Minnesota State’s impressive 11-game unbeaten streak and six-game winning streak came to a shockingly bad end on Friday with a 3-2 loss to lowly Northern Michigan, the CCHA’s last-place team and, by many statistical measures, one of the worst teams in the country. The Mavericks bounced back on Saturday in Marquette with a must-win, dominating play early en route to a 6-1 victory. But the damage was already done in the Pairwise Rankings, as MSU dropped to No. 16 on Friday and stayed there through the weekend.
Rusty or not due to the long semester/holiday break — even with an exhibition and glorified scrimmage in there — the split was a tough pill to swallow. While I wouldn’t expect the Mavericks to go undefeated the rest of the way, Friday’s loss certainly cut down their margin for error over what remains of the regular season.
This is a good team that can’t afford to spend a night playing with its food. When it eats, it’s proven it can play with anyone in the country. When it doesn’t, it’s vulnerable to anyone in the conference or the country.
Here are my three thoughts of the series …
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