Friday Morning Skate

The Mavericks are back in action after a bye week— a bye they hope came at a good time — with a trip to Fairbanks, Alaska, to take on the Nanooks. Minnesota State needs to gain just one point on Bowling Green and Lake Superior State to claim the MacNaughton Cup outright along with the No. 1 seed for the WCHA tournament. The Mavericks might even have that sewn up before they hit the ice at 10:07 p.m. CST.

Here are a few other things to know about the series against the Nanooks, who are playing their final home games of the season.

Questions about the future of college hockey's two Alaska teams are starting to surface again. No doubt this is something we'll all be paying attention to in the offseason.

Going around the WCHA:

Bowling Green at Bemidji State: Unbeaten in their last five games, the Beavers hope to keep things going as they vie for home ice in the first round of the playoffs. They'll host the Falcons, who could still get a share of the MacNaughton Cup but, more importantly, want to stay in the top four, if not the top two in the standings.

Lake Superior State at Northern Michigan: The Lakers, winners of four in a row and six of their last seven games, are also in line to get a share of the MacNaughton and also go on the road for a tough series against a motivated Wildcats team that is trying to maintain a top-four position, if not move up.

Alaska Anchorage at Michigan Tech: The Huskies are desperate to break out of their funk, a five game winless streak that's dropped them into sixth place in the standings. The last-place Seawolves could cure what ails them, although UAA did play them to a 0-0 tie and won the shootout in the first game of that slide. Anchorage has a win and two ties in its last five games.

Alabama Huntsville at Ferris State: The host Chargers currently hold the eighth and final playoff spot and are facing their closest challenger to the spot, the Bulldogs, on the road. Huntsville enters the weekend on a six-game winless streak. Ferris has one win in its last six games.

The hockey season is winding down for many other teams around the Mankato area:

• The MSU women will close out the regular season with a home series against Minnesota Duluth. The Mavericks need points to leapfrog St. Cloud State, avoid a last-place finish and get a more favorable matchup for the first round of the conference tournament.

• The Gustavus women defeated St. Mary's in the MIAC tournament play-in game on Thursday and will take on No. 1-ranked St. Thomas in the semifinals on Saturday. The men's team's season came to an end last week, as they did not make the postseason.

• The Mankato East/Loyola girls hockey team went 0-2 at the state tournament, but had a memorable opening game in which senior goalie Andrea Schreiber stopped a tournament-record 69 shots in a 4-2 loss to Mound Westonka.

• The Mankato East/Loyola boys won their section opener 8-0 over Winona on Thursday and will move on to the semifinals Saturday against Rochester Lourdes. Lourdes ended Mankato West's season on Thursday with a 6-3 win.