Friday morning skate

The Mavericks — but not PucKato — are in Denver this weekend for the first round of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association tournament. Minnesota State is trying to get to the Final Five for the firs time in eight years, an accomplishment that, as I opined earlier this week would provide the program a real spark.

While this is an 11 vs. 2 matchup in the seeding, the Mavericks have been close to Denver, despite not beating them in recent play. That, combined with their close-but-no-cigar efforts in the playoffs, have them thinking they need that "one bounce" to give them a lift. Of course, if they get that bounce they need someone to score, too. Check out The Free Press' a position-by-position breakdown of the series.

As for the Pioneers, they have arguably the best freshman class in the WCHA, led by superstar and league rookie of the year Jason Zucker.

PucKato won't be at Magness arena but will be monitoring the game on Denver's webcast and on MSU's radio broadcast. I'll be posting updates on Twitter all weekend and, possibly, be doing a Cover It Live chat tonight. Check back later for more.

Going around the rest of the WCHA first-round matchups ...

Alaska-Anchorage at Minnesota: The Gophers have enjoyed a late-season surge, paced by freshman Nick Bjugstad, who is finally living up to some high preseason expectations. ... Minnesota has more work cut out for itself than it may think as the Seawolves seem to have found a hot goalie for the playoffs in Chris Kamal — yeah, the kid who gave up just one goal last week against MSU.

St. Cloud State at Minnesota Duluth: The Bulldogs get to play their first postseason games at their new arena and hope to erase a lost weekend there against the Huskies from a couple of weeks ago when they lost 8-2 and had to come out of a 3-0 deficit salvage a tie the second night. ... For St. Cloud, it hopes that its strong late-season play can lead to an upset and, perhaps, a boost in the Pairwise rankings.

Wisconsin at Colorado College:  The Tigers clinched home ice a week ago when David Civitarese scored the game-winning goal. The junior center is a smart student who said he needed to simplify his game in order to start coming into his own. ... The Badgers, meanwhile, have gotten wisdom from a pair of new-yet-veteran assistant coaches this season in Gary Shuchuk and Bill Butters.

(Interestingly, Wisconsin had the same travel concerns as MSU did trying to get to Colorado for this weekend. The high price of air travel, combined with spring breaks and many other NCAA charters in the air made last-minute reservations difficult. The Mavericks considered putting the team on multiple flights but eventually settled on taking a bus to Denver, leaving Wednesday at noon and staying that night in Kearney, Neb. They arrived in Denver Thursday afternoon. The Badgers ended up flying to Colorado Springs on charter and commercial flights and sending its equipment there by bus.)

Bemidji State at Nebraska-Omaha: There's an interesting matchup in Omaha where the red Mavericks have the WCHA coach of the year and the conference's third seed. But UNO is 0-3-1 against the Beavers this year. Either way, one of the league's two new teams will get to the Final Five. ... For the Beavers, six seniors are trying to extend their careers, which began with a lot of uncertainty in their new team's future.

Michigan Tech at North Dakota: There's a blizzard warning in Grand Forks this weekend, but that could mean a storm of goals by the Sioux, who hung 17 on the Huskies last weekend. North Dakota cleaned up on the postseason awards, getting the player of the year in Matt Frattin and an all-conference spot for Chay Genoway. Genoway is only the fifth player in WCHA history to make all-conference four times. ... As for the Huskies, they're trying to look at the playoffs as a new season despite the enormous challenge they face.

Here are weekend previews by USCHO, INCH and CHN.

Friday morning skate

Pat Christman photo

This is it. The final week of the regular season. The final home games in Mankato for the year. The final home games for Kurt Davis, Ben Youds, Rylan Galiardi, Channing Boe and Andy Sackrison -- and Brett Peterson (who, apparently, will play on Senior Night).

For the Mavericks, those seniors, who collectively have played 671 games in an MSU uniform, would like to leave the Verizon Wireless Center with a few more memories of their careers. 

Minnesota State will host Alaska-Anchorage and on the line are higher spots in the standings, better seedings for the WCHA playoffs and general preparedness for the postseason. You can read more about the Seawolves here.

Going around the rest of the WCHA, the next two nights are going to decide the pairings for the WCHA tournament, so there will be plenty of scoreboard watching. Here are the matchups:

Minnesota at Bemidji State: A lot of fans around the league have enjoyed the demise of the Gophers, but look out  now. The Gophers are 4-0-1 in their last five games and sitting pretty for home ice. One reason for that turnaround is the play of Jacob Cepis, something the senior credits to a talk with his coach. For the Beavers, they are hoping to improve their playoff position and get out the 10th-place tie with MSU.

Colorado College at Wisconsin: Interesting series here. CC sits one point ahead of Wisco in the standings, and the difference their spots is the difference between home ice and a road trip for the first round. For the Badgers, they're also trying to snap a six-game winless streak in which they suddenly can't score goals and have seen their once-great goaltending slip. The Tigers, meanwhile, are enjoying the return of freshman Jaden Schwartz, but not to be discounted is the play of his big brother, Rylan.

