Freshman Grant Stevenson scored his first career hat trick as Minnesota State-Mankato earned a series split with a 5-3 victory over Michigan Tech before 2,644 at MacInnes Arena on Saturday night.
Defensemen Andy Hedlund and Peter Runkel also scored for the Mavericks (15-17-2, 11-15-2 WCHA), while Jason Jensen made 33 saves.
Trailing 5-0 entering the third period, the Huskies made it interesting as they scored three quick goals, including two from Brett Engelhardt in a span of 14 seconds to make it 5-3. Tech outshot MSU-Mankato by a 19-1 margin in the third period.
Jon Pittis also scored for Michigan Tech (8-24-2, 4-20-2 WCHA).
The Mavs took a quick 2-0 lead in the first period. Hedlund scored his fourth of the season at 3:29 before Stevenson scored on a breakaway just over a minute later.
Stevenson made it 3-0 with his second of the night at 13:06 of the middle period. Stevenson tried to make a pass across the low slot, but Michigan Tech’s Colin Murphy tried to bat the puck down and deflected it past Tech goaltender Cam Ellsworth.
Stevenson completed the hat trick at 17:21 when he beat Ellsworth with a high wrister from the low slot.
Runkel made it 5-0 with his first goal in more than two years at the 18:07 mark.
The Huskies got on the board at 10:03 of the third period when senior Brad Patterson one-timed a pass from Paul Cabana through Jensen’s legs from the high slot for a power-play goal.
Tech made it 5-2 at 14:02 when Engelhardt capitalized on a Maverick turnover and squeezed a shot through Jensen’s legs for his 15h goal of the season.
Lightning struck again 14 seconds later as Engelhardt came down the middle and buried a pass out of the corner from Pittis to make it 5-3.
