Mavericks sweep Northern Michigan on the road
Daniel McElroy ® Staff Writer |
Photos by Mansoor Ahmad ® Photo Editor |
The Minnesota State University Mavericks (5-1-1) men’s hockey team swept the Northern Michigan University Wildcats (2-4-0) over the weekend, outscoring their opponent 9-0.
The Mavericks would have eight different goal scorers across the weekend in the upper peninsula.
The scoring would start with a feed from Brendan Furry behind the net to Jared Spooner for the one-timer past goaltender Connor Ryckman.
Just two minutes later, Nathan Smith would score his first goal of the season on another one-timer on one knee with a pass from the WCHA December Rookie of the Month, and two-time Rookie of the Week, Akito Hirose.
Another three minutes later, Cade Borchardt took a one-touch pass from Nathan Smith to put it past Ryckman, who would be replaced with junior goaltender, Nolan Kent, just 10 minutes into the first period.
Another three minutes after that, Julian Napravnik walked the puck into the slot after a pass from Akito Hirose and fired it past Kent for the fourth goal of the first period.
The fifth goal of the game came on the powerplay in the third period from a tip in from alternate captain Dallas Gerads after the initial shot from Reggie Lutz at the point.
The Mavericks closed out their first conference game of the year with a 5-0 win with Dryden McKay getting his third shutout of the year, stopping all 16 shots he faced.
Sunday’s win showed the Mavericks special teams units getting the job done with two powerplay goals and one empty net in a 4-0 win.
Cade Borchardt, the freshman from Burnsville, and leading scorer with a 5-4-9 score line, started the scoring on Sunday on the first powerplay goal with a feed from Nathan Smith going past the scrambling Kent.
The second powerplay goal came after a pass from Hirose to Lutz taking a shot on goal and Todd Burgess stuffing the rebound in the net.
Hirose would get his first goal of the year after taking a pass from Napravnik, walking it into the slot, and firing a shot past Kent’s glove side.
Ryan Sandelin took a pass from Jake Livingstone to put it in the empty net to secure the win for the Mavericks.
McKay proves to be the top net minder in the league stopping all 37 shots he faced over the weekend. McKay puts up back to back shutouts, giving him 18 in his career, putting him at seventh all time in the NCAA.
McKay holds a 5-1-0 record with a 1.01 goals against average and a .953 save percentage on the year. McKay earned the WCHA Goaltender of the Week title for his performance at Northern Michigan.
The Mavericks will be back at home next weekend when they host the Michigan Tech University Huskies.