Nebraska-Omaha at Minnesota Duluth: Another matchup with implications for the final standings. This series may determine who draws MSU for the playoffs. There's also the chance to finish second in the WCHA, something the red Mavericks couldn't have imagined back in October. For the Bulldogs, this will be the first time coach Scott Sandelin will be facing his old coach, boss and mentor, Dean Blais, in seven years.

St. Cloud State at Denver: Denver is in second place and would like to keep that spot. The Pioneers also have a chance to see star forward Jason Zucker become the second freshman in WCHA history to win the league scoring title. Zucker has a one-point lead over Duluth's Jack Connolly. The Huskies, meanwhile, have been on a tear of late, losing just one of their last six games. Senior Garrett Roe has been very good and needs just eight points to become St. Cloud's all-time leading scorer.

North Dakota at Michigan Tech: The only first-round matchup that's set for next week is league-champion North Dakota hosting last-place Michigan Tech. The two teams will get a warmup series against each other in Houghton this weekend first. One thing the Fighting Sioux won't be doing this weekend, apparently, is resting their players for next week. They want to keep their seven-game unbeaten streak alive. For the Huskies, this series marks the end of what's been an exasperating season.

More WCHA predictions continue to trickle in. Here's another from College Hockey News, along with some conference award voting. Read the USCHO weekly preview here. (By the way, nice to see both CHN's and USCHO's coverage comes from former Free Press stringers Dan Myers and Tyler Buckentine. Good work, boys!)

Friday morning skate

It's nice to be home in Mankato for the duration of the regular season. Will I still be here for the playoffs? The Magic 8-Ball says, "Outlook not so good." MSU has just four games remaining (they're idle next weekend), while everyone else in the WCHA, except Alaska-Anchorage, has six.

As for this weekend, fifth-ranked Minnesota Duluth is in town. The Mavericks have a six-game winless streak against the Bulldogs, who are powered by the lawfirm of Connolly, Connolly & Fontaine. That line is great, especially on the power play, but MSU's penalty kill (now second in the WCHA in league play) and penchant for taking penalties (second-fewest PIMs in league play!) have improved greatly over the course of the season. Read more about the Mavs' penalty kill here.

Based on practice this week, it looks like Minnesota State is healthier than they were last week at Colorado College. Rylan Galiardi is "day to day," coach Troy Jutting said, but was on the purple line in practice. So was Chase Grant. Check out The Free Press' gameday preview here.

As for goaltending, Jutting wouldn't name a starter. I have a hunch the coach will continue to ride the hot hand of Austin Lee, at least for tonight. Read my column on the Mavs' goaltending situation here.

For UMD, the Duluth News Tribune has a preview here, including a note that defenseman Brady Lamb will miss the series with an upper-body injury. With Lamb out and the mid-season departure of first-round draft pick Dylan Olsen, senior Chad Huttel will get to play for just the sixth time this season.

You can read more of Kevin Pates' outstanding coverage all weekend right here.

Going around the rest of the WCHA ...

Minnesota at Wisconsin: It's the battle of the Big Ten (and, yes, more and more is getting written about that) but the WCHA seedings are on the line in this one and both the Gophers and Badgers try to get home ice for the playoffs. The Gophers broke out of a slump last Saturday and got a big performance from Finland's Eric Haula. ... For the Badgers, freshman Tyler Barnes is realizing that he has to start shooting more. Madison.com also had an article this week about the early departures Wisconsin and Minnesota have faced in recent years.

North Dakota at St. Cloud State: The Sioux have already clinched home ice and have their sights set on the McNaughton Cup. North Dakota does a lot of things well, and you can add faceoffs to the list. Read more from the Grand Forks Herald here. ... As for the Huskies, the St. Cloud Times has a feature on junior Jared Festler, who ranks second on the team in goals.

Nebraska-Omaha at Alaska-Anchorage: Coming off of a weekend sweep of Wisconsin, Omaha is hoping to keep its momentum going at the always-tough Sullivan Arena in Anchorage. No WCHA team has swept the Seawolves in their home barn this season. ... As for Anchorage, which is also in the hunt for home ice, there's a call out to make the Sully even tougher for visiting teams.

Colorado College at Bemidji State: The Tigers moved into sixth place in the WCHA standings with its split against MSU last weekend, and they hope to stay there with fab freshman Jade Schwartz expected to be back in the lineup tonight. More notes from The Gazette here. ... For the Beavers, they're hoping to turn around their luck in their new home rink, where they're just 4-7-1.

Michigan Tech at Denver: The Huskies are trying to find little victories in what's become a disaster of a season. While their overall losing streak was stopped at 18 games last weekend, their winless streak still increased to 26 games. ... Meanwhile, the Pioneers can clinch home ice with at least one point tonight.

Here are some weekend previews from INCH and USCHO, and check out the weekend picks on Gophers beat writer Roman Augustoviz's blog. It's always entertaining when an old college-hockey scribe, Chris Miller, chimes in.

Get a sneak peak at Charter's "College Hockey Weekend" pregame show: