Friday morning skate

Good morning. Just getting ready to hit the road for Duluth in a couple of hours. It's one of my favorite road trips for college hockey. Barring a playoff meeting, this will be the last year the Mavericks will play in the DECC, which is being replaced by a new $80 million arena nearby.

As for tonight's series, Minnesota State is trying to take some momentum from last weekend's wins over Bowling Green. In today's Free Press, you can read about Mavericks tough guy Channing Boe, who took quite the shot to his face in his first shift of the season. Remember, he missed the final 10 games and the playoffs of last season with a broken leg.

The rest of my preview is not online (unless you get our e-edition), but Austin Lee will start in goal tonight (Kevin Murdock likely on Saturday). Four freshmen are slated to be in the lineup, including forwards Tyler Pitlick and Eriah Hayes and defensemen Tyler Elbrecht and Evan Mosey.

Speaking of freshmen, the Bulldogs have some who want to make a big impact before they go off to the NHL someday. Also in the Duluth News Tribune, UMD will have some lineup changes as senior defenseman Trent Palm could return from hip surgery and highly touted forward Mike Connolly will be back after missing last weekend's games for violating team rules.

Going around the WCHA, there is a big early season matchup in Grand Forks where North Dakota is hosting Minnesota. The series will include a meeting of best friends: the Sioux's Danny Kristo and the Gophers' Jordan Schroeder. The Herald's notebook on the series can be found here. The paper also took a Vikings-Packers approach and found some families divided by the UND-Minny rivalry. ... Meanwhile, the Star Tribune takes a look at the Gophers' co-captains, Tony Lucia and Ryan Flynn and looks back on Minnesota's lost weekend in North Dakota last season, while the Pioneer Press features Gophers goalie Alex Kangas, who took a step back in '08-09.

Although it's the WCHA's opening weekend, there is just one other meeting between conference teams: Colorado College at Wisconsin. For the Tigers, a team expected to take a tumble this season, they are 7-1 in their last eight games at Madison. ... The Badgers, who are playing for the first time tonight, will start junior Brett Bennett in goal following a preseason battle for the job. Bennett is a transfer from Boston University.

Denver played Ohio State on Thursday night and won 2-0, getting a shutout after allowing 10 goals their season-opening series against Vermont. The Pioneers have high-scoring forward Anthony Maiani back from a suspension for violating team rules.

St. Cloud will host Union in nonconference play, and the Times features defenseman Oliver Lauridsen, whose mother is traveling from their native Denmark to watch her son play.

The Anchorage Daily News takes a look at some of the Seawolves' freshmen and how their first weekend of college hockey went down.

Here are some previews by USCHO and the This is the WCHA blog. The MSU Reporter features Mavericks forward Kael Mouillierat. And the Star Tribune makes its WCHA predictions, putting MSU ninth.

Have you read something interesting about college hockey today? Let me know in the comments section.