DULUTH, Minn. — Fans who yearned to see Minnesota-Duluth in action at home after a long off season wanted their Bulldogs to pick up where they left off on offense last week, when they scored six goals in two games at the IceBreaker Tournament in claiming third place.
They certainly got their money’s worth Friday night.
However, penalties proved to be the story of this particular game, and the last one made the difference.
Just 18 seconds into the 11th power play of the game for the Minnesota State Mavericks, the puck was in the back of the net behind UMD goaltender Matt McNeely after a giant scramble in the crease. It was finally credited to Zeb Knutson, who’s first collegiate goal proved to be the winning one as 12th ranked Minnesota State fended off a rally and edged 20th ranked Minnesota-Duluth 5-4 in overtime.
“Any time you go on the road and win a hockey game, especially against a quality team like that, we’ll take it,” said Mavericks coach Mike Hastings.
“Our guys battled back and it could’ve went either way,” Bulldogs coach Scott Sandelin said. “Against [Mankato], you gotta play hard. They’re a hard-nosed team. You gotta battle, and I thought we didn’t have enough of guys doing that tonight.”
Minnesota State came out firing early, building a 2-0 lead after a very strong first period behind a powerful forecheck and goals by C.J. Franklin and Jordan Nelson.
“It’s really nice to get it out of the way,” Franklin said of his goal, which was the first of his collegiate career. “Having it come this early is nice, and I’m just really glad I could help the team.”
UMD was whistled for three penalties in the first period, and failed to get any offense going thanks to spending so much time on the penalty kill.
Seven minutes into the second period, Kyle Osterberg was given a five-minute major and a game misconduct for checking a Mavericks player from behind, and Minnesota State began its long power play. However, UMD finally got on the scoreboard at 7:31 when Dominic Toninato put away an Adam Krause rebound in the crease past Mavericks goaltender Stephon Williams for his fourth goal of the season.
The Mavericks restored their two-goal lead 53 seconds later when Teddy Blueger scored from the edge of the right circle. Two and a half minutes later, Brad McClure tallied Mankato’s second power-play goal of the five-minute major, and Minnesota State suddenly led by three goals halfway through the game.
“We battled back,” said Bulldogs right winger Karson Kuhlman, echoing the thoughts of his coach. “Our play in the second and third went really well. If we played a full 60 minutes, we could’ve won that game.”
Sophomore defenseman Carson Soucy scored the first goal of his career with five minutes left in the middle frame, and senior captain Adam Krause unleashed a laser from the top of the right circle that beat Williams over his right shoulder to cut Minnesota State’s lead to 4-3 after two periods.
UMD completed the rally with 3:50 left when a Tony Cameranesi shot from the left circle got tipped in by Kuhlman, and the freshman’s first career goal had the game knotted up at four.
“They’re a good hockey team,” Hastings said of Duluth. “They showed it in the second half of the game.”
Overtime started off evenly for the two teams, then Adam Krause delivered the self-inflicted dagger when he was called for hooking at 2:05, setting the stage for Knutson’s winner.
“There wasn’t a lot of five-on-five hockey,” Hastings admitted.
Williams stopped 34 of 38 shots for Mankato, and McNeely made 20 saves on 25 shots for Duluth.
The teams later boarded buses to head down to Mankato for game two of their home-and-home series, which will take place Saturday night at 7:07 p.m. in Mankato, Minnesota.
