Mike Kraft/MDN Minot State’s Brett Tataryn wins a race to the puck against U-Mary’s Crae Dawson during the third period at Maysa Arena on Tuesday, Feb. 3.

The rivalry between the Minot State and University of Mary men’s hockey teams has looked a lot like a sibling rivalry between an older and younger brother.

Every now and then, younger brother will get one over on older brother, but the vast majority of the time older brother prevails over younger brother.

The trend continued in the latest installment of the I-83 rivalry, with older brother once again coming out victorious over younger brother. The top-ranked Beavers recorded their 27th win over the Marauders in program history in a 4-2 victory on Tuesday, Feb. 3, at Maysa Arena.

“There’s a huge school rivalry and we get to see these guys six to eight times a year and every game matters,” Minot State junior Colby Joseph said. “They bring their best against us and it’s fun to have that little more jam to the game and seeing them and you kind of get a hate for them. It’s hockey and that intensity makes the game better.”

Minot State has won 10 of its last 11 meetings with U-Mary, improving to 27-3-2 in the eighth year of the rivalry. The Beavers are a perfect 17-0 against the Marauders in the friendly confines of Maysa Arena.

Despite the victory, Minot State coach Wyatt Waselenchuk was less than pleased with his team’s performance.

“We were not good tonight,” Waselenchuk said. “That was far and away in my opinion our worst performance of the season. We can’t overlook anybody and you certainly can’t overlook a team like that that’s knocking on a top-10 ranking. Just way too many mental mistakes tonight and just very uncharacteristic out of a lot of guys.”

Offense was at a premium in the opening period, with the two teams combining for just nine shots on goal over the first 20 minutes. Colby Joseph capitalized on his opportunity, putting the Beavers on the board at 8:16 of the opening stanza with a shot from the far-side faceoff circle. Joseph took possession of the puck at the defensive blue line and skated it up the far-side boards into the offensive zone. Joseph faked a pass to Logan Cyca on the opposite faceoff circle before firing a shot past U-Mary goaltender Zane Clausen to give the Beavers a 1-0 lead.

“I just knew I had guys coming up with me,” Joseph said. “The goalie had a good angle on me, so I thought I would just slow it down and looked like I was going to make a pass and the goalie bought and left that five-hole open and lucky I got that shot off quick enough.”

Cyca would get his opportunity in the ensuing period, getting behind the defense and burying a breakaway attempt at 4:12 of the frame to give Minot State (21-1-2) a two-goal advantage. Joey Moffatt saucered a pass to Cyca past three U-Mary defenders and Cyca did the rest. Clausen lost his edge and went stumbling to the ice as Cyca ripped a shot into the net.

Clausen’s night got off to a rough start before opening faceoff. During warmups, Clausen had one of his skate blades fall off, forcing him back into the locker room for an equipment change. He missed the opening minute of the game, with Caleb Cross playing the first 1:19.

Moffatt was in on Minot’s State third goal, feeding senior Jay Buchholz for the tally just 24 seconds into the final stanza while on the power play. Buchholz is part of a senior class that is now 17-3 against their in-state rival. Buchholz has a team-best four goals against the Marauders this season.

“We were handling the puck well,” Buchholz said. “When we got the puck in the o-zone, we took time with the puck and made the smart plays, but at the same time we have to fix up our d-zone a little bit, had some turnovers, but we’ll be good to go tomorrow.”

U-Mary (22-11-1) didn’t fold, instead scoring a pair of goals to make the Beavers sweat it out down the stretch. The Marauders got on the board with a power-play goal of its own, coming off the stick of their leading scorer Alex Senf 3:22 into the third. Senf netted his 19th goal of the year to give him 36 points.

Waselenchuk said he was most frustrated by the team’s carelessness with the pucks at times.

“We had 38 turnovers tonight and that’s just unacceptable on so many levels and it’s things we preach every day in practice,” Waselenchuk said. “We have to clean it up and at the same time understand that we didn’t play to our standards by any means and we still came away with two points. I did like our work ethic for the majority of the game, but I think we just struggled mentally.”

The Marauders cut the deficit to 3-2 with 3:26 left on John Lang’s first goal of the season and pulled Clausen soon after in favor of the extra skater. But Joseph ended U-Mary’s comeback hopes with an empty-net goal with 49 seconds remaining.

“It always seems to be good games and rivalry games, but we have to fight some adversity sometimes and we get a lead and they get a few, so we really have to dial it in and learn to play with the lead sometimes,” Buchholz said. “It just comes down to who wants in more in the end and we’ve been lucky enough to pull it out lately.”

Will Dyke picked up the win in net for the Beavers, finishing with 20 saves. Clausen made 29 stops in a losing effort.

The two teams meet again in Mandan on Wednesday, Feb. 4, to complete the weekday home-and-home series. Starion Sports Complex serves as the only road arena the Beavers have lost in regulation this season.

“They always have a good crowd,” Joseph said. “They pack the arena with a lot of energy and we need to bring our swagger. We owe them one in their rink and we know we weren’t at our best tonight and we have to go out there and regroup, knowing what we can do and just play Beaver hockey and we’ll be all right.”