Jutting Q&A

Mavericks coach Troy Jutting did an online Q&A on CSTV's Web site today. You can read the transcript here.

Mavericks get a bump

After its sweep of Alaska-Anchorage, Minnesota State moved to No. 13 in both the USCHO.com/CSTV and USA Today/USA Hockey polls Monday. The Mavericks, who have won six games in a row, were No. 15 last week.

USCHO.com/CSTV Division I Men's Poll
Minneapolis, Minn./February 4, 2008

Team (First Place) Record Pts Last Week
1 Michigan (48) 23- 3-4 995 2
2 Miami 25- 4-1 939 1
3 North Dakota 17- 8-2 875 3
4 New Hampshire ( 2) 18- 7-1 854 5
5 Colorado College 21- 8-1 813 4
6 Denver 19- 8-1 747 7
7 Boston College 14- 6-7 685 9
8 Michigan State 18- 8-5 634 6
9 Notre Dame 20-10-2 536 8
10 Wisconsin 13-11-6 493 11
11 Clarkson 16- 9-3 477 13
12 Minnesota-Duluth 11- 9-6 475 10
13 Minnesota State 15-10-4 403 15
14 Providence 13-10-3 333 12
15 Northeastern 13- 9-3 298 14
16 Quinnipiac 17- 7-4 296 16
17 Princeton 14- 9-0 233 19
18 Mass.-Lowell 12-10-4 103 17
19 St. Cloud State 12-13-3 96 NR
20 Niagara 16- 8-3 67 NR

Others Receiving Votes: Massachusetts 48, Minnesota 40,
Union 14, Michigan Tech 13, Bemidji State 10,
Nebraska-Omaha 8, RIT 7, Cornell 3, Air Force 2,
Army 1, Bowling Green 1, Harvard 1

2007 USA TODAY/USA Hockey men's poll

Feb. 11, 2008

Rank	School (first-place votes)	Record	Points	Last week
1	Michigan (33)	23-3-4	507	2
2	Miami (Ohio)	25-4-1	472	1
3	North Dakota	17-8-2	425	3
4	New Hampshire (1)	18-7-1	410	5
5	Colorado College	21-8-1	381	4
6	Denver	19-8-1	350	7
7	Boston College	14-6-7	300	9
8	Michigan State	18-8-5	254	6
9	Notre Dame	20-10-2	212	8
10	Minnesota-Duluth	11-9-6	174	10
11	Clarkson	16-9-3	156	13
12	Wisconsin	13-11-6	145	12
13	Minnesota State Mankato	15-10-4	112	15
14	Providence	13-10-3	78	11
15	Northeastern	13-9-3	38	14

Others receiving votes: Quinnipiac University, 37; Princeton University, 21; Niagara University, 6; Rochester Institute of Technology, 1; St. Cloud State University, 1.

Mavericks 4, Seawolves 2 - final

Kael Mouillerat scored two goals as No. 15 Minnesota State, Mankato defeated Alaska-Anchorage 4-2 Saturday.

Joel Hanson added two assists for the Mavericks who won their sixth game in a row, their longest winning streak in five years. The last time Mankato swept three consecutive WCHA opponents was at the end of the 2002-03 season, the last time it finished in the top half of the conference and earned a bid to the NCAA tournament.

Minnesota State is currently in a tie with Wisconsin for fourth place in the WCHA standings, and the two teams will play each other next weekend.

Zach Harrison and Mick Berge also scored goals for Mankato (15-10-4, 9-9-4 in WCHA), which built a 4-0 lead. Anchorage cut the deficit down on back-to-back gols by Craig Parkinson and Josh Lunden midway through the third period.

The Mavericks outshot the Seawolves (7-14-7, 3-14-5) 42-24.

Mike Zacharias got the win in goal. Freshman goalie Bryce Christianson, making his third career start, took the loss.

