Huskies 3, Mavericks 2 (updated)

Pat Christman/The Free Press

Freddy's Three Thoughts of the Game

1. Show up on time: That's what St. Cloud State did, scoring two goals in the game's first 1:48. Cory Thorson and Ben Hanowski scored goals 29 second apart to give the Huskies a quick 2-0 lead. When the Mavericks responded with Eriah Hayes' power play goal at 6:55 (pictured), St. Cloud's David Eddy made it 3-1 at the 9:07 mark. Eddy's goal ended up standing as the game-winning goal.

2. Shots through the heart: MSU outshot St. Cloud 31-19, including a 12-3 advantage in the third period. But the Huskies scored three goals on their first four shots. The Huskies had three power plays but mustered just one shot during the man advantage. Goalie Rayn Faragher earned the third star of the game making 29 saves. The Mavericks' Austin Lee stopped 16 shots.

3. Shorty's fire burnin': The Mavericks scored their second short-handed goal of the weekend to make it 3-2 at 6:30 of the third period. Adam Mueller scored it, showing great speed and chemistry with his old high school linemate Michael Dorr. It was Mueller's second career shorty. Minnesota State's penalty kill shut out St. Cloud on eight power plays in the series.

Deep thought: J.P. Burkemper and Max Gaede made good showings in their return from injury. Burkemper's goal and assist on Friday earned him another spot in the lineup on Saturday. Gaede, who was injured just two shifts into the Mavericks' first game oft he season played Saturday and was moved up to the Leitner-LaFontaine line late in the game.

Quote of the night: "Whoever loses Friday is going to come out with some jump, and whoever wins on Friday is going to have to respond." – MSU senior forward Michael Dorr

Read The Free Press' game story here, the St. Cloud Times story here and the box score here.

Around the WCHA: Minnesota Duluth 3, Alaska Anchorage 1; Nebraska Omaha 5, Bemidji State 1; Minnesota 4, Wisconsin 1; Denver 5, Colorado College 4

MSU vs. St. Cloud State live blog

Lines are posted below the Cover It Live box. ... A couple of changes for MSU: Max Gaede is in (his first game since getting injured in the opener at RPI; Corey Leivermann is out. J.P. Burkemper will stay in the lineup after getting a goal and an assist in Friday's win.



MINNESOTA STATE
24-Mueller     29-Zuck     23-Dorr
15-Burkemper     19-Lehrke     25-Hayes
12-LaFontaine     18-Leitner     14-Jokinen
22-McInnis     9-Louwerse     8-Gaede

3-Cooper     26-Schiller
7-Palmquist     17-Mosey
2-Nelson     10-Knoll

1-Lee
30-Cook
31-Karambelas

Scratches: Elbrecht, Grant, Heath, Leivermann, Stern, Thauwald

ST. CLOUD STATE
10-Hanowski     26-Dowd     22-Eddy
11-Festler     23-Reid     21-Bertsch
15-MacMillan     8-Thorson     12-Novak
27-Oliver     13-Christian     18-Milan

28-Prochno     14-Jensen
7-Gravel     40-Daly
3-Zabkowicz     2-Rabey

29-Faragher
33-Phillippi

Referees: Ulwelling, Beaurline. Linesmen: Perrault, Dineen.

Mavericks 4, Huskies 2 (updated)

SportPix

Freddy's 3 thoughts of the game ...

1. Hangin' with Mr. Cooper: Senior Cameron Cooper had a goal and an assist, not a bad night for a defensive defenseman who had just nine career points going into Friday's game. Cooper assisted on Eli Zuck's short-handed goal — also the game-winner — at 10:08 of the second period and scored a momentum-swinging goal at 3:55 of the third period to make it 4-2. Before that goal, St. Cloud State had killed a five-minute major to close out the second period and scored to make it 3-2 less than a minute into the third.

2. Veterans' day: Much has been made (mostly by me, I suppose) of MSU's freshmen and their scoring to start the season, and, indeed, Zach Palmquist tallied his third goal of the season in the second period, but the Mavericks' older guys carried the day. Besides Cooper and Zuck (pictured), a junior, sophomore Zach Lehrke assisted on two goals, and sophomore J.P. Burkemper, back from missing the last six games with injury, had a goal. Senior Joe Schiller and junior Eriah Hayes also had assists. Lehrke was voted No. 1 star of the game.

3. Austin power: Senior goalie Austin Lee continues to impress in goal. He stopped 34 shots, including 10 during St. Cloud State power plays (the Huskies were 0 for 5 on the power play). In his last three starts, Lee is 2-1-0 while allowing 2 goals per game and stopping 95.1 percent of opponents' shots. Lee seems to be playing with confidence and relaxed out there. Maybe it's just me, but he also seems to be moving better than years past. A lot of confidence with the glove, too, which was sometimes an adventure for him in the early years.

Deep thought: The Mavericks have to figure out their power play. They were 0 for 5 (really 0 for 4, one of the PPs was the game's final .9 seconds) with nine shots on goal. For the season they are 4 for 47. They've failed to score on three majors, including one Friday. They also had a healthy 5x3 to work with. Coach Troy Jutting would like to see the Mavs shoot the puck more — as would the dude sitting a few rows behind me tonight.

Read The Free Press' game story here. Read the St. Cloud times' story here.

Quote of the night: "No question, getting healthier has helped us. Sometimes people don't believe you, but with all those injuries it was tough. Not only in games but in practice." — Troy Jutting.

