Thursday, November 20, 2008

Mouillierat out and rookie numbers

Not surprisingly, Minnesota State forward Kael Mouillierat is not making the trip to Michigan Tech this weekend. The injury, suffered during Friday night's game, will keep him out for awhile, both he and coach Troy Jutting said. However, neither could give an exact timeline for return.

Meanwhile, Michigan Tech is also struggling with injuries, and had a scare last weekend at Minnesota when senior Malcolm Gwilliam fell ill before Sunday's game and had to be hospitalized for several days.

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There have been some questions from readers about the Mavericks' lineup, specifically why freshman Justin Jokinen hasn't played the last few games. He is on the trip to Tech, although it doesn't appear that he's playing Friday night. Freshman Mike Louwerse, Tyler Thompson and Joe Schiller will, though.

Last week, Jutting said that he is pleased with all of the true freshman -- Louwerse, a redshirt, is pretty much in a different category, especially with is numbers this season -- and that they're all getting a chance to play. There isn't a rotation per se, but they're all getting looks.

Here are the freshman numbers this year (* denotes redshirt):

Mike Louwerse*, F ... 9 GP ... 6-3--9 ... 4 PIM (corrected)
Tyler Thompson, F ... 7 GP ... 1-1--2 ... 2 PIM
Cameron Cooper, D ... 5 GP ... 1-0--1 ... 2 PIM
Justin Jokinen, F ... 7 GP ... 1-0--1 ... 4 PIM
Adam Mueller, F ... 6 GP ... 0-1--1 ... 0 PIM
Joe Schiller, F ... 5 GP ... 0-1--1 ... 2 PIM
Baylor Dieter, D ... 0 GP
Brett Peterson*, F ... 0 GP
Austin Lee*, G ... 0 GP

With such a veteran team, the Mavericks haven't had to force their rookies into the lineup every night like they did a couple of years ago. That's probably a big reason they're off to such a solid start to the season.

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