The Mavs wrapped up the 2021-22 USPHL regular season on Saturday night by taking the defending division champion, Metro Jets, down to the wire in a thrilling 3-2 overtime loss. Following a tough 7-0 defeat the night before, the Mavs were looking to bounce back at home as the team honored it’s age-out 20-year-old players in their final regular season game at home.

It was the visiting Jets who would open the scoring half-way through the first period; however, it would not take the Mavs long to bounce back and tie the game up just two minutes later with a goal from Chance Settles at the 11:56 mark, assisted by Tyler Isherwood and Ryan Lempicki. Despite plenty of physical action and numerous scoring chances, the second period would see no movement on the scoreboard.

As the third period crossed the half-way point, the Mavs would take their first lead of the game thanks to an unassisted goal from Thiago Jeronimo at the 12:27 mark. As the final minutes ticked off the clock, the Mavs worked to hold off the advances of the visiting Jets. With just under a minute to play, the visiting Jets would score the game-tying goal and send the game to overtime.

The 3-on-3 overtime period would see no shortage of action; however, despite the Mavs’ best efforts, the Jets would get a lucky break at the 4:25 mark thanks to a lopsided line change and sneak the game winning goal past the Mavs’ netminder.

It was, in fact, Mavericks’ veteran netminder, Alex Toth, who would steal the show. Looking to make a statement in his final regular season game in a Mavericks jersey, Toth would stand on his head to turn away 42 of 45 shots from the defending division champions.

Despite falling to the Jets over the weekend, the Mavs managed to turn in a program best record of 30-11-2-1, finishing in third place in the perennially tough Great Lakes division.

The third place finish in the division has not only clinched a playoff berth, but has also secured home-ice advantage for the Mavericks. The Mavs will enter round one of the playoffs this coming weekend with a best-of-three series against the 6th place Lake Erie Bighorns. All games will be played at OhioHealth Chiller North, with game one on Friday, March 4th at 8:00 PM, game 2 on Saturday, March 5th at 6:30 PM, and game 3 (if needed) on Sunday, March 6th at 12:30 PM.

The Mavs faced off against the Bighorns in the first round of last year’s playoffs and emerged victorious after three hard-fought games before falling to the Metro Jets in round 2. Tickets to all three games are on sale now on the Mavericks website.