By Andrew Erickson / @CarvellMedia / sports@kvsc.org / Photo by SCSU Atheltics

The Huskies (5-7-4) came into their first Mariucci Classic without their head coach and 32 places behind the Minnesota State Mavericks (15-2-1) in the pairwise rankings.

The numbers all pointed toward a Mavericks victory but numbers don’t play hockey games as the Huskies dominated to a 7-2 final.

Freshman Zach Okabe carried this effort with a natural hat trick to open the game. He tallied his first four goals of his collegiate career in this game as well.

Junior Easton Brodzinski picked up his 7th goal of the season in the second period. He moves into a tie for team lead with sophomore Sam Hentges.

Senior Jake Wahlin and sophomore Micah Miller also scored in this one.

Freshman Jaxon Castor was in net for the Huskies getting the win stopping 16 shots. He finished with 3.04 GAA and a .883 save percentage, while claiming his first collegiate win in this one.

The Huskies chased one of the top goalies in the country from his net in the second period after Dryden McKay let in 5 goals on 14 shots. The backup Jacob Berger let in two on 11 shots the rest of the way.

Shots finished 25-18 in favor of the Huskies and faceoffs finished 25-22 in favor of MSU.

Special Teams resulted in no goals as SCSU went 0-3 and MSU went 0-1.

The Huskies will play for The Mariucci Classic Championship tomorrow night at 7 p.m.. The game will be on 88.1 KVSC where Andrew Erickson and Nick Maxson will have the call. The Huskies will play the winner of Saturday nights game of Bemidji State and Minnesota.