Frank earns first shutout, Mavs roll over Warriors

The Minnesota State women’s hockey team traveled to North Andover, Mass. this past weekend to take on Merrimack college for their first games of the season. The Mavericks had not played Merrimack since 2019, and went into this matchup playing on their strengths in hopes to overpower their non-conference opponent.

The Mavs were able to take care of Merrimack handily this past weekend, defeating the Warriors by scores of 3-0 and 9-3. Minnesota State scored all three of their goals in the first game in the second period.

The game started off slow for both teams, as expected for the first game of the season. Neither team was able to put anything on the board in the first, but the Mavericks opened up the door at the 11:41 mark in the second period on a power play goal from Charlotte Akervik.

The Mavs did not stop there. After suffering a slashing penalty at the 15:15 mark, Maverick forward Kelsey King buried a short-handed second goal of the game with 4:01 left in the second.

And if it could not be any better of a period for Minnesota State, they padded their lead to three with a goal coming from Brooke Bryant with less than two minutes to go in the period. There were no more goals scored in the rest of the contest, giving Mavericks goaltender Calla Frank her first shutout of the year.

Minnesota State went with a different approach at goaltender in the next game, substituting Frank for sophomore Lauren Barbro. The Mavericks did not have quite the successful defensive performance in the second contest, conceding three goals to the Warriors.

They did however, find their groove on the offensive end. The Mavs scored nine times, including another short-handed goal from Kelsey King.

MSU shared the puck to seemingly everyone in game two, letting seven different girls score. Bryant and Brittyn Fleming led the Mavs goal scorers with two goals a piece.

Bryant also led the Mavericks in points in the second contest tied at four with King. The Minnesota State women’s hockey team is now 2-0 on the season heading into their first conference matchups against Minnesota-Duluth this upcoming weekend.

The Bulldogs are yet to play a game this season, and their first will come against the Mavericks this weekend. The Mavs will look to remain undefeated with a sweep against Duluth, while the Bulldogs will look to start their season off strong.

Feature photo by Jim Stankiewicz / Merrimack Athletics