GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Minnesota State Mankato's season came to an end when the Mavericks lost 2-1 to Ferris State on Saturday in the championship game of the WCHA Final Five.
The Mavericks took a 1-0 lead on Bryce Gervais' power-play goal midway through the opening period. He deflected a shot taken by senior defenseman Jon Jutzi from the point.
The Bulldogs tied the score about four minutes later on Brandon Anselmini's power-play goal. And Ferris State took a 2-1 lead on Gerald Mayhew's penalty shot with 26 seconds left in the second period. It was his 14th goal of the season and came after the Mavericks' Carter Foguth was called for closing his hand on the puck.
"Usually when we've got off to scoring the first goal, we've had pretty good luck," Mavericks coach Mike Hastings said. "But I thought Ferris just kept coming. We couldn't keep up with their pace. And so I thought we were chasing the game quite a bit tonight. It's one of the first times in a long time that we've lost the possession battle, but we did tonight. That's the game.
"You want to give credit to Ferris because they deserved it."
Cole Huggins stopped 27 shots for MSU Mankato (21-13-7), which had won this tournament the past two seasons and tied for the WCHA regular-season title with Michigan Tech this season.
Ferris State goalie Darren Smith needed to make only 13 saves — one in the third period.
The Mavericks, who were held to a season-low 14 shots, were 1-for-4 on the power play, the Bulldogs 1-5.
