Friday, January 19, 2018

Friday Morning Skate

Minnesota State doesn't play tonight, so there will be links to my gameday coverage tomorrow morning before the Mavericks' Hockey Day Minnesota matchup at St. Cloud State.

Did you know what MSU already has qualified for the WCHA tournament? That means the first-place Mavericks can't finish ninth or 10th in the league standings. They have 45 points in 20 league games with eight to go. However, they won't play a WCHA opponent until Feb. 2-3 when Alaska Anchorage come to Mankato.

There is some WCHA action that begins tonight. Here's a quick glance at what's happening:

Bemidji State at Ferris State: The Beavers are unbeaten in their last nine WCHA games and will see if they can keep that going this weekend in Big Rapids. The Bulldogs have been streaky. They snapped a six-game losing streak last week in a split at Lake Superior State. The WCHA's website has a good feature on Ferris State's Joe Rutkowski here.

Alaska at Michigan Tech: The Nanooks were able to slow down MSU last Friday but not two days in a row. They're expecting another speedy opponent this weekend in Houghton. The Huskies are back in league action after four games out of the WCHA.

Lake Superior State at Northern Michigan: The Lakers are traveling across the U.P. to take on the Wildcats, who are unbeaten in 10 of their last 12 games and coming off a big sweep of Bowling Green. The teams are playing for the Cappo Cup.

Alaska Anchorage at Bowling Green: The Seawolves finally got a home win last weekend — just their second victory overall — and will head to Ohio to take on the Falcons. Bowling Green isn't too happy about getting swept last weekend at NMU.

Read more about the WCHA from USCHO here.

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