MANKATO — The stands were packed, the atmosphere was tense, the players were fired up.
It was a perfect night for hockey on Tuesday as Mankato East hosted Mankato West at All Seasons Arena in a Big Nine Conference game. The fans got their money’s worth as the Cougars held on for a 3-2 victory.
“West is a scrappy team, they play hard,” said Owen Quist, who led East with two goals, including the game-winner. “When we went up 3-2, I knew there was no way we could relax. West can surprise you at any moment.”
The Cougars scored the only goal of the first period. Boston Beltz entered the West zone, slipped a pass to Quist on his right wing and the latter skated down to the bottom of the left circle before hitting a tough angle shot over the stick-side shoulder of goalie Mason Schreiber. The goal came with just 1:13 left in the frame.
The star of the opening session was West’s penalty kill which turned away seven minutes worth of man-advantage opportunities. The big infraction was a 5-minute boarding penalty just 12 seconds into the game.
Each team scored a goal in the second. East’s Christian Theuninck slid one in from the right side of the goal mouth at 6:29 and West’s Hunter Rigdon scored on a rare penalty shot opportunity at 13:24. Rigdon was tripped while going to the net, resulting in the bonus shot.
In the third, West tied the game at 2 at the 7:37 mark as Gage Schmidt connected on a power-play shot from the slot. Five minutes later, East’s Quist skated hard to the net and took a shot from between the circles that gave his club a 3-2 lead.
“He didn’t give us breathing room but he did give us the lead,” East head coach Adam Fries said of Quist’s game-winner. “We knew we just had to play smart hockey the rest of the way.”
Both teams had scoring chances in the final four minutes. With about a minute left, West coach Nate Olsen took a timeout and both teams regrouped.
“I just told the guys to keep the puck along the boards and don’t put it in the middle of the ice,” Fries said. “They did a nice job executing.
“We’ve been struggling a little bit and we’re just trying to right the ship. We changed the lineup a little bit and it worked OK. I hope, when we’ve had a chance to practice it a little bit more, it will start paying off.”
Quist echoed those sentiments: “We’ve been going in all different directions but now it looks like we’re pointing north. We need to stay that way.”
East won the shot battle 31-27. Brody Kunst got the win in net and Schreiber took the loss. East improves to 5-3, while West moves to 4-3-1.