Weekend update

Trying to shake out a busy weekend of college hockey after a night off. ...

In the WCHA, Minnesota State, as expected, slipped in the standings, but no one got a big jump. Minnesota took three points against Minnesota Duluth and North Dakota split at Denver to leapfrog over the Mavericks. But as you can see from the standings. MSU remains in a pretty good spot for home ice.

WCHA standings
1. St. Cloud State (33 points)
2. Minnesota (31)
3. Nebraska Omaha (30)
    North Dakota (30)
5. Minnesota State (29)
6. Denver (27)
    Wisconsin (27)
8. Colorado College (22)
9. Minnesota Duluth (21)
10. Bemidji State (16)
      Michigan Tech (16)
12. Alaska Anchorage (10)

All teams have played 24 games, except UMD and UAA with 26.

Even better for Minnesota State was that it moved up a spot in the Pairwise Rankings, going from seventh to sixth. The Mavs are now back to seventh.

In other college hockey of local interest, the Gustavus men defeated St. Thomas 1-0 in the MIAC semifinals on Saturday night, getting a 24-save shutout from Tyler Venne and a lone goal from Jack Walsh, who finished off a 2-on-1 play from former Maverick Corey Leivermann. The Gusties will travel to St. Cloud on Saturday for a 2 p.m. conference championship game against St. John's. The winner gets an automatic berth into the NCAA tournament. During their regular-season meeting, the Gusties and Johnnies tied twice, 3-3 and 1-1.

The Gustavus women, meanwhile, closed out a perfect conference season, going 18-0-0 in league play. They also finished their overall schedule undefeated with a 24-0-1 record. The MIAC playoffs begin this week, and the Gusties will host a semifinal game on Thursday, playing the winner of Tuesday's game between Bethel and St. Catherine.

The Minnesota State women's team wrapped up its regular season with a tie (and shootout loss) at Ohio State. The Mavericks finished sixth in the WCHA, their highest finish in the league under coach Eric Means. The a conference playoffs begin this weekend with best-of-three first-round series at home sites. Minnesota State will travel to North Dakota for the playoffs. Tough matchup, but the Mavs did win a game in Grand Forks early this season.