Minnesota State vs. Minnesota — Game 2

Lines are posted below the live chat. The same players are in the lineup for the Mavs but the lines have been shuffled a bit. Just one change for Minnesota, with Ryan Reilly at C on the fourth line ...




MINNESOTA STATE
24-Knowles      29-LaFontaine    25-Hayes
21-Grant           18-Leitner           19-Lehrke
9-Gervais          23-Blueger          22-McInnis
26-Margonari    29-Zuck              8-Gaede

16-Elbrecht       2-Nelson
7-Palmquist       4-Buchanan
27-Stern            28-Jutzi

30-Cook
35-Williams
31-Karambelas

Scratches: Burkemper (inj.), Herndon, Knoll (inj.), Leivermann, Mosey, Thauwald

MINNESOTA
7-Rau               27-Bjugstad         24-Budish
16-Condon       19-Haula             26-Isackson
10-Marshall      22-Boyd              17-Ambroz
14-Serratore      9-R. Reilly          12-Holl

6-Parenteau       29-Schmidt
5-M. Reilly       20-Alt
4-Helgeson       2-Skjei

32-Wilcox
1-Shibrowski

Referees: Don Adam, Timm Walsh. Linesmen: Sam Shikowsy, Nick Bradshaw

Gophers 3, Mavericks 2

Janet Hostetter/The Associated Press

Freddy's three thoughts of the game ...

1. Kill joy: The Mavericks allowed three power-play goals to the Gophers and are now a paltry .676 on the penalty kill for the season. A big problem on Friday night was an inability to clear the zone when they had chances. Players fanned on pucks and bobbled passes. Minnesota State had leads of 1-0 and 2-1, but the game-tying (Nate Schmidt) and game-winning (Zach Budish) goals both came after MSU had chances to get the puck to neutral ice and setting things down. Schmidt fired a rocket shot past Phil Cook, using the 6-3, 214-pound Budish as a screen. Budish's goal was a rebound goal on Kyle Rau's second assist of the game.

2. More Blueger, please: Minnesota State freshman Teddy Blueger put the Mavericks up 2-1 in the second period, finishing off a greasy scramble in front of Gophers goalie Adam Wilcox. It was a fourth-line goal with the Penguins second-round draft pick getting assists from linemates Zach Lehrke and Max Gaede, but it will be interesting to see where Blueger is skating in Saturday's rematch. Here's what coach Mike Hastings had to say about him: "I thought Teddy was good tonight, not only offensive but defensively,” Hastings said. “I think I’ve got to find a way to get him more ice. I thought he was good hockey player tonight, and (he’ll get) a little more ice tomorrow.”

3. Next step, a win? All in all, it was a better performance from the Mavericks than they had a week ago at St. Cloud State. Zach Palmquist finished off a pretty play from Jean-Paul LaFontaine for the game's first goal, snapping a three-game streak without a power-play goal. And as Hastings said, the "compete was better." The Gophers agreed. Said Schmidt: "(The Mavericks) play extremely hard. We knew before the game they had a tough weekend at St. Cloud. We knew they would come in and play hard and play tough." Still, after starting the season 2-0-2, the Mavericks are now 0-3-0 in WCHA play. 

Read The Free Press game story here.

Up next: The Mavericks and the Gophers will play again on Saturday night at the Verizon Wireless Center in Mankato.

Around the WCHA: Nebraska-Omaha 2, Michigan Tech 1 ... Colorado College 5, Wisconsin 4 (OT) ... North Dakota 4, Boston University 2 ... St. Cloud State 3, Denver 0

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.

Elbrecht likely to play against Gophers

Minnesota State junior defenseman and co-captain Tyler Elbrecht survived his first full-contact practice since early October on Monday, as well as the rest of the week, and it appears he'll be in the lineup Friday against fifth-ranked Minnesota.

The Gopher series was Elbrecht's target weekend since breaking his arm in the first game of the year against RPI, even if doctors, trainers and coaches were a little skeptical that it might happen.

Even Wednesday, coach Troy Jutting said he would have liked to have given Elbrecht another week of practice to get his legs ready for game action. But 1) the Mavericks need him in the lineup (see below) and 2) this is a pretty important WCHA weekend.

Elbrecht's return will be a huge boost for the Mavericks. For one thing, it will be the return of the team's emotional leader. But also all still is not rosy on the injury front as defenseman Brett Stern re-aggravated  his upper-body injury and likely is out until after Christmas, and defenseman Danny Heath remains out indefinitely with an upper-body injury.

As for other injuries, forward Adam Mueller practiced this week and appears set to play again after missing Saturday's game against Alaska Anchorage.

A few other items ...

Minnesota's hockey sports information guy Paul Rovnak asked me to contribute to a little Q&A about this weekend's series. You can read that here.

Later today or tomorrow you should check out Star Tribune beat writer Roman Augustoviz's blog where, once again, he has challenged me in a WCHA pick-'em contest. Currently, Roman has some notes on this weekend's series from Wednesday's media session at the U.

Harold Paulsen: Unknown legend (updated)

When I arrived at work on Friday afternoon, I was handed an obituary and asked if I knew anything about Harold Paulsen. I didn't but upon reading it, I wish I had.

Harold Paulsen died on Tuesday in Mankato. He was 91 years old. He had lived in Mankato since 1962 when he began working as a physical education professor at what was then known as Mankato State College.

Updates with links can be found below.

But Paulsen's legacy dates back more than 20 years earlier when he played hockey at the University of Minnesota. In 1940, two Gophers players had All-American seasons and led the team to the UAA tournament championship, which also served as the national championship. One of those players was John Mariucci, who would go on to become the U's legendary coach and get his name attached to the Gophers' hockey arena.

The other was "Babe" Paulsen.

A year later, Paulsen succeeded Mariucci as team captain. After that, World War II prevented him from playing in the Olympics or the NHL. From there, he went on to coach high school hockey at Roseau and Thief River Falls and then was asked to start the program at Michigan State University. He coached the Spartans for two years, going 6-25 before stepping down. 

An Iron Ranger from Virginia, Paulsen earned his doctorate from the University of Michigan and was the athletic director at Slippery Rock College in Pennsylvania. In 1962, he, his wife, Clara, and their three kids moved to Mankato. In 2001, Paulsen was honored as one of the Gopher hockey program's 50 "Legends on Ice."

Word around Mankato is that Paulsen was quite the handball player, too, and played the game well into his 70s.

You can read more about Paulsen in Saturday's edition of The Free Press. ... Also, read his Free Press obituary here, and some info from U.S. College Hockey Online here and here. PucKato will stay on the lookout for more stories on Paulsen's passing.

(University of Minnesota photo)