Holiday-week musings

It's pretty quiet around the college ranks over the holidays. Minnesota State is off until New Year's Day when it begins a nonconference home series against RIT.

There is a little hockey buzz in Mankato, however, as Mankato East/Loyola and Mankato West square off in girls and boys hockey tonight (Tuesday). I expect the boys game to be the most competitive the series has seen in several years.

In the meantime, here are a few items of interest I've come across:

Midseason report

The Wisconsin State Journal's Andy Baggot did a nice, extensive analysis of the first half of the WCHA season. You can read it here. Here are a few nuggets that I found especially interesting:

• North Dakota was 7-1-1 before captain and all-league defenseman Chay Genoway got hurt. Since then, the Sioux are 2-5-2. Baggot says Genoway is the first-half player of the year. You can certainly make that case.

• Wisconsin leads the WCHA with 50 even-strength goals. That's an amazing number, especially when the second-place team in that category is Minnesota State with 34. Colorado College and Minnesota Duluth have 33 each.

• Minnesota State has 19 special-teams goals (all power-play goals), while CC has 31, Duluth has 29.

Future Maverick honored

The United States Hockey League named the Fargo Force's Chase Grant as its offensive player of the week. The Force captain scored five goals in three games -- a loss and two wins -- and has 18 points in 25 games this season.

Mankato native earns award

Former Mankato West goaltender Tyler Bruggeman was named the North American Hockey League's goaltender of the week after stopping 48 of 53 shots in a pair of wins for the St. Louis Bandits.

“Tyler has been a huge presence for us since we acquired him,” said Bandits assistant coachRocky Russo. “His performance has allowed us to feel even more comfortable with Garrett(Bartus’) decision to move on to (the University of Connecticut after the holiday break). His teammates trust that he can bring a consistent effort every night.”

Bruggeman is third in the NAHL in save percentage (.929) tied for sixth in the league in goals-against average (2.16). Look for a column about his season and his adventures in junior hockey in Wednesday's edition of The Free Press.