Ferris State and MNSU split weekend
The Minnesota State Mavericks took on the Ferris State Bulldogs in a two-game series this Halloween weekend that ended up being more as a trick rather than a treat.
The ninth-ranked Minnesota State Mavericks hosted Ferris State this weekend, splitting the series and giving the Bulldogs their first regular season win of the season. Coming into Friday’s game, Ferris State entered with a record of 0-6-1 and struggled to break out of the loss column early on in the season.
Hungry and badly needing their first win, Ferris State came out of the gate playing fast and aggressive scoring the first goal of the game within 21 seconds of the puck being dropped. After being down early in the first period, the Mavericks quickly bounced back and recovered from the one-goal deficit with a goal of their own by junior forward Brad McClure to tie the game. Minutes later, the Mavericks took the lead on a goal from senior forward Jordan Nelson. MNSU’s head coach Mike Hastings had his comments on the early lead by the Bulldogs in the first period after the game.
“I like the way we reacted to it, those are sometimes hard to recover especially in the first 30 seconds of the game, so I like the way we recovered,” Hastings said.
In the second period the Mavericks had their power play working again, scoring their third goal of the game by freshman defenseman Ian Scheid. Minnesota State has converted 9 of 37 power play opportunities this season, according to Minnesota State’s athletic page and has excelled in odd man situations this season.
Soon after the Mavericks’ power-play goal, McClure scored his second of the night to effectively close out the game, ending it by a score of 4-2 in favor of the home team.
Game one went in the favor of Minnesota State, but whether complacency became an issue or not, game two did not go as planed for the 6-1-0 Mavericks.
In the first period, both teams struggled to put the puck in the back of the net, then in the second Ferris State opened the floodgates, pouring in goals. By the end of the second period, the Bulldogs scored three goals to the Mavericks zero. Hastings wasn’t pleased after the game two loss, but he had much to say about the second period deficit and the late push in the third.
“Big momentum swing, it goes 1-0 their direction and we didn’t handle that very well,” Hastings said. “We got into 2-0 in a hurry soon after that, but I did like the push back again in the third. The fourth was probably a little bit of karma. One thing that’s phenomenal about this game is, more often than not, the team that deserves to win does.”
Though Hastings didn’t like the outcome, Minnesota State did make a push in the third to tie the game at three goals apiece. Scoring the goals for the Mavericks were forwards McClure and Michael Huntebrinker, with one goal apiece and sophomore defenseman Alec Vanko. Even with the miraculous comeback that the Mavericks were able to make, it wasn’t enough to hold off Ferris State in the end.
Saturday’s game finished by a score of 4-3, seeing the Bulldogs to their first win of the season. Minnesota State is going to have to try and bounce back from their second loss of the season against a tough opponent in Lake Superior State who won five games in-a-row before suffering their first loss of the season this past weekend. This should be a good test for the Mavericks as they go on the road for the second time; their ability to win games on the road will be important as this season progresses. Their next games will be November 4 and 5 at Lake Superior State. Puck will drop at 6:37 p.m. and 6:07 p.m., respectively.