Friday, November 15, 2019

Friday morning skate

The No. 1 Mavericks are idle this weekend, using the week to get healthy — Jake Jaremko is back on the ice practice after an illness has kept him out for about a month — and sign their recruiting class for next year, or at least a good chunk of it.

Four players signed their NLIs on Wednesday and another player, Brendan Furry, was also mentioned in the MSU release. Furry is at Minnesota State but sitting out this season due to signing previously with Niagara before re-opening his recruitment. He can practice with the Mavericks but hasn't due to offseason surgery. By the way, I recently stumbled across a Q&A with Furry from September in which he talks about going to Minnesota State and how he almost ended up going to Bowling Green to play club hockey.

So who is playing this weekend? Let's look around the WCHA ...

Bemidji State at Ferris State: After getting win No. 300 for coach Tom Serratore, the Beavers will try to keep pace in the top half of the league when they take on the Bulldogs. BSU's freshmen defensemen, with names familiar to southern Minnesota, are off to good starts, too. Ferris State is looking for its first win in conference play.

Michigan Tech at Lake Superior State: The Huskies, who were swept by Minnesota State last weekend, are in unfamiliar territory at 1-5-0 in league play, but, perhaps, they're ready to break out after a tough schedule. The Lakers were outscored 12-2 at Bemidji last weekend and are hoping to rebound at home, where they're 4-2 with the two close losses coming against Denver.

Alaska at Northern Michigan: The host Wildcats are looking to bounce back after a tie and overtime loss at home to St. Cloud State last weekend. The Nanooks, meanwhile, are 6-6-0 and hoping to do what they did last time they were in the UP and sweep a conference series (they took two games at Tech on Oct. 11-12).

Bowling Green at Alaska Anchorage: The Falcons had last weekend off following their split in Mankato on Nov. 1-2. They'll go to Anchorage to play the Seawolves (next week's MSU opponent), who already have matched their league win total of last year (two), are on a three-game unbeaten streak (1-0-2) and are 2-1-2 in their last five games. Beth Bragg of the Anchorage Daily News has the story on a UAA player who is a survivor of the tragic Humboldt Broncos bus crash from April of 2018. Brayden Camrud is one of 13 survivors, one of three still playing hockey and the only one playing Division I hockey. Bragg also wrote last week that college sports at the Alaska schools, including hockey, are safe for at least another year.




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