Friday morning skate

Pat Christman/The Free Press

Big weekend for the Mavericks. Not only is it a home-and-home with No. 2-ranked Minnesota (starting tonight at Mariucci Arena), but it's a chance to get back on track after a tough WCHA-opening weekend at St. Cloud State.

That weekend may have exposed some things that Mike Hastings didn't know about his team in nonconference play, and the new coach is trying to nip that in the bud ASAP. No easy task against the Gophers.

"Our compete," Hastings said when asked where MSU needs the most improvement. "I liked where it was for 40 minutes on Saturday (at St. Cloud)."

Hastings said senior Phil Cook (pictured) likely will get the start in goal tonight. Cook has had his ups and downs throughout his career. Yep, some high highs and a couple of low lows. But the last time he played against Minnesota, he was as good as he's ever been. That was two years ago, an MSU sweep in Mankato when he earned WCHA's defensive player of the week honors.

I'll post the Mavericks' official lines later today, but expect them to be mixed up a bit from last week. From there, who knows what may change in the game, Hastings said. Lines changed daily in practice but it appears the top group will be Matt Leitner between Chase Grant and Johnny McInnis. Other groupings from Thursday: Jean-Paul LaFontaine, Dylan Margonari and Bryce Gervais; Eli Zuck, Brett Knowles and Eriah Hayes; and Teddy Blueger, Max Gaede and Zach Lehrke (we'll see if it stays that way). J.P. Burkemper is out with an injury.

"Until we get some consistency, I don't think you'll see consistency in the lines," Hastings said. "We're searching for answers. ... We're trying to come up with some combinations where we get good offensive production without abandoning the defensive side of things."

Read more on The Freep's College Hockey Gameday.

Checking in on the Minnesota coverage, the Star Tribune's Michael Russo wrote about Hastings, who spent one season on the Gophers bench as an assistant coach. Meanwhile Roman Augustoviz predicts a Gophers sweep. At the Pioneer Press, Gophers player Tom Serratore (the son of Hastings' old coach Frank) is featured.

Going around the WCHA ...

Nebraska-Omaha at Michigan Tech: The red Mavs hit the road for Houghton with some hope for their offense after James Polk (any relation to our 11th president?) scored his first goal. The Huskies, meanwhile, are hoping to bounce back after getting swept at Denver last weekend.

Colorado College at Wisconsin: The only team yet to have played a WCHA series, the Tigers hope to start conference play strong in Madison. For the Badgers, everyone knows that Mark Zengerle is more than pretty good, but he thinks he can make himself even better.

St. Cloud State at Denver: Fresh off their sweep of MSU, the Huskies will head west without star forward Ben Hanowski, who was injured in last week's series opener. For the unbeaten Pioneers, much was made about their goaltending and defense in the preseason, but they've scored five goals in each of their first four games.

Boston University at North Dakota: What a treat of a nonconference series in Grand Forks between two national powers. It's the first time since 1996 that the Terriers have played at UND, but with the changes coming to college hockey, it may not take that long to happen again.

Other coverage from USCHO and College Hockey News.

Check back on the blog later today and tonight for more on the Minnesota State vs. Minnesota game from Minneapolis.

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.

New rules — hands off

The NCAA announced on Wednesday that the Playing Rules Oversight Panel earlier this month approved the new rules proposals for hockey. The rules include making all hand passes illegal. Previously, hand passes were allowed in the defensive zone.

Any hand pass will cause a stoppage in play, and a faceoff will take place in the offending team's defensive zone. If a team commits a hand pass in its own end, it will not be allowed to make a line change during the stoppage.

Other rules include:

• Allowing some displacement of the goal post as long as the posts say in contact with the pegs or pins. A goal can be allowed in that situation if the posts are displaced by a defending player and if the referee determines that the puck would have entered the net during the play regardless of the posts' positions.

• A puck that ricochets into the net off an attacking player's skate will be allowed, unless it's determined that the puck was intentionally kicked. This rule seems to get tweaked one way or another every two years, but, according to the NCAA, the rules committee "believes this clarification removes any judgment or doubt for on-ice officials." We'll see.

• Conferences will be allowed to play 4 on 4 during overtime, similar to what the NHL does during the regulars season, if they choose.

