Weekend reaction

With the Mavericks playing at St. Lawrence, I ended up covering some Mankato East basketball and Gustavus Adolphus men's hockey over the weekend (check out my story on the Gusties' 6-foot-8 goaltender — yes, 6-foot-8 — John McLean, here ... he's helped Gustavus to a seven-game winning streak).

Anyway, I wasn't able to get reaction to Minnesota State's split with the Saints until after what appeared to be a pretty hard-skating practice on Monday (MSU has today off). You can see some of coach Troy Jutting's comments in this story.

Jutting said his team played five good periods against a fast-skating St. Lawrence team that has a real stud player in Kyle Flanagan. The one not-so-good period, however, was not the one in which they allowed two late goals. It was the first of the weekend when the Mavericks took some time to adjust to the small rink. Jutting said the Saints' game-winning goal was a combination defensive breakdown/soft goal.

The Mavericks bounced back to win on Saturday, thanks in part to a spectacular outing by Phil Cook in goal. Jutting said Cook got back to playing "like Phil" and that Austin Lee did a fine job on Friday night.

Now, it's back to WCHA action. If you want a jumpstart on what's going on with Wisconsin, this weekend's opponent, you can read the transcript of coach Mike Eaves' Monday press conference here.

In other WCHA news, St. Cloud State forward Cam Reid is leaving the team to play in the Western Hockey League. Reid has 15 points in 22 games for the Huskies, so that's a bit of a blow for St. Cloud.