ST. PAUL, Minn. — Minnesota State, like any other team that is regarded as one of the best in the nation, is led by its upperclassmen, but it was two freshmen forwards who paced the Mavericks on Friday night.
Minnesota State took down Ferris State 4-0 in the second semifinal at the WCHA Final Five on Friday. The Mavericks advanced to play Michigan Tech for the title at 6 p.m. CDT Saturday.
[scg_html_wcha2015]Freshman Brad McClure scored two goals, and fellow first-year player C.J. Franklin added one of his own.
“I think our league does a really good job of preparing guys if they’re in the lineup somewhat consistently. You’re forced to develop by who you’re playing against,” Minnesota State coach Mike Hastings said after the game of his freshmen’s development this season. “[McClure] and [Franklin] have been thrust into our lineup since day one.
“They haven’t played like freshmen,” Hastings added.
Stephon Williams had a 25-save shutout for the Mavericks (28-7-3).
The teams played a sleepy first period, with the Mavericks outshooting the Bulldogs 7-3. It took Ferris State more than 15 minutes of game play to get its first shot of the night.
“Our defense kind of made my life easy,” Williams said. “Guys were blocking shots. … When you see guys sacrificing the body, especially at this point in the year which is critical for teams, it’s extra motivation.”
One of the Mavericks’ seven shots found its way past CJ Motte, however, and gave the Mavericks a 1-0 lead after one.
“I thought the first goal was a very big goal,” Hastings said. “I was glad that we ended up getting it. [McClure] did a really nice job with that.”
At the 12:24 mark of the first, McClure stole the puck behind the Ferris State goal line, took a couple strides and used his right-handed shot to quickly rip the puck over Motte’s left shoulder. The goal was the 14th of the season for McClure.
McClure doubled his money three quarters of the way through the second period when he tipped a blue-line wrister by defenseman Casey Nelson through his legs and past Motte. The puck appeared to take a bounce or two from the time McClure tipped it to when it got past the goaltender.
“It went up to the point there and Casey Nelson got it on his stick and when he gets the puck he’s always looking to get it to the net and that’s when good things happen,” McClure said. “So I was just trying to get some traffic and it actually luckily ended up going off of my shin pad, which was a lucky bounce, but it was good to get that goal.”
The Mavericks extended their lead to 3-0 before the second period expired when Franklin received a power-play pass from McClure on the rush and put a wrist shot top-shelf.
[photoshelter-gallery g_id=”G000078poBJHZSUM” g_name=”20150320-FSU-MANK” f_show_caption=”t” f_show_slidenum=”t” img_title=”casc” pho_credit=”iptc” f_link=”t” f_bbar=”t” fsvis=”f” width=”500″ height=”375″ bgcolor=”#AAAAAA” bgtrans=”t” btype=”old” bcolor=”#CCCCCC” crop=”f” trans=”xfade” tbs=”4000″ f_ap=”t” linkdest=”c” f_fullscreen=”f” f_constrain=”f” twoup=”f” f_topbar=”f” f_bbarbig=”” f_htmllinks=”f” f_enable_embed_btn=”f” f_show_watermark=”f” f_send_to_friend_btn=”f” f_smooth=”f” f_mtrx=”f” f_up=”f” target=”_self” wmds=”llQ6QNgpeC.p1Ucz7U.f22Fbo5BPRuXHL4BJ1cEPMDM6EfFxXzNPUJkDLcq_lnVvE_NvoA–” ]Although the Mavericks put two goals on the board in the second, Ferris State got its opportunities. The Bulldogs dominated play for about a 10-minute portion of time but couldn’t solve Williams. However, the Mavericks’ defense held strong.
“I think their offense leads to good defensive play,” Ferris State coach Bob Daniels said. “By that, I mean that, so much you’ve got to watch your ‘P’s’ and ‘Q’s,’ even with the puck and we can’t have a poor turnover against their team because the depth of their scoring. It puts a lot of pressure on you. Even when you have control of the puck, you know that a poor turnover is going to lead to an opportunity back at your end of the rink.”
Junior Bryce Gervais scored his 27th goal of the season with 2:03 left in the third period and Ferris State’s net empty. Ferris State outshot Minnesota State 13-5 in the third period, but the Mavericks looked content to sit back and defend with the three-goal lead. The teams finished even with 25 shots on goal each.
“Even though the shots were equal, the quality of our opportunities, I don’t think, didn’t match the quality of theirs,” Daniels said. “In my opinion, Minnesota State is the No. 1 team in the nation. We couldn’t tell you any differently; we haven’t have any success in the five games we’ve played them this year.”
Motte attended the postgame news conference still wearing his jersey, saying that he wasn’t quite ready to take it off yet. The senior captain finished his career with a 66-49-12 record.
“I’m going to miss all the guys on the team,” he said. “I know as time goes on I’ll definitely think about it and there will be a lot that I’ll miss from Ferris hockey.”
The Bulldogs needed the automatic berth from winning the Final Five to get into the NCAA tournament.
