MANKATO, Minn. – The Alaska Nanooks hockey team's 2017-18 season came to a heartbreaking end on Saturday night, as a four-goal third period sent the No. 3 Minnesota State Mavericks past the Nooks 6-2 in a must-win Western Collegiate Hockey Association matchup at the Verizon Center. The loss knocks Alaska out of the 2018 WCHA Playoffs, thus ending their season under first-year head coach Lance West.

The Nanooks close out the 2017-18 campaign with an overall record of 11-22-3, while the Mavericks improve to 28-7-1. As the No. 1 seed in the WCHA Playoffs, Mankato will host the semifinals at the Verizon Center next weekend.

"I thought we played hard early on and Niko gave us every opportunity to win. Our guys were battling but we just didn't create enough offense," West said on Saturday. "We had our chances and the guys actually did well on the power play with a couple great looks but their goalie made some key saves. We had to score and we tried to keep it in and they got that bounce to send them on a breakaway shorthanded and from there, we had to push a little bit and take some risks and they capitalized on that."

Things were looking good for the Nanooks early on, as senior forward Tayler Munson tallied a power play goal only 51 seconds into the game to give Alaska a 1-0 lead. Senior defenseman Zach Frye rifled a shot from the point that went just wide of the net, but the puck's bounce off of the boards behind the net landed right on Munson's stick backdoor for his eighth goal of the season.

Minnesota State responded at the 10:50 mark, as Edwin Hookenson's long shot found the back of the net through a lot of traffic in front of Alaska's sophomore goaltender Niko DellaMaggiore to tie the game at 1-1.  Before the first period concluded, MSU's Dallas Gerads tipped a goal on the power play to give the Mavericks a 2-1 lead after 20.

After a scoreless second period, Minnesota State scored four unanswered goals in the third period, including three on special teams. MSU's Nick Rivera scored a shorthanded goal on a Nanook turnover to make it 3-1 at the 5:43 mark before Connor Mackey made it 4-1 not even a minute later with an even-strength tally at the 6:08.

The momentum kept swinging in favor of Minnesota State, as MSU's Daniel Brickley tallied a power play goal at the 7:36 mark before Mankato's Marc Michaelis netted another PPG at the 10:38 mark to make it 6-1.

The Nanooks found themselves on the 5-on-3 power play late in the game, when a shot from Frye in the high slot made its way through traffic to make it 6-2. Frye's 11th goal of the season was assisted by sophomore forward Troy Van Tetering and redshirt-senior defenseman Justin Woods.

Despite the score, DellaMaggiore put on a show at the Verizon Center in only his fourth career start. The Gilroy, California native collected 12 saves in the first period, 15 saves in the second period and six in the third for a new career-high 33 saves.

On the other end of the ice, MSU's LaCouvee made 22 stops throughout the game with 13 coming in the third period alone. Alaska was outshot by their opponent 39-24 in their final game of the season. In the special teams race, Alaska went 2-for-6 on the man-advantage while Minnesota State went 3-for-7.

"You know, they are a good hockey team but I'm extremely proud of the way our guys played tonight, they played a really hard-fought game," West concluded. "I felt bad for Niko because he really played so well and made so many good saves tonight. This season was my first chance to be a head coach and it was a great group of kids. Not the finish that we wanted but they gave me everything that they had and I'm just proud to be part of it."

The Nanooks say goodbye to five seniors following Saturday's game, including Frye, senior defenseman Nick Hinz, Munson, senior forward Austin Vieth and Woods.

For more information on the Alaska Nanooks hockey team, follow @NanooksHockey on Twitter or like the Alaska Nanooks Hockey team page on Facebook.