period, we were outshot 19-7 and fell behind 2-0," Minnesota coach Don Lucia said. "To the kids' credit, we battled back, unfortunately we made a mistake late. ... We started to find our game as it went along. We had some good looks in the second, their goaltender made a huge save near the end of the second."
Saturday, October 27, 2012
St. Cloud State 5, Minnesota State 1 - Saturday, October 27, 2012
It was 1-0 St. Cloud headed into the third, but Chase Grant's cross-checking penalty just 10 seconds in, opened the door for the Huskies to reel off four more goals and win going away. "Those are things we've discussed, and I don't know if the message is being delivered," MSU coach Mike Hastings said about taking that penalty. ... Evan Mosey had the team's only two goals of the weekend. "I didn't have a problem with our effort. The only time I get really disappointed is lack of effort or lack of discipline. Through first two periods, I thought we were getting what we needed to get. ... For the group of forwards we have to be held scoreless, it's unacceptable, from their standpoint and from ours."
Meanwhile, credit St. Cloud goalie Ryan Faragher with a strong weekend. He bounced back from a rough opening weekend against New Hampshire, and has been great since. Nic Dowd picked up that early-third-period power-play goal, his fourth of the year to lead the team. And freshman Kalle Kossila, from France, has been great at center so far this season, with seven points and a plus-8. “We didn’t match (Friday) night’s intensity, so that was the negative, but our power play clicked and our goaltender stood up,” Huskies coach Bob Motzko told the St. Cloud Times. “You know when (Faragher’s) on because he’s making it look easy. He was just seeing the puck. Too bad we let the last one to wreck his (shutout) deal.”
Minnesota State 3, Nebraska-Omaha 1 - Sunday, March 17, 2013
Minnesota State advances to the Final Five for the first time in 10 years. Matt Leitner's power-play goal in the third period sealed it, his 17th goal of the season. "That was the best 20 minutes I thought we had in a month," Minnesota State coach Mike Hastings said. "I thought we came out with a lot of energy and committed to what we needed to do. We had a couple of guys make some plays." ... Hastings pointed to Bryce Gervais, who he moved to the first line with Leitner and Chase Grant (who had Friday's OT winner). Gervais, a freshman, scored the game's first goal. "He's a guy that's big and been successful in other places, and having the season he had last year in Penticton and what they did, he really stepped up. And so did No. 18 (Leitner). He really challenged himself today, and to score the goal he did ... Matt Leitner's got a lot of will -- a prideful kid. And I'm really happy for him, because he went the extra mile tonight."
Said Leitner: "It's awesome. I can't really put it into words rightnow. It's something we talked about art the beginning of the year."
UNO's season comes to a disappointing conclusion after the nice start it had. Of course, Hastings was an assistant there last year, and former Minnesota State coach Troy Jutting is now a UNO assistant. So the post-game handshake line was emotional, with Jutting hugging all of his former players. "That group over there is a special group," Hastings said of UNO. "I spent a lot of time with them. I'm happy for our guys. But I've had my season ended. It's not fun. I've got a lot of respect for Dean (Blais), the (UNO) administration and the guys in that locker room. I'm happy for my guys, but I don't take any pleasure in having that happen to those guys."
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