4-3 VICTORY FOR MICHIGAN TECH HUSKIES VERSUS MANKATO
In an intense single-elimination match against the Minnesota State Mavericks this Saturday, the Michigan Tech Huskies pulled through in the last seconds to win the game 4-3 and secure a berth in the Mason Cup Championship. Michigan Tech will hit the road to face the first seed Bemidji State Beavers in the championship game Friday, Mar. 22 at 8:07 p.m. EST.
The Huskies came out to a strong start, outshooting Mankato 6-1. However, a broken play just outside the Huskies’ blue line gave Mankato the lead at 7:08 minutes into the first period with just their second shot on goal. The rest of the first period remained uneventful, with shots on goal favoring Tech 13-8.
The Huskies would end up tying the game just 3:00 into the second period. A snappy cross-ice pass from Tyrone Bronte set up Max Koskipirtti to send the puck towards Jack Works right in front of the crease, who managed to direct the puck into the Mavericks’ net with his skate. The Mavericks would challenge the goal for the puck being kicked into the net, but after a lengthy review the officials let the goal stand.The Mavericks would retake the lead from a goal off the rush at 9:13 minutes into the second period. The score remained 2-1 for the remainder of the period, with the Huskies drawing a power play just 25 seconds before the end of the period, which carried into the third period.
The Huskies started the third period off strong, tying the game up just before their power play ended at 1:33 as a one-timer from Kash Rasmussen deflected off a defender before ending up in the net. However, after only a few minutes Minnesota State regained their lead on an impressive individual effort by Adam Eisele at 5:57.
Mankato held onto the lead until they took a penalty for hooking at 14:48, where a goal line scramble gave the Huskies’ captain Logan Pietila a penalty shot after a Mankato skater covered the puck with his hand in the goaltender’s crease. Logan scored on the penalty shot to tie the game at 3-3 with just over 4:33 remaining in the period, making the fans go crazy with excitement. The Mavericks managed to keep the Huskies from converting during the remainder of the original powerplay, and the game looked set to continue into overtime. In a dramatic turn of events, the Huskies’ Logan Pietila would score a game winning goal with less than 10 seconds left in regulation. After a faceoff in Mankato’s zone, the shot from Pietila bounced off the goaltender, hit the boards behind the goal, and then bounced off of a defender’s hand onto the goaltender’s head before finally ending up in the Mavericks’ net with only 9.1 seconds remaining.
Following the win Coach Shawhan spoke very highly of his team, saying, “I’ve never really felt a pulse of a team in… thirty-five years of coaching that I feel with this team.” Coach Shawhan and the Pietila twins Blake and Logan also took the time to praise the fans and the pep band in their post-game press conference, describing the energy of the crowd as “electric” and the pep band “phenomenal.”
Tickets for the championship game at Bemidji State can be purchased through Bemidji’s athletic department website. Tickets are $6.00 for the student section and $15.00 for specific seats in the arena. Michigan Tech has not posted about any bus services that will be traveling to the game so students will need to provide their own transportation to attend. If students can not attend the game in person, it will be available to watch live on FloHockey.tv for a fee.
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This week we will see is a team of champions can beat a champion team.