Harrison's hat-trick leads Mavs past Sioux 5-1.

The Minnesota State Men's Hockey Team, led by Forward Zach Harrison's shorthanded hat-trick picked up its first WCHA victory of the '08-'09 campign tonight in front of a crowd of 5004 at the Alltel Center in Mankato. Early in the game it looked as if the Sioux had finally found what they had been looking for, when Matt Watkins lit the lamp for the first goal of the game at 4:36 of the first period, on a turnover by a Mavs player in his own zone, giving UND a 1-0 lead. Less than two minutes later at 6:16 of the first, Geoff Irwin found the back of the net for his third goal of the season, on a pretty goal top shelf. Assists were given to Mick Berge and Brian Kilburg. 1;07 later, the Mavericks took the lead on a power play goal by Kael Mouillierat, who was playing in his first game of the season coming off of a two game suspension. Defenseman Kurt Davis and Mick Berge were credited with the assists. Tha Mavericks wouldn't look back from there. The Mavs continued the scoring at 8:25 of the second period when Jerad Stewart fed Zach Harrison the puck, who then used a Sioux defenseman as a screen and scored a beautiful shorthanded goal that went cross bar and in, giving the Mavs a 3-1 edge. At the end of two, the Mavs led 3-1, and in the last six minutes of the second period or so the sioux generated some chances, but Senior goaltender Mike Zacharias was up to the task. It didn't take long for Harrison and the Mavericks to get going, when Zach picked off a pass and raced around a Sioux defenseman to score another pretty goal, this time deking and going glove side on Sioux netminder Aaron Walski, at :53 of the third and final frame. Harrison capped off the scoring with a clear on a 6 on 3 penalty kill, that found an empty North Dakota net, helping the Mavs win 5-1, and improve to 3-0-0 (1-0-0) on the year. The Sioux dropped their third straight game, and are now 0-3-0 (0-1-0.) Special Teams were key tonight, as the Mavs were 1-5 on the PP and had 3 shorthanded goals, and the Sioux were 0-9 on the PP. Mike Zacharias improved to 3-0-0 on the year, making 34 saves on the night. The same two teams faceoff again tomorrow night in the series finale, when the puck drops at 7:07 at the Alltell Center.