Saturday, October 22, 2016

Mavericks 7, Nanooks 1

Freddy's three thoughts from afar ...

1. Freshmen jell quickly: Nicholas Rivera scored two goals and assisted on another, Marc Michaelis had two goals and Ian Scheid scored another in the road victory to keep MSU undefeated through five games. Those are all first-year players. Each week and game, it seems, a different freshman emerges for this team. This night it was Rivera. Michaelis has been so good so far and already has eight points for the season. First career goals for Rivera and Scheid — and for sophomore defenseman Alec Vanko, who didn't get much playing time as a rookie.

2. Brick by Brick: Daniel Brickley continued to impress. He finished the game with three assists and now has 10 points on the season. Already, he's just one point shy of last season's total. Lots of scouts watched him play last weekend against St. Cloud State. The good news for the Mavericks is they have him this season. The question will continue to be: How much longer after that? In Mankato, of course, there are lots of comparisons to the development of Casey Nelson. But with MSU playing in Fairbanks this weekend, one wonders if you can compare him to another former great WCHA defenseman, Colton Parayko.

3. High scoring: With seven goals in the game, the Mavericks already have 24 goals for the season, an average of 4.8 per. It's early, of course, but that production has to be pleasing to coach Mike Hastings, especially considering the goals are being spread all around. No one player has more than three. Last year, it took MSU 12 games to get to 24 goals and they averaged 2.56 for the season. They finished 3 for 9 on the power play on Friday, upping their percentage to 30 percent (9 for 30) for the season.

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