Friday Morning Skate

No. 3 Minnesota State and No. 15 Northern Michigan meet this weekend in what should be a good battle between top-three WCHA teams. They split a series in December with the Wildcats breaking the Mavericks' 10-game winning streak.

For Minnesota State since then, it's been about getting back to its identity, which coaches and players agree, is defense.

Of course, everyone is wondering about the Mavericks' health. According to coach Mike Hastings, Jake Jaremko, Julian Napravnik and Josh French have been cleared to play this weekend. Marc Michaelis has been skating with the team, but it doesn't seem likely that he'll go tonight. Read more about that and the series in the College Hockey Gameday preview.

As for Northern Michigan, which has two games in hand on the conference's top five teams, it knows it's got a tough test this weekend, and coach Grant Potulny agrees that MSU's defense is its forte. "You don't get any freebies," he told The Mining Journal. The Wildcats come to Mankato with three of the WCHA's four players of the month for January.

• The games are televised locally on Charter 826 and 191 and are streamed on FloHockey.

• They're on the radio on KTOE, 1420 AM.

Going around the rest of the WCHA ...

Alaska Anchorage at Bowling Green: The Seawolves, coming off their one-point weekend against MSU, go on the road to face the struggling Falcons, who have lost four in a row and eight of their last 10. The Falcons could get a boost by their "Bleacher Creatures," the student section that was recently recognized by the NCAA for its rowdiness.

Lake Superior State at Michigan Tech: It's Winter Carnival weekend in Houghton, and Tech ought to be fired up for it, especially after last week's split at Alabama Huntsville. The Lakers, who have struggled much of the year, can do a lot to secure a playoff spot with a successful weekend.

Alaska at Alabama Huntsville: The Nanooks, who currently hold a home-ice spot for the WCHA playoffs, will try to avoid a Tech-like slip against the Chargers, who have just two wins this season.

In other hockey news, Minnesota State hosts Wisconsin in a WCHA women's series this weekend. Last night the two coaches, John Harrington and Mark Johnson, along with four other 1980 Olympians, talked about the "Miracle on Ice" at a 40th anniversary event in Mankato that raised funds for the MSU program.