Alaska-Anchorage 0-0-2--2
Minnesota State 1-1-2--4

FIRST PERIOD
Scoring: 1. MSU-Harrson 5 (Irwin 8) 17:37
Penalties: MSU bench (too many on ice) 3:55; Gunderson, MSU (hooking) 15:10; Tasson, UAA (hooking) 19:07
SECOND PERIOD
Scoring: 2. MSU-Berge 15 (Kalinski 4, Friesen 3) 2:59
Penalties: Carlson, UAA (cross-checking) 3:36; Galiardi, MSU (roughing the goaltender) 9:53; Beaverson, UAA (tripping) 12:22
THIRD PERIOD
Scoring: 3. MSU-Mouillierat 5 (Hanson 12, Youds 9) 4:24; 4. MSU-Mouillierat 6 (Linder 6, Bruess 18) 6:47; 5. UAA-Parkinson 7 (Tassone 7) 8:16; 6. UAA-Lunden 13 (Vidmar 5, Waldrop 6) ppg 10:05
Penalties: Kilburg, MSU (holding) 9:34; Wiley, MSU (hooking) 10:20; Kalinski, MSU (boarding) 14:55
SUMMARIES
Shots on goal: UAA 6-5-13--24; MSU 16-14-12--42. Penalties: UAA 3 for 6 minutes; MSU 6 for 12 minutes. Power-play opportunities: UAA 1 for 6; MSU 0 for 3. Goalie saves: UAA-Christianson 15-13-10--38 (4 GA); MSU-Zacharias 6-5-11--22 (2 GA)
Referee: Jon Campion. Assistant referees: Brad Shepherd, C.J. Beaurline.
UAA called its timeout at 6:47 of the third period.
Attendance: 4,442

MSU-UAA, Part IV

It's the fourth meeting of the season between the Mavericks and the Seawolves. MSU made a couple of changes, including putting forward Rylan Galiardi in for Jerad Stewart and defenseman Blake Friesen in for Nick Canzanello. Anchorage mixed up its lines a bit, and, freshman goalie Bryce Christianson will be playing for the third time this season. In his debut, he suffered a pair of 3-1 losses at North Dakota Jan. 25-26.

Here are the lines (starters in italic):

MINNESOTA STATE

Kalinski-Harrison-Berge

Hanson-Bruess-Mouillierat

Irwin-Sackrison-Wiley

Gaulrapp-Gunderson-Galiardi

Davis-Kilburg

Youds-Boe

Linder-Friesen

Zacharias

Tormey

Lee

ALASKA-ANCHORAGE

Waldrop-Crowder-Grant

Lunden-Cartwright-Clark

Tassone-Parkinson-Tarkir

Haddad-Wiles-Tuton

Beaverson-Robinson

LaFranchise-Hunt

Carlson-Vidmar

Christianson

Olthuis

Great to be a Maverick

It wasn't a bad night for Mavericks past and present Friday.

In Mankato, the Minnesota State won its fifth game in a row with a 3-1 victory over Alaska-Anchorage. The hot stayed hot as Trevor Bruess (eight points in the last five games) had a goal and an assist, and Joel Hanson (six-game scoring streak) and Jason Wiley (six points in the last five games) scored the other goals. Goalie Mike Zacharias stopped 20 of 21 shots and had an amazing, outstretched save early in the third period to maintain the two-goal lead.

The win moved the Mavericks up to a tie for fourth place in the WCHA. However, in those wacky Pairwise rankings, they dropped from 10th to 11th.

Meanwhile, in New Jersey, ex-Maverick Ryan Carter scored the first two goals of his NHL career. Highlights are available on NHL.com. Earlier in the week, Carter and the Ducks visited the White House in honor of last summer's Stanley Cup championship. Carter is one of three U.S.-born players on championship roster.

"It's my first time in D.C., let alone the White House," he said. "It's been interesting and cool at the same time. To get a view from this angle is nice. To be on that stage and see how everything works around here, it's all really cool. To shake hands with the President was intimidating but neat at the same time."

Mavericks 3, Seawolves 1 - final

It may not have been as compelling as that come-from-behind win over St. Cloud State a couple of weeks back, and it may not have been the work of art on display last week against Denver.

Nonetheless, Minnesota State won its fifth game in a row Friday night, defeating Alaska-Anchorage 3-1 before 4,010 at the Alltel Center.

