Friday morning skate

Finally, it's gameday!

Unfortunately, PucKato remains back in Mankato while the Mavericks are in Huntsville, Ala., for their first series of the season and first series for new coach Mike Hastings. I'll be monitoring the game from the radio and will tweet some updates throughout the day as well as post some recaps afterward.

The Mavericks' linechart will look a little different than the exhibition game, as senior Eli Zuck and freshman Dylan Margonari were left behind with injuries. The top two lines will look the same, with J.P. Burkemper taking Margonari's spot on the third line. The fourth most likely will include the combination of Max Gaede, Brett Knowles and Corey Leivermann, with Charlie Thauwald going as the extra forward.

Defensively, all seven healthy defensemen are on the trip, with freshman Nick Buchanan as the extra. Hastings suggested senior Phil Cook is the likely starter in goal tonight but did not commit to a Saturday starter. Freshman Stephon Williams is on the trip.

Read more about the Mavericks, Hastings and preview the Huntsville series here.

The Chargers, meanwhile, are a program that was on the chopping block a year ago only to be given an 11th-hour reprieve. They're still without a conference affiliation but would love to make a good impression on the WCHA this weekend. Reportedly, WCHA commissioner Bruce McLeod will be at tonight's game, and tickets are free, even though MSU is the only Division I team playing at Huntsville this season.

Going around the rest of the WCHA ...

Minnesota opens the season by hosting future Big Ten brethren Michigan State. The Gophers appear to be great, but there are questions in goal, where Kent Patterson must be replaced.

St. Cloud State begins the year at New Hampshire in a matchup of teams that had similar seasons a year ago.

Wisconsin will meet Northern Michigan halfway, playing a series in Green Bay, Wis. For the Badgers, sophomore defenseman Jake McCabe has some big skates to fill.

Minnesota Duluth hosts Ohio State, and the Bulldogs have all kinds of holes to fill after the departure of so much talent to graduation and early departures. Among those tough tasks is replacing Kenny Reiter in goal. Two-year backup Aaron Crandall will get the nod, but the Buckeyes' Brady Hjelle might have had that job had he not transfered from UMD.

Colorado College opens the season by hosting Clarkson, and the Tigers are hoping to have another strong start to the season like they did last year — while avoiding the late-year collapse that took place in February.

Nebraska Omaha will play in the IceBreaker Tournament in Kansas City with Army tonight and Notre Dame or Maine on Saturday. Red Mavericks coach Dean Blais believes his team might have the best defensive corps in the WCHA this season.

Alaska Anchorage will host Canisius and Air Force in the Kendall Hockey Classic to open the season.

Michigan Tech opened the season with a 4-2 loss Thursday night at Lake Superior State; the two teams will play again on Saturday night in Houghton, Mich.

North Dakota and Bemidji State are still in exhibition mode and will play the U.S. Under-18 team today and Saturday, respectively. Denver does not play this weekend.

Other coverage includes WCHA previews by USCHO, Inside College Hockey and College Hockey News. The latter also has a Q&A with Mike Hastings, and you can read USCHO's Minnesota State preview here.

Mavericks 4, Chargers 2

Pat Christman/The Free Press

Freddy's Three Thoughts of the Game

1. Much-needed win: The Mavericks snapped a seven game winless streak on Friday by beating Alabama Huntsville before 2,421 at the Verizon Wireless Center. Minnesota State's last win came on Nov. 11 against St. Cloud State. "It's great to get a win," MSU coach Troy Jutting said. "I thought we played well, but we needed to win."

2. Suddenly, a power play: Minnesota State finished 3 for 5 on the power play and also held Huntsville scoreless on three power-play chances. Eriah Hayes (pictured), Johnny McInnis and Zach Lehrke all scored power play goals. Lehrke's was an empty-netter to seal the win with 30 seconds remaining. McInnis' goal stood up as the game-winner. He has proven in his year-plus as a Mavericks that he can shoot the puck, but the goals haven't come. That was his second of the season and the third of his career. Read more about McInnis in The Free Press' game story.

3. 15 yards or 5 minutes: Late in the second period, there was a scuffle around the MSU net after a Chargers scoring chance. Officials took at least 10 (maybe 15?) minutes to sort out the penalties, and they doled out four 5-minute majors for facemasking, including one each to the Mavs' Tyler Elbrecht and Zach Palmquist. Huntsville's Jeff Vanderlugt also got a game DQ during the altercation. Neither team ended up on the power play after the situation. The refs also ended up reviewing the scoring chance and determined that no goal was scored. Weird.