• The two-referee, two-linesman system will be mandatory for men's hockey starting in 2013-14. The WCHA currently uses that system.

• Goal judges will be recommended but not required for NCAA games.

What do you think?

A peek at the Sanford Center (updated)

I thought I'd bump up this blog post, since I added a few pictures to it. I also wrote a column about the arena, which should appear in Tuesday's edition of The Free Press.

There is plenty of curiosity about what the city of Mankato and Minnesota State will do if and when they remodel the Verizon Wireless Center. For sure, they could take a few cues from what Bemidji's done with the Sanford Center. Here are a few low-quality photos taken Friday and Saturday night:

A video/replay scoreboard hangs over center ice.

A view from the press box, which is also suite level.

The club room/bar overlooks one end of the rink.

The student section is surrounds the glass at one end of the ice.

A view from one of the arena suites.

A concourse wall with interactive video screens.

The in-arena store where you can get BSU gear.

The doors to the Beavers' locker room.

The hallway to the BSU coaches' offices.

The walls are adorned with pictures of NHL players and All-Americans.

BSU's weight room, as seen from outside the arena.

The hall from the bench to the BSU locker room.

Another shot of that hall.

Team photos outside the Beavers locker room.

One of a few walls of fame in the BSU area. NHL guys, All-Americans, etc.

The $8 prime rib sandwich available in the concourse.

'New' WCHA to stick with 28-game schedule

When the WCHA breaks up and re-forms in 2013, the conference will stick with a 28-game schedule, Minnesota State athletic director Kevin Buisman said this week.

Buisman recently returned from the NCAA convention in Indianapolis, and the future WCHA schools all met there. Buisman was there, and said presidents of all nine of those schools were also there to discuss the future of the conference. MSU President Richard Davenport, it appears, has taken a real leadership role in the new league.

While they left the meetings without finalizing the WCHA's postseason format and location, they did decide to stay with an imbalanced 28-game schedule, not unlike what the league has now. That likely means teams will have 6-10 nonconference games to schedule, depending on how many trips to Alaska they make (teams that travel to Alaska are given an exemption that allows them to schedule additional games).

The conference that year will include MSU, Bemidji State, Alaska Anchorage, Alaska, Michigan Tech, Northern Michigan, Lake Superior State, Ferris State and Bowling Green.

Trying to do the math, it looks like they will play six four-game home-and-home series (24 games) and two two-game series (four games).

Minnesota State at Minnesota

Tonight's lines can be found below the live blog ...



MINNESOTA STATE
15-Burkemper     19-Lehrke     25-Hayes
24-Mueller     29-Zuck     23-Dorr
12-LaFontaine     18-Leitner     8-Gaede
22-McInnis     14-Jokinen     11-Leivermann

3-Cooper     26-Schiller
7-Palmquist     16-Elbrecht
17-Mosey     2-Nelson

1-Lee
31-Karambelas

Scratches: Cook, Grant (inj.), Heath (inj.), Knoll, Louwerse, Stern (inj.), Thauwald

MINNESOTA
11-Warning     19-Haula     21-Hansen
16-Condon     9-Matson     17-Ambroz
7-Rau     27-Bjugstad     24-Budish
14-Serratore     22-Boyd     18-Larson

4-Helgeson     12-Holl
10-Marshall     20-Alt
6-Parenteau     29-Schmidt

35-Patterson
1-Shibrowski
30-Kremer

Thursday notebook

You can read my Thursday hockey notebook in The Free Press right here.

Among the highlights:

• Troy Jutting talks about Teddy Blueger and the 2012 recruiting class. The Latvian will be MSU's first European player and the first player associated with the program to play in the World Junior Championships.

• Tyler Elbrecht and Brett Stern get back on the ice. Just skating now, but Elbrecht is pretty excited about it.

• Gustavus Adolphus women's standout Mollie Carroll was named MIAC player of the week.

WCHA is sport's 'caretaker'

Here is my column from today's Free Press. ...

You can click the link to read it, but here's the Cliff's Notes version (and a few other thoughts):

For better or for worse, the WCHA has seen itself as somewhat of a caretaker of college hockey, whether it was when it brought in Minnesota State and, later, Bemidji State, or when it helped create College Hockey America, or when it became a leader on the women's side of the sport.

