Previewing the season

The Minnesota State men's hockey season kicked off on Saturday night with an exhibition victory over Mount Royal. It gets real next weekend, though, when Arizona State comes to Mankato for a pair of games (ASU opened regular-season play this weekend, falling to Mercyhurst 3-2 on Saturday; the two teams play again today).

Today's Free Press has a couple of MSU hockey preview stories to check out:

• First, there's a feature on Marc Michaels and how the senior center is approaching a final college season with so much riding on it, both team-wise and personally.

• Then there's a general, position-by-position story, looking at a Mavericks team stacked with returning players throughout the line chart.

• It will be a tough lineup to crack, to be sure, but some of the newcomers sure made a case for themselves on Saturday night.