{"id":31133,"date":"2022-04-07T23:34:02","date_gmt":"2022-04-08T03:34:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=31133"},"modified":"2022-04-08T13:49:52","modified_gmt":"2022-04-08T17:49:52","slug":"frozen-four-minnesota-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2022\/04\/07\/frozen-four-minnesota-state\/","title":{"rendered":"Frozen Four: Minnesota State rolls past Minnesota to move on to national championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Patrick Donnelly<\/em><\/p>\n

BOSTON — The Minnesota State University Mavericks scored five unanswered goals to come back and win 5-1 against the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers on Thursday at TD Garden to advance to the national championship against Denver.<\/p>\n

Sophomore forwards Ondrej Pavel and David Silye each had a goal and an assist for Minnesota State (38-5-0, 20-1-0 CCHA), who have won 18 games in a row. Senior goaltender Dryden McKay made 16 saves.<\/p>\n

“I thought we played a very good first period even though <\/span>we were down,” Mavericks head coach Mike Hastings said. “The guys did a really good job of just <\/span>sticking with it. There wasn’t a lot of panic on the bench or <\/span>in the locker room. As they have this entire season, they <\/span>stuck with it and they were rewarded for it. <\/span>It was a good effort for us. We’re excited to have an <\/span>opportunity to play for a national championship.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Freshman forward Matthew Knies scored for Minnesota (26-13-0, 18-6-0 Big Ten), and junior forward Justen Close made 26 saves.<\/p>\n

“Mankato, you got to <\/span>give them an enormous amount of credit. For big chunks <\/span>of the game they kicked our butt,” Golden Gphers head coach Bob Motzko said. “I’m so proud of our guys. This is a terrific group of guys we had. This is not indicative of what the season we had was. Been a terrific season, a terrific team. We just ran into a really good hockey team tonight.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Knies gave the Gophers a 1-0 lead with 11 minutes remaining in the first, finishing a 2-0n-0 with junior forward Bryce Brodzinski.<\/p>\n

“I kind of saw Matt out of the <\/span>corner of my eye,” Brodzinski said. “I turned around, and I knew I kind of had to <\/span>get him involved. That was kind of our only way of beating <\/span>[McKay], kind of getting him to move laterally. ..<\/span>. It was a big opportunity, especially being our first shot of the game, being able to crack them early kind of kept us in it for a while.”<\/span><\/p>\n

McKay did not think giving up the 2-on-0 deflated Minnesota State very much.<\/p>\n

“I couldn’t tell you the last time I faced a <\/span>2-on-0 in a game,” McKay said. “Wish I could have come up with it. <\/span>I think we do enough of them in practice. It is what it is. Puck took a bounce. All that was really going through my head is that would have been a huge save if I would have made it, a momentum builder. It didn’t really seem to matter for the guys. We stuck with it. Eventually we were rewarded.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Senior defenseman Benton Maass tied it 1-1 at 12:38 of the second on a wraparound that found a way through Close’s pad.<\/p>\n

<\/span>“Lucas Sowder made a pretty good play <\/span>to get the puck down low to me, and I kind of did a little <\/span>shoulder check and saw I had more time and space than I <\/span>thought,” Maass said. “I was able to get to the side of the net. Coach is a <\/span>big preacher of, if we get there, it’s got to go to the net. I <\/span>kind of just threw it on net and hoped for a rebound <\/span>because I knew we had guys in front. Fortunately it was <\/span>able to go in the far side.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Senior forward Reggie Lutz put the Mavericks ahead 2-1 with 6:29 remaining in the second. Sophomore forward David Silye’s one-timer found a way through before hitting the post and dropping straight down. Lutz found it and banked in a wraparound.<\/p>\n

“When I was <\/span>younger, every time I would score a wraparound goal, my <\/span>dad would take me to McDonald’s, and I’d get a Happy <\/span>Meal,” Lutz said. “I’ve been working on it for a while and it was <\/span>pretty cool to see it work on the big stage. Like I said, ever <\/span>since I was probably five, I’ve been practicing wraparound <\/span>goals. It was able to pay off tonight, so it was pretty cool.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Minnesota State outshot the Gophers 21-11 through the first two periods.<\/p>\n

“I mean, we had to get in front of <\/span>[McKay’s] eyes,” Knies said. “Our [defense] did a hell of a job tonight getting pucks on <\/span>that, but we just weren’t there. I think we had a plan that the <\/span>boards were bouncy behind the nets, the more we could <\/span>get on top of those, the better we can become. But we just <\/span>weren’t there tonight.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Pavel made it 3-1 just 1:03 into the third, redirecting senior defenseman Jack McNeely’s slap shot from the point.<\/p>\n

Silye extended it to 4-1 with 6:43 left after Minnesota turned it over on the breakout, picking the top left corner, and junior forward Brendan Furry scored on an empty net with 1:09 left for the 5-1 final.<\/p>\n

It was the second time in NCAA history that there were no penalties assessed in a Frozen Four game.<\/p>\n

Puck drop on Saturday is set for 8 p.m. It will be the first time the Mavericks will play for the Division I title.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Patrick Donnelly BOSTON — The Minnesota State University Mavericks scored five unanswered goals to come back and win 5-1 against the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers on Thursday at TD Garden to advance to the national championship against Denver. Sophomore forwards Ondrej Pavel and David Silye each had a goal and an assist for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17459,"featured_media":31135,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1026,1028,19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31133"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17459"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31133"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31155,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31133\/revisions\/31155"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}