Friday-morning skate

Good morning. Minnesota State is stepping out of WCHA play for the next month, although it will preview what's to come in the conference by playing future members Bemidji State and Nebraska-Omaha over the next two weeks.

In Bemidji tonight, the Mavericks will keep their top three lines and their defensive pairings the same as the last few series, but will mix up the fourth line -- Adam Mueller, Eli Zuck, Justin Jokinen -- and give Phil Cook his first career start in goal.

Despite being nonconference rivals, MSU and Bemidji seem to have more connections than a lot of teams do. Here are a few: Minnesota State's first-year assistant coach Todd Knott played his college hockey at Bemidji State, MSU coach Troy Jutting and BSU coach Tom Serratore were freshman-year roommates at Mankato State (Serratore eventually transferred to Bemidji), Beavers captain Chris McKelvie is the brother of former Mavericks assistant captain Ryan McKelvie.

And then there's MSU defenseman Channing Boe, a Bemidji native who has played many games at the John S. Glas Fieldhouse. The Bemidji Pioneer also got ahold of Boe this week.

As for the Beavers, they may be ranked fourth in the country and first in the Pairwise, but they believe they have a lot to prove against a future WCHA opponent this weekend. Here is the Pioneer's video preview of the series.

The rest of the WCHA is wrapping up the first half of the conference schedule this weekend.

St. Cloud State hosts Colorado College, and Huskies freshman goaltender Mike Lee is profiled in the St. Cloud Times. Meanwhile, Tigers freshman forward Rylan Schwartz is off to a great start despite some off-ice distractions that would be tough for any college student to handle.

In another matchup of ranked teams, defensemen are the focus of the stories as Denver will travel to Minnesota Duluth. The Denver Post takes a look at the Pioneers' low-profile but hard-hitting John Ryder, while the Duluth News-Tribune shows how the Bulldogs' Mike Montgomery has benefitted by switching from forward to defense.

Minnesota travels to Michigan Tech where a good weekend could leapfrog the Gophers over Minnesota State in the WCHA standings. The Huskies, meanwhile are struggling and beat up.

North Dakota hosts Wisconsin in a big series, but another big competition at the Ralph Englestad Arena is a table-tennis battle between Sioux seniors Darcy Zajac and Chris VandeVelde. Meanwhile, the Badgers are the only visiting WCHA team that has a winning record at the Ralph.

Be sure to check back with PucKato for a live blog during tonight's MSU-BSU game.