Alaska-Anchorage 1-0-0--1

Minnesota State  1-2-0--3

FIRST PERIOD

Scoring: 1. UAA-Lunden 12 (Vidmar 4, Clark 16) 7:00; 2. MSU-Wiley 9 (Mouilierat 11, Berge 4) ppg 8:44

Penalties: Lunden, UAA (hooking) 7:00

SECOND PERIOD

Scoring: 3. MSU-Hanson 7 (Bruess 17, Youds 6) 15:01; 4. MSU-Bruess 7 (Davis 9, Sackrison 12) ppg 18:50

Penalties: Beaverson, UAA (hooking) 3:36; Wiley, MSU (tripping) 6:57; Tassone, UAA (unsportsmanlike-diving) 13:04; Kilburg, MSU (hooking) 13:04; Cartwright, UAA (hooking) 18:14.

THIRD PERIOD

Scoring: None.

Penalties: Crowder, UAA (hooking) 8:32

SUMMARIES

Shots on goal: UAA 4-9-8--21; MSU 5-13-3--21. Penalties: UAA 5 for 10 minutes; MSU 2 for 4 minutes. Power-play opportunities: UAA 0 for 1; MSU 2 for 4. Goalie saves: UAA-Olthuis 4-11-3--18 (3 GA); MSU-Zacharias 3-9-8--20 (1 GA)

UAA called its timeout at 18:32 of the third period.

Referee: Jon Campion. Assistant referees: Brad Shepherd, C.J. Beaurline.

Attendance: 4,010

Here are tonight's lines (starters in parenthesis):

MINNESOTA STATE

Kalinski-Harrison-Berge

Hanson-Bruess-Mouillierat

Irwin-Sackrison-Wiley

Gaulrapp-Gunderson Stewart

Davis-Kilburg

Youds-Boe

Linder-Canzanello

Zacharias

Tormey

Lee

ALASKA-ANCHORAGE

Waldrop-Crowder-Cartwright

LundenParkinson-Clark

Tuton-Tassone-Tarkir

Haddad-Wiles-Grant

Beaverson-Robinson

Lovdahl-Vidmar

LaFranchise-Hunt

Olthuis

Christianson

You want answers? 2/8/08

Just a few questions this week (and, apparently, few answers). Feel free to keep them coming, and I'll do another one next week:

What is the status of the proposal for the So MN Hockey Center where the Lady Mavs would play? Was it presented to the house/senate and is it something that might get a vote in an upcoming session? I'm going to be honest here and tell you that this is on my to-do list of things to look into in the next week or so. Stay tuned.

Is Galiardi going to return to the lineup this weekend? When was the last time the Mavs were nationally ranked ahead of the Gophers? What is the Mavs highest ever national ranking? Jutting said that he's sticking with the same lineup tonight as he did in last weekend's games against Denver. However, he did say he'd like to get Galiardi and Friesen in the lineup Saturday if he can.

What happened to Brock Trotter? Why is he done at Denver? Check the post below. Also, here' a good column about the situation by the Denver Post's Terry Frei. Interesting that this is the weekend Denver and Minnesota play each other and each had players leave mid-season for the NHL.

I know it may be a bit soon to ask this question, but I figured I'd throw it out there anyway. I noticed Mick Berge has a little brother playing juniors with the Tri-City Storm in the USHL. Any idea if he might follow in his big brother's footsteps and eventually make his way to Mankato? Has Berge mentioned anything about his brother's hockey career? I actually talked to Mick about his brother a few weeks ago. Mick says Josh is a pretty good player and is interested in college hockey. Mick said he'd love to see him in Mankato but that, of course, it's his brother's decision. I believe Josh is only a junior in high school right now. He's also 5-foot-8, 150 pounds. Here is his USHL profile.

Any prognostications on how many WCHA teams will make the NCAA tournament this year? Perhaps an over/under? If the Pairwise remains the same, there will be five teams in the tournament. Including MSU at No. 10, there are five teams in the top 14. Wisconsin is 15th, which would be on the outside looking in since two conferences with automatic bids -- College Hockey America and Atlantic Hockey -- are not in the top 16. There is still a lot of hockey to be played, but I can't imagine there being fewer than four WCHA teams in the tournament.