So far, so good for the first Minnesota State goaltending situation. <\/p>\n
Playing their first game in over two years sans stalwarts Mike Zacharias and Dan Tormey, Austin Lee stopped 18 shots in his first-ever regular season game to lead the Mavericks to a 3-2 nonconference victory against Bowling Green Friday night at Verizon Wireless Center.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I thought Austin did a nice job,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Mavericks coach Troy Jutting. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think he was tested real hard but I thought he did a nice job.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Lee wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t challenged much as the Mavericks\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 blueliners did a good job of slowing the Falcons\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 offense, but did make a few big saves to keep momentum with the home team, including a sprawling stop on a one-timer midway through the third period to keep the game 3-1.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Great defense,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Lee, a redshirt sophomore said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153[There was] a lot of blocked shots out there and not a lot of close-in shots, which is amazing for a goalie.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Lee would have allowed just one goal in his debut if not for a shot from the point that went through traffic by Kyle Page with just two seconds left in the game.<\/p>\n
Minnesota State had a lot more scoring chances than Bowling Green did, but couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t convert on most of them. The Mavericks outshot the Falcons 35-20, including a 16 shot second period by the Mavericks.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Ton of them,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Jutting of the Mavericks\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 scoring chances. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We got to do a better job when we get quality opportunities.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Jerad Stewart scored the game\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first goal with a shot from the top of the right circle that bounced off Bowling Green netminder Nick Eno\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s glove and into the back of the net at 7:14 of the first. Geoff Irwin made it 2-0 when he scored on a rebound with less than a minute left in the first period.<\/p>\n
Zach Harrison received the first assist on Irwin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s goal. Harrison took the puck at the goal line and made a move on a defender to get to the crease and force a shot, where Irwin was waiting to shelf the rebound.<\/p>\n
The Falcons came within one late in the second when Jordan Samuels-Thomas fed a perfect pass to Tomas Petruska from the blue line. Petruska was breaking toward the net and backhanded a shot over Lee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s glove to make it 2-1 after two periods.<\/p>\n
Mike Louwerse scored the game winner at 4:44 of the third as the Mavericks were just finishing a power play. Louwerse skated to the slot and was knocked to the ground by contact but was able to fling the puck toward Eno in net, where it bounced through the goaltender\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s legs for a 3-1 lead.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Eno finished with 32 saves and kept the game close despite a number of good scoring chances from the Mavericks.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Our goaltender played very well, which is great to see,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Bowling Green interim coach Dennis Williams. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153He missed most of last year and only played five games with a high ankle sprain. He worked hard this offseason to come back and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s really been playing well and with confidence.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Bowling Green didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make it any easier for itself in trying to erase a two goal deficit in the third. The Falcons\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 were on the penalty kill four times in the final period, and didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get a man advantage until there was 1:35 left to play, a power play in which they scored on with two seconds left in the game.<\/p>\n
The Mavericks and Falcons finish the series at 7:07 p.m. on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The Falcons will also get senior forwards Kai Kantola and James Perkin back, who were out of the lineup because of an NCAA-mandated suspension for fighting in last year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s regular-season finale against Ohio State.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Those are two guys that play on our first power-play unit,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Williams said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make excuses because we have other guys who can step in and they did a nice job for us, but to get those two back [Saturday] is a big plus.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
So far, so good for the first Minnesota State goaltending situation. Playing their first game in over two years sans stalwarts Mike Zacharias and Dan Tormey, Austin Lee stopped 18 shots in his first-ever regular season game to lead the Mavericks to a 3-2 nonconference victory against Bowling Green Friday night at Verizon Wireless Center. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9674"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9674"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=9674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}