The league seems to be in that mode again right now, partially out of self preservation, as it has invited the CCHA's remaining teams into the league for 2013-14 when the Big Ten and 'National' teams leave the two conferences (this was after the league already grabbed Northern Michigan and ensured that it would have at least six teams and its autobid in two years).

The new-look WCHA will look like a stripped-down version of a once-great conference, and it might be a tough sell in places like Mankato (where many folks are sounding off disgruntled about all of the sport's changes). But many around the country seem to agree that the combined remains (it's not a merger, WCHA commissioner Bruce McLeod says) is good for college hockey.

The WCHA hasn't always done things perfectly, and one wonder if at least the departure of the splinter NCHC teams could have been prevented in the first place once the Big Ten made its inevitable decision. Some other questions:

• Is doing what's best for college hockey also the best thing for the WCHA and its current members?

• What kind of sales pitch will the WCHA make to help keep interest high in Mankato and St. Cloud? The league is replacing big-ticket powers like Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota with Ferris State, Lake Superior State and Alaska. Or is this even necessary (remember my "Why do you watch" column)?

• Would it have been better to keep the CCHA alive, along with its autobid? When the CCHA is gone, that tournament bid will go to an at-large team, something the Big Ten and the NCHC must love.

• Why does Alabama-Hunstville continue to be allowed to twist in the wind as an independent? Should the WCHA bring the Chargers in?

It's hot, let's talk hockey

Getting caught up on a few hockey stories from the week so far ...

Let's start with some non-realignment stuff. The Calgary Flames posted this video of former Maverick Tim Jackman talking about last season. He had his best year in the NHL, playing in all 82 games and compiling 10 goals, 13 assists and 86 PIMs.

Looks like Eric Rud is going back to being a WCHA assistant coach. The former Colorado College standout is returning to his alma mater to be an assistant for Scott Owens. He's already served one stint as an assistant there before going to the St. Cloud State bench for five years. Most recently, he worked as the head coach of the USHL's Green Bay Gamblers (coaching a couple of Minnesota State recruits). It seems like an interesting career path for Rud, whose name had been linked to head coaching gigs at Michigan Tech and Western Michigan, unless this means he's the heir apparent at CC.

I wonder how Minnesota State feels about the consulting fees being thrown around by other MnSCU schools. Minnesota State-Moorhead is paying $60,000 for a consultant to help with its run to get Division I hockey. Earlier this year, St. Cloud State hired Gino Gasparini for $90,000. By the way, that $90K is getting a little more scrutiny now that the Huskies are among the leftovers not going to the new NCHC.

As for the possibility of Moorhead ever getting into the WCHA if it indeed meets its goals, Bruce McLeod says that it's way too early to make a commitment.

The WCHA is expected to formally add Northern Michigan for 2013-14 on Wednesday. The league needs to get a vote of all 12 teams (yes, including those who are leaving) to approve a motion to allow the remaining teams — MSU, St. Cloud State, Bemidji State, Michigan Tech, Alaska-Anchorage — the ability to conduct business as it pertains to issues after the 2012-13 season.

McLeod said getting a sixth team was a must but that eight teams would be ideal. In a New York Times story, he said that two other programs have made inquiries. However, he declined to name them. It seems likely that Alaska (Fairbanks) would be one of them. I'm speculating here, but it seems like Western Michigan would make some sense — although, publicly, WMU officials have said they'd like to do what Notre Dame does (will they eve have that option?).

As for some other leftover teams, it looks like the CCHA is having discussions with Atlantic Hockey about the future. College Hockey News reports that Atlantic Hockey schools Robert Morris, Niagara, Canisius and Mercyhurst are exploring joining the CCHA, which will have Bowling Green, Lake Superior State and Ferris State remaining (providing, of course, that Alaska, Western Michigan and Notre Dame are heading out).

More PucKato guesswork here, but if that move happens, Air Force, which currently plays in Atlantic Hockey, will be looking for a home. It seems like that would be a good fit for the WCHA. Also, what's to become of Alabama-Huntsville? It seems like someone ought to bring them in now.

