Box Score Box Score
HOUGHTON, Mich. – In a hard-fought game with playoff implications, the UNO Mavericks and the Michigan Tech Huskies skated to a 3-3 tie on Friday night at the MacInnes Student Ice Arena.
The two teams began the night tied with North Dakota for fifth place in the WCHA but with UND winning 3-1 at Minnesota Duluth, UNO and MTU drop into a tie for sixth. The top six teams in the standings will have home ice advantage for the first round of the playoffs.
The Huskies got off to a quick start when defenseman Brad Stebner fired a shot from the left point that beat UNO's
Ryan Massa just 55 seconds into the game.
Michigan Tech doubled its lead when Bryce Reddick roared down the right wing and snapped a shot past Massa at 5:15.
At that point,
Dean Blais changed goalies, bringing in
John Faulkner. The move sparked the Mavs who pushed back and trimmed the Huskies' lead.
Ryan Walters spun around a Tech defenseman and walked in on goalie Josh Robinson. At the last minute, he threw the puck across to
Jayson Megna who rammed in his ninth goal of the year.
The Mavericks tied the game just 1:27 into the second period when
Bryce Aneloski gathered up an errant clearing pass, faked Robinson down and slipped home his fifth goal of the year. He now has points in six straight games.
UNO took its first lead at 7:30 when
Brent Gwidt stole another pass and fired a shot. The rebound jumped to Walters who scored into a half-empty net to make it 3-2 UNO.
The Huskies tied the game late in the period with the teams skating four-on-four. Jordan Baker walked down the right wing and fired a shot past Faulkner to make it 3-3.
Michigan Tech had three minutes of a major power play early in the third period as the result of a scrum at the end of the second period that included a five-minute major and a game misconduct to Walters. The Huskies could not cash in on it or another two-minute man advantage later in the period.
Faulkner made 26 saves on 27 shots while Robinson made 28 saves for the Huskies.
The Mavericks are now 12-11-6 overall and 9-7-5 in the WCHA while Michigan Tech is 13-13-3 overall and 10-6-3 in league play. The two teams conclude the series on Saturday at 4:07 p.m. CT.
