Box Score     Omaha, Neb. --- 20^th-rated Minnesota State saw its winning streak end at seven with #13 Nebraska Omaha claiming a 5-1 win over the Mavericks in a men’s Western Collegiate Hockey Association game played in Omaha, Neb., Saturday night.

Nebraska Omaha scored a pair of goals 24 seconds apart in opening up a 2-0 first-period lead. Johnny Searfoss snapped a shot over the left shoulder of Minnesota State freshman Stephon Williams at 16:09 for the game’s first goal. Dominic Zombo tallied at 16:36 and the opening stanza ended with UNO owning a 2-0 edge.

The only goal of the middle period came at 6:02 when Ryan Walters tapped in a pass from Josh Archibald.
MSU cut the lead to 3-1 on a goal by sophomore forward Matt Leitner at 7:24, but UNO closed out the game with two more tallies – one into an empty net at 17:13 as MSU had Williams on the bench for an extra attacker, and then the last goal at 17:37.

Now 10-6-2 overall and 8-6-0 in WCHA games on the season, Minnesota State was outshot by a 33-28 margin in the game. The Mavericks finished zero-for-four on the power play, while Nebraska Omaha was zero-for-two  with the man advantage.  

Next action for Minnesota State is Dec. 29-30 when the Mavericks play in a tournament hosted be the University of Connecticut.  The Mavericks are slated to play Brown on the 29^th and then will play either American International or Connecticut the next day.

Minnesota State head coach Mike Hastings commented after the game.

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