Quote of the night: "Everyone wants to score big goals. But to lose seven in a row and finally get the W, as a hockey player you want to contribute to that." — MSU forward Johnny McInnis (the Mavs actually went 0-6-1 in their last seven games)

Around the WCHA: Minnesota Duluth 3, Wisconsin 3 (OT) ... Michigan Tech 3, Minnesota 2 (OT) ... Denver 3, Bemidji State 2 ... Nebraska Omaha 2, North Dakota 1 ... Alaska Anchorage 6, Colorado College 3

Friday Morning Skate

The Mavericks are back in Mankato this weekend and are taking on Alabama Huntsville, whose players surely have spring in their step after their program appeared to get a reprieve this week.

More on the Chargers in a sec ...

As for Minnesota State, it is looking to break a seven-game winless streak after playing Minnesota pretty tough, only to get swept, a week ago. The Mavericks got some bad injury news this week, as Eli Zuck and J.P. Burkemper are out with minor injuries. They will be replaced by recent healthy scratches Mike Louwerse and Charlie Thauwald. Louwerse will center Adam Mueller and Michael Dorr. Thauwald will play on the fourth line, with Corey Leivermann moving up to Burkemper's spot with Zach Lehrke and Eriah Hayes.

Staying on the subject of Lehrke, he is the subject of today's feature in The Free Press. He is the third of three Lehrke brothers from Park Rapids, all of whom went on to play college hockey. Derek attended D-III Northland in Ashland, Wis., and Tyler played at Bemidji State.

For more on the Mavericks, see today's gameday preview.

Meanwhile, The Huntsville Times has plenty of coverage on the effort to save hockey, including this story on UAH's new president and a rather scathing column on the old interim president and current University of Alabama system chancellor Malcolm Portera, the man who gave hockey the ax a couple of months ago. Meanwhile, coach Chris Luongo has been given the go-ahead to schedule games for next year (Troy Jutting told me that MSU had Huntsville on the schedule for next year already and that those games have not been changed).

Going around the WCHA ...

Michigan Tech at Minnesota: Fresh off their sweep of the Mavericks the Gophers will host the much-improved Huskies, whose first-year coach, Mel Pearson, played against Minnesota's Don Lucia when the two were in high school. Tech is in the meat of its schedule right now, having been swept for the first time this season a week ago against defending national champion Minnesota Duluth.

Minnesota Duluth at Wisconsin: The Bulldogs are No. 1 in the country and riding a 12-game unbeaten streak into Madison, and some are wondering if this will be UMD's last trip to the Kohl Center. For the Badgers, much has been made about all-star defenseman Justin Schultz, but what about his partner, Frankie Simonelli?

Denver at Bemidji State: Apparently, you can't discuss anything Denver-related right now without mentioning Tim Tebow, and DU hockey is no exception. The Beavers, meanwhile, are expecting a tough matchup with the Pioneers in town.

Nebraska Omaha at North Dakota: It's the Blais bowl as Omaha coach Dean Blais returns to Grand Forks. But the UND's old coach won't be the only familiar name to fans in The Ralph tonight. As for the team formerly known as the Fighting Sioux (TFKATFS — put that on the jersey!), junior Corban Knight seems to do it all.

Alaska Anchorage at Colorado College: The Seawolves are tied for last place in the WCHA with MSU and are trying to grab some points before the first half of the season ends against a good CC team. As for the Tigers, superstar Jaden Schwartz is excited to get a second chance at playing in the World Junior Championships later this month. An injury derailed the opportunity to play for Team Canada a year ago. (His selection to the team, by the way, will force him to miss next weekend's series in Mankato — a nice break for the Mavs.)

More WCHA coverage at USCHO.

Be sure to stop back on the blog later today for tonight's lineups and PucKato's world-famous live blog.

Huntsville coming with good news

Don't bury the Alabama Huntsville Chargers just yet. On the eve of their trip to Mankato for this weekend's nonconference series against Minnesota State, the program just might have been saved, according to The Huntsville Times.

Plans have not been put in place, but after a Tuesday meeting, school officials announced:

"Members of The University of Alabama in Huntsville administration met this evening with hockey supporters, following discussions with Chancellor Malcolm Portera, and came to a consensus to work closely together to pursue institutional and community support to continue UAH hockey at the Division I level.

"Several scenarios were discussed to ensure recurring support is in place, and the two groups will continue to meet in the coming days to finalize a workable plan."

This comes nearly two months after it was announced that the team would be dismantled as an NCAA Division I program after this season be reverted to club status. However, there has been a grass-roots effort to save the program, and the group says it has raised $500,000 in pledges, according to the Times' story.

It will be interesting to see what happens going forward, as Chargers players have already begun looking into transferring (it was reported earlier this week that goalie Clarke Saunders is headed to North Dakota), and the issue of remaining an independent program amid all of the upcoming conference changes has yet to be resolved (the WCHA could use a 10th team, no?).

Huntsville and MSU will play on Friday and Saturday at the Verizon Wireless Center.