Mavericks Stymie #7 Wolverines start the season – Minnesota State University

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Michigan struck first, but Minnesota State rebounded with four unanswered goals to beat the No. 7 Wolverines 5-2 in non-conference men’s hockey on Friday night at Yost Arena.

The Mavericks had five different scorers and were stopped by them Alex Tracywho made 32 saves. MSU will face Michigan (0-1-0) again on Saturday at 5:07 p.m. CT in Ann Arbor.

“I thought the bench was in a good spot all night,” head coach said Luke Beach. “They were looking forward to each other and there was no panic. We just stuck together, even if we didn’t necessarily play our best hockey right from the start.”

HOW IT HAPPENED

Luigi Benincasa’s 2-on-1 handballer was the Mavericks’ first shot on goal of the game almost four minutes into the first half. Adam Eisele Got a chance on the short side on MSU’s first power play, but Logan Stein slid in and made the save. After leading the country in power plays last season, Michigan finished the quarter 0-2 but outscored MSU 13-4 in the first 20 minutes.

Early in the second period with the extra attacker, William Whitelaw fired a shot from the left point under the Tracy blocker for the Wolverines. TJ Hughes and Michael Hage assisted for 33 seconds in the middle frame.

At 4:25 p.m Campbell Cichosz read the ice and headed for a pass Brian Carrabeswho scored his first goal of the season on the blocker side. Luc Wilson The game began in the neutral zone as the Mavericks earned a 1-1 tie.

Carrabes took advantage of a fallen defender and then played a pass across the goal Brett Moravec who switched from forehand to backhand at 8:23 in the second round, making the score 2-1.

Senior forward Rhett Pitlick scored his first goal in a purple and gold sweater just over a minute into the third period. Pitlick was isolated after grabbing an interception in the neutral zone, faked his head and then picked the bottom corner on the stick side for a 3-1 lead.

“For Rhett’s sake, you can’t let him play one-on-one with the goalie. He’s pretty talented,” Strand joked.

Freshman Luke Ashton scored his first career goal from the top of the circle to make it a 4-1 lead just over two minutes later.

“I thought Luke (Ashton) had a strong game, including on the scoresheet, so it was nice to see him rewarded.”

Garrett Schifsky found a way to the goal crease and deflected a pass from Michael Hage at 14:57 Alex Tracy was perfect in scoring the rest of the way, helping Minnesota State to its first win over Michigan in team history. Stein stopped Michigan 18 times in the loss.

Eisele finished the faceoff circle at 11:15. Both Carrabes (one goal, one assist) and Jordan Power (two assists) scored multi-point games.

Minnesota State (1-0-0) took a 3-0 lead on the power play, while Michigan finished 1-2 in front of 5,274 spectators.

“I think just the ability of different lines to score on the offensive side was encouraging,” Strand said. “When you play against good teams you have to take your chances and we did that tonight.”