It took over 97 minutes of play Friday night, but the Minnesota State men’s hockey team finally broke a scoreless tie to pick up just its third-ever win over Minnesota.

The Mavericks’ 1-0 double overtime win gives them a 1-0 lead in the best of three Western Collegiate Hockey Association first round.

The Mavericks set the tone early when the conference’s worst penalty killing team killed off almost half of the first period while skating with a disadvantage.

Minnesota State was whistled for all four penalties in the period, but then played without an offense for nearly the next eighty minutes.

Finally, they made a mistake ñ a bench minor for too many men on the ice with just a few minutes remaining in the games second overtime.

But the Gophers 0-for-5 power-play unit ended up giving up an odd man rush with just over a minute left in the advantage, and a swift pass from junior forward Jon Kalinski to sophomore forward Trevor Breuss finally found a way to beat freshman goalie Alex Kangas.

“Our power-play was the one area that was very poor tonight,” Gophers coach Don Lucia said. “It was kind of fitting the way our power-play was in the first period that we gave up a shorthanded one to win it.”

Kangas and his counterpart, junior Mike Zacharias stole the show though ñ playing perfectly and making each other for nearly 100 minutes.

“You didn’t see a whole lot of mistakes in that hockey game,” Minnesota State coach Troy Jutting said.” I thought both teams played pretty sharp.”

Game two is scheduled for Saturday night at 7:07 p.m. when the Mavericks will try to sweep the series and advance to its third ever WCHA Final Five.