• Box Score: Minn. St.-Mankato 5, UNO 3, OT

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MANKATO, Minn. — UNO, which earned a split last weekend with the team tied for the WCHA lead, had to settle for a split this weekend with Minnesota State-Mankato, the team that had been tied for last.

Having already squandered three one-goal leads Saturday night, UNO managed to force overtime on Jayson Megna’s goal with 9.7 seconds left — after the Mavericks had pulled goalie John Faulkner for an extra attacker.

But Johnny McInnis’ wrist shot with 1:55 left in overtime gave MSU a 5-4 victory and a split of the series before 3,834 at the Verizon Wireless Center.

“We don’t get the puck in deep, then it’s turnover, shot, goal,” UNO coach Dean Blais said. “That’s how fast it happened.”

The Mavs had three one-goal leads, but never could put away Minnesota State. Eriah Hayes completed a hat trick on a goal with 2:14 left in regulation to give Minnesota State a 4-3 lead.

Josh Archibald made a run at a hat trick for UNO, scoring each of the Mavs’ first two goals. But Hayes tied the game with a power-play goal with 3:05 left in the first period, and Zach Lehrke tied it with 16:24 left in the second period.

Archibald, a freshman winger with 10 goals, spent most of the game centering the Mavs’ top line after Brock Montpetit was hit with a game misconduct for his checking from behind for a major penalty late in the first period.

Archibald “scored two real nice goals, and he was a real spark to his linemates,” Blais said. “We might have found another center.”

Montpetit is one of only two true centers on the Mavs’ roster, so they were down to one — Megna — without him. It was the third time in four games UNO had to shorten its bench because of a game misconduct by a forward.

“That really cost us,” Blais said. “The effort was there. The guys played hard. And when we were rolling with four lines (before Montpetit was tossed), it was one of our best performances of the year. Their goaltender made some nice saves.”

The loss also cost UNO a chance to move up to third place in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. Minnesota beat Colorado College to break a tie with top-ranked Minnesota-Duluth — against whom UNO split with last week.

The Mavs (12-10-4 overall, 9-6-3 WCHA) could have jumped Colorado College (14-9-1, 11-7) with a win, but instead are still one point behind the Tigers and five behind the first-place Golden Gophers (17-9-1, 13-5).

Blais said missing out on the chance for two points doesn’t bother him as much as missing a chance at one. UNO would have earned a point with a tie.

“One would have been huge,” he said. “But we got the split and we move forward.”

Bryce Aneloski gave UNO a 3-2 lead just 3:04 into the third period. He scored on a wrist shot from the high slot through a screen provided by Zahn Raubenheimer and Megna.

But Hayes’ second goal tied it 6:05 later. The wrist shot deflected off the glove of goalie Dayn Belfour and trickled into the net.

Blais pulled Belfour at that point, replacing him with Faulkner.

“A wrist shot that hit his glove, and I thought it was kind of a weak goal,” Blais said.

Faulkner hadn’t made the trip, but joined the team Saturday because Ryan Massa was injured during overtime of UNO’s 2-1 win on Friday.

Massa, who had been taken from the ice on a stretcher, was evaluated at a local hospital and released early Saturday, spending the night at the team hotel.

UNO’s athletic training staff said that Massa, a freshman from Littleton, Colo., has a head injury and will be re-evaluated by team doctors on Monday.

Massa attended UNO’s Saturday morning practice in Mankato, though he didn’t participate.

UNO had shaken off the scare by game time, but just couldn’t shake off Minnesota State.

“We had a bunch of mental mistakes and had breakdowns all over the ice,” Blais said. “But we tied it and had a chance in overtime, and just made a critical mistake.”

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