Happy new year, everyone!
After playing just five games since Nov. 22, Minnesota State is ready to embark on a long stretch of a schedule with games every weekend between now and the end of February —18 games in nine weeks.
COVID-permitting, of course.
Although all of the games are against WCHA opponents, 14 of them will be official conference games, including this weekend when the No. 5 Mavericks (3-1-1) begin league play at Northern Michigan. Games are at 5:07 p.m. CST today and 3:07 p.m. Sunday in Marquette, Mich. The Wildcats (2-2-0) are coming off a 6-5 OT win at Ferris State on Wednesday.
Traditionally, the first games after Christmas mark the start of the second half of the season. But with only five games played — MSU and most other WCHA teams — are hardly in series shape, meaning they're not yet used to playing back-to-backs. Read more from The Free Press' Kevin Dudley in the link above.
The Rink Live's Jason Feldman, meanwhile, takes a look at the Mavericks at this point of the season and also features MSU senior and alternate captain Dallas Gerads, who is developing into a real team leader.
As for the Mavericks' young players, freshman defenseman Akito Hirose was named WCHA rookie of the month for December. Also, two MSU women's players were named league players of the month: junior D Anna Wilgren (defender) and freshman F Jamie Nelson (rookie). The women host No. 1 Wisconsin today and Sunday.
All eight WCHA men's teams that are playing (remember: the two Alaska teams opted out of the season due to the COVID situation) are in action today and Sunday. The other series include: Bowling Green at Ferris State, Bemidji State at Lake Superior State and Alabama Huntsville at Michigan Tech.
The start of the new year is also the time when we can start peeking at the PairWise Rankings. However, with the strange start to the season, that's out of whack right now. Interestingly, that's already causing some debate, including among conference commissioners, as to how the NCAA field should be chosen come March. Stay tuned.
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