North Dakota has had trouble finishing off Minnesota State-Mankato. Friday night was no different.
The Fighting Sioux jumped out to a 3-0 lead, but saw the Mavericks climb back in the third period for a 3-3 tie at Engelstad Arena.
The Mavericks succeeded in keeping UND from its goal of a sweep that would have allowed them to solidly gain the No. 1 spot in the WCHA.
UND has a 10-3-2 record overall against MSU, but has had trouble putting away the Mavericks.
Mavericks’ goaltender Eric Pateman, who holds a .910 save percentage and a 3.01 GAA, stopped 26 shots to hold one of the nation’s leading scoring lines to only three goals.
Each team seemed to find its stride at some point during the game, and made the most of it. UND’s potent offense struck in the second period, tallying all three of the Sioux’s goals during that period.
UND scored first on a four-on-four situation. Jeff Panzer netted his 17th goal of the season at 3:25 off of assists from Chad Mazurak and Travis Roche. Panzer has at least a point in 21 of the Sioux’s last 24 contests. He netted both a goal and an assist in Friday’s game, bringing his point total for the season to 51.
UND struck again at 5:55 with a goal from Pat O’Leary. His goal came on assists from Panzer and David Lundbohm.
UND’s third tally came at 18:36 of the second with an unassisted effort by Lundbohm. Lundbohm, who has five goals and three assists on the season, joined Panzer with a goal and an assist for the Sioux.
In the third, the Mavericks once again seemed to figure the Sioux out, and fired up their offense to score three goals and force the overtime. The Sioux could only watch as Mankato’s T.J Guidarelli scored on assists from Peter Runkel and B.J. Abel at 6:22 of the period. Guidarelli is on a seven-game point-scoring streak, with three goals and 10 assists on the season.
Jesse Rooney made it 3-2 at 11:56 of the third, scoring on a Tim Jackman feed. Rooney is the leading scorer for Mankato with 16 goals.
The Mavericks were able to force the Sioux into overtime with an unassisted goal from Josh Kern at 17:10 of the third.
The Mavericks were able to utilize their second-ranked penalty kill to keep the Sioux from scoring on their five opportunities. The Sioux are ranked third in the WCHA for power-play output, behind Colorado College and Minnesota.