To listen to some good talk about the sport's changes, listen to this podcast on Inside College Hockey (special thanks to the INCH fellas for plugging my column from last week; by the way, here's a link to this week's column).

Finally, I'm not sure where else they would be going or if this was even a question but Minnesota State last week reaffirmed its commitment to the WCHA. So they've got that going for them.

"Really sneaky back-door deal"

The harshest (public) criticism of the so-called "Super League" has been cast by Alaska-Anchorage athletic director  Steve Cobb who called it a "really sneaky back-door deal." Read more in this piece by the Anchorage Daily News' Beth Bragg. Cobb says that WCHA teams seemed united during their April meetings and the OK was given to invite Notre Dame and Miami into the league.

"Nobody said they were unhappy," Cobb told the Daily News. "We left the April meeting and basically some of them contacted Notre Dame and Miami and said, 'Don't take the WCHA invitation; we're going to invite you to join our super league.'

"I blame everybody for being less than honest with their own league members. It's a really sneaky back-door deal."

Cobb said he will be flying to Minneapolis next week to meet with ADs from the other WCHA leftovers, including Minnesota State, to discuss their future.

Meanwhile, St. Cloud State has said it will not be joining the Super League (there have been rumblings of them being a bubble team as the breakaways await word from Notre Dame). According to the St. Cloud Times' Mick Hatten, SCSU president Earl H. Potter III said the school expected to be involved in Super League talks ... "But as we looked at it we intended to say no." Potter said SCSU wasn't invited to the league but it sounds like officials had access to, as the story says, balance sheets, attendance projections, strength of rivalries and several other items.

"We intend to stay in the WCHA and take a leadership role to continue the legacy of the WCHA," Potter said.

Back to Cobb, the next two years in the league are going to be interesting after reading this quote:

"I'm not offended at all they want to start a conference. I'm very offended at the way it was handled. We've got two years left, and I assume it's going to be very tense and very uncomfortable."

Academic accolades for Galiardi

Minnesota State's 2010-11 captain Rylan Galiardi has received some nice postseason accolades for his work in the classroom at MSU. Galiardi graduated earlier this month with a degree in sports management and left college with a 3.81 GPA.

On Thursday, MSU announced that Galiardi was selected as a member of the Capital One Academic All-District Second Team. Earlier this month, he was presented with Minnesota State's Don Buchanan Award as one of the university's top male student-athlete and was named Second-Team Academic All-District by the College Sports Information Directors Association (CoSIDA).

Galiardi gave a touching speech at the Maverick Achievement Awards, which you can see here.

Mavericks getting votes

The Mavericks' sweep over Minnesota caught the eyes of some USCHO.com voters. Minnesota State received nine points this week, which wasn't good enough for the top 20 but is enough to get some consideration.

Some disclosure here. I vote on that poll and did not have MSU in my top 20. The Mavs were on my list of teams to consider but they didn't quite make the cut (neither did Minnesota or Colorado College or Bemidji State, by the way). Let's see what happens against the Sioux.

Here is this week's poll:

1. Yale (34 first-place votes) 10-1-0
2. Minnesota Duluth (13) 12-2-2
3. New Hampshire 9-2-4
4. Boston College (3) 11-5-0
5. North Dakota 11-5-2
6. Miami 10-5-3
7. Boston University 7-3-5
8. Maine 7-3-4
9. Denver 11-5-2
10. Nebraska-Omaha 9-4-1
11. Notre Dame 10-5-2
12. Michigan 9-5-4
13. Union 8-3-3
14. Alaska 8-5-3
15. Rensselaer 8-4-3
16. Wisconsin 8-7-3
17. Merrimack 7-4-4
18. Ferris State 8-6-3
19. Dartmouth 6-3-1
20. Western Michigan 7-5-4

Others receiving votes: Clarkson, Minnesota, Robert Morris, Colorado College, Minnesota State, Northern Michigan, Michigan State, Bemidji State, Princeton, Providence, Niagara

By the way, I was one of the votes who kept UMD No. 1 this week.

First round passes on Pitlick

Minnesota State continues to wait for its first first-round NHL draft pick. The first 30 picks went by on Friday night, and Tyler Pitlick, who many predicted to be a first-rounder, was not taken. He still has a chance to be the Mavericks' highest draft pick -- if he goes among the first seven picks in the second round on Saturday. Tim Jackman was taken 38th overall in 2001.

