There was no trophy presentation, no parade with the prize around the Verizon Center ice in front of cheering fans. But the Minnesota State men's hockey team won a championship on Saturday night — without even lacing up their skates.
Despite being on their final bye week of the season, the No. 5 Mavericks clinched their second straight MacNaughton Cup as the Western Collegiate Hockey League's regular-season champions.
"That thing is hard to win," coach Mike Hastings said. "Our league is hard to win. It's hard to sweep, and it's hard to string things together in the regular season to get some separation."
Minnesota State did that, though, going 10-1-1 in their last 12 WCHA games to build a 16-point lead atop the standings going into the weekend.
They claimed at least a share of the title on Saturday when second-place Bowling Green and Alaska tied 3-3 at Bowling Green, Ohio, and the visiting Nanooks took the extra league point with a goal in the 3-on-3 double-overtime tiebreaker.
Minnesota State is sitting at 59 points in the WCHA standings with two weeks still to play in the regular season. Both Bowling Green and Lake Superior State can max out at 59 points by running the table. If Bowling Green wins out and Minnesota State loses out, the Falcons would hold the head-to-head tiebreaker for the top seed in the conference playoffs based on their 2-0-0 record against them this season. MSU has the tiebreaker over the Lakers with a 3-1-0 record against them.
With just one point the rest of the way, the Mavericks can avoid tiebreaker scenarios, win the championship outright and keep the silver MacNaughton Cup in Mankato for another year.
"To me, we're still playing for that," Hastings said.
Minnesota State (24-6-2, 19-4-1 in WCHA) plays Alaska next weekend at Fairbanks, Alaska. After that, the Mavericks will close out the regular season at home against Bemidji State.
"We just have to keep plugging along," Hastings said. "We've still got quite a bit to play for. ... By how we've played up to this point, we're in the position that we're in."
The regular-season championship is Minnesota State’s fourth in five years. They won their first MacNaughton Cup in 2015, shared the title with Michigan Tech in 2016 and won it outright again last season.
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