Several players with WCHA ties did get drafted on Friday. The group included: 14. Colorado College recruit Jaden Schwartz (Blues), 15. North Dakota recruit Derek Forbort (Kings), 19. Minnesota recruit Nick Bjugstad (Panthers), 20. Denver recruit Beau Bennett (Penguins) and 30. North Dakota recruit Brock Nelson (Islanders).

Warroad's Nelson, by the way, got the distinction of getting his name announced by "E" from Entourage. How cool is that? I'm not sure why he was there; I wasn't watching the draft because I was busy bailing water out of my basement after the storms. So it goes.

Besides that group of WCHA guys, four other players with collegiate ties were taken.

Other notes: Forbert, a defenseman, becomes the first Duluth native to go in the first round. ... Bjugstad was Minnesota's Mr. Hockey last year, out of Blaine HS.

Coaches, commissions trying to stop proposed rules

It sounds like college hockey commissioners and coaches are working quickly to try to stop some of the new, proposed rule changes before they are passed.

Specifically, they are upset about the proposal to ban penalty killers from icing the puck. The Grand Forks Herald talked to North Dakota coach Dave Hakstol and Bemidji State's Tom Serratore, the latter of whom called the rule "a crime," "preposterous," "radical," "drastic," "far-fetched" and "off the wall."

Apparently, all of the coaches voted against the icing rule during their spring meeting in Florida.

College Hockey News reported on Monday that it doesn't expect the icing rule to stay in the proposal. Interestingly, the story says that Alaska athletic director Forrest Carr said he did not expect the rule to make it into the final rule-changes package but members were persuaded by some presentations from commissioners, the NHL and people who play by that rule at USA Hockey camps.

I'm curious to know why the NHL would be pushing such a rule. Does it see college hockey as a good place to observe some rule tinkering without harming its own product and minor league system? If the NHL or one of the minor leagues were playing this way and passing it along I would understand. What is the NHL's interest in college hockey adopting the rule, other than seeing the college game as a guinea pig?

Due to some time off and other assignments, PucKato hasn't had a chance to get MSU coaches' opinions  on the rule proposals. In past conversations with Troy Jutting, he often has stated that he doesn't like the constant tweaking and thinks the game is a pretty good as it's currently played.

New rules?

It was reported on Friday that the NCAA Ice Hockey Rules Committee is proposing some new rules for the next couple of seasons. While the proposal still must be approved, one possible rule has many hockey followers up in arms.

That rule, which one writer has called always-on icing, would prevent players killing penalties from icing the puck. Already, it seems people are against this rule, and count me as one of them.

Killing penalties is hard enough as it is for teams and to take away the icing chance seems like almost too much of an advantage for power plays, especially since you can't make line changes after an icing (a rule that I like, by the way).

Rules chairman and Alaska AD Forrest Karr did have an interesting comment to USCHO, saying: "The question people always ask is, why is it that you commit some type of infraction and you are actually rewarded and allowed to do something that you aren’t allowed to do normally?" He raises an interesting point, but I'm not sure how much that question is really asked. I never thought anything was wrong with.

The PK icing rule isn't just a tweak; it's toying with a rule that really hasn't been a problem.

Other rule proposals include:

• Making contact-to-the-head penalties five-minute majors. Looks like a game misconduct or DQ could be added as well. This could be interesting.

• Another icing tweak that would go to a pro-style touch-up system. Instead of an actual touch, however, officials will determine who would get to the puck first by using the faceoff dots as a reference point. The USHL uses this, and I'm told it's successful and kind of fun, with races to the dots in icing situations.

• Still with the icing ... looks like the "obtainable pass" rule that would wave off icing if officials decided that a pass was actually being made is no more. This is a good thing. I never quite understood what was "obtainable" and I don't think any WCHA officials ever did either.

• Allowing teams to go on power plays even if they score goals during delayed penalties.

• Having teams change ends for overtime. This might make sense for playoffs when there is a full intermission, but it's silly for a 5-minute, regular-season OT -- especially in horseshoe rinks like Mankato's where you want the home team shooting in the end where the students are sitting.

What do you think of the proposed changes?