Around the WCHA: Wisconsin 3, Minnesota 1; Minnesota-Duluth 5, Alaska-Anchorage 0; Nebraska-Omaha 3, Bemidji State 3 OT

MSU vs. St. Cloud State live blog

Lines are posted below the Cover It Live blog.

MINNESOTA STATE
24-Mueller   29-Zuck   23-Dorr
15-Burkemper   19-Lehrke   25-Hayes
12-LaFontaine   18-Leitner   14-Jokinen
22-McInnis   9-Louwerse   11-Leivermann

3-Cooper   26-Schiller
7-Palmquist   17-Mosey
2-Nelson   10-Knoll

1-Lee
30-Cook
31-Karambelas

Scratches: Thauwald, Gaede, Elbrecht (inj.), Grant (inj.), Heath (inj.), Stern (inj.)

ST. CLOUD STATE
11-Festler   23-Reid   21-Bertsch
10-Hanowski   26-Dowd   22-Eddy
15-MacMillan   8-Thorson   12-Novak
27-Oliver   13-Christian   17-Holka

28-Prochno   14-Jensen
7-Gravel   4-Johnson
3-Zabkowicz   40-Daly

29-Faragher
33-Phillippi

Referees: Matt Ulwelling, C.J. Beaurline. Linesmen: Chris Perrault, Dan Dineeen

Friday morning skate

In honor of Veterans Day, the Mavericks
will be wearing this sticker on their helmets.

There will be real, live hockey in Mankato tonight! It's been awhile, more than a month. I, for one, am looking forward to seeing the Mavericks play a game for the first time since that rather dreadful Lowell series. Talking to a few players, they would love nothing more than to give a better performance to the home fans, especially against rival St. Cloud State.

A couple of notes from today's Free Press gameday preview: The Mavs are getting healthier, and J.P. Burkemper and Max Gaede each likely will play a game this weekend. ... Austin Lee, who ranks second in the WCHA in save percentage, is the likely starter in goal. ... Michael Dorr scored his first goal last weekend and, by all accounts, had good chemistry on a line with his old high school teammate, Adam Mueller.

Meanwhile, this week's story is about the emergence of the Minnesota State freshmen — specifically Jean-Paul LaFontaine, Zach Palmquist and Matt Leitner — who rank 1-2-3 in scoring for the Mavericks.

As for St. Cloud State, the Huskies are led in goal scoring by junior forward Ben Hanowski, an outdoorsman who can shoot the puck, too. The team's top point man, Drew LeBlanc, is out after suffering a broken leg last weekend. St. Cloud Times beat writer Mick Hatten also has a column about friend-of-college-hockey Cathy St. Martin, who has hopes of singing the National Anthem in every WCHA rink before the conference breaks up in two years.

Going around the rest of the WCHA ...

Minnesota at Wisconsin: The WCHA's Big 10 schools meet with the Gophers ranked No. 1. Part of the reason for Minnie's success is freshman Kyle Rau, who already has eight goals and 15 points. As for the Badgers, they're mixing things up with their freshman goaltenders. Also, having Minnesota in Madison should be a boost to Wisco's dwindling attendance.

Alaska Anchorage at Minnesota Duluth: The Seawolves have stumbled at the start of the WCHA schedule, but it gets no easier with a trip to face the defending national champs. As for the Bulldogs, they're not afraid to make some mid-game adjustments if things go south early. It worked last weekend at Denver.

Nebraska-Omaha at Bemidji State: The red Mavericks head to northern Minnesota to face the team that gave them fits all year long in both teams' first season in the WCHA. The Beavers went 5-0-1 against UNO last year. Like clockwork, of course, the folks in Bemidji say last year was last year and aren't concerned about what happened in '10-11.

Check out more on the WCHA on College Hockey News, USCHO and Inside College Hockey.

A couple of other items: Don't forget to check back on the blog tonight for a live chat during tonight's Mavericks-Huskies game and follow me on Twitter @puckato for any updates or ramblings during the day. Finally, the Anthony Ford Pond Hockey silent auction will begin at 5 p.m. tonight at the Verizon Wireless Center.

Injury report: Mavs getting healthy

During the Mavericks' week off between the Denver and Michigan Tech series, they had a practice in which 11 players were unavailable due to injury. Take away the three healthy goaltenders, and the team had just 13 skaters practicing.

What a difference a couple of weeks have made.

Going into this weekend's series against St. Cloud State, the Mavericks still aren't 100 percent, but they continue to get healthier. Coach Troy Jutting said on Wednesday that forwards J.P. Burkemper and Max Gaede have been cleared to play games. Both were injured during MSU's opening weekend at RPI. The two began skating last week, but will they have their hockey legs for this week? Jutting said he would like to give each of them one game against the Huskies.

At the very least, the Mavericks have some options at forward now.

Defensively, however, Minnesota State remains a bit short-handed still, so Joe Schiller will play there again this weekend. Two players and Jutting commented this week on Schiller's play on the blue line against Tech, giving him rave reviews. Jutting said Schiller might have been one of the team's best players all weekend.

Defensemen Tyler Elbrecht, Danny Heath and Brett Stern remain out. Forward Chase Grant is, too, and it sounds like he might be out for awhile. Jutting didn't have definitive return dates for any of those players.

Early signing period begins (updated)

The early signing period for 2012 recruits begins today (Wednesday), and Minnesota State announced Wednesday that it has inked six players. Here's a look at the incoming class, along with each player's current statistics (and updated heights/weights):

Forwards
Dan Carlson, Sioux Falls (USHL) — The former U.S. National Team Development Program player is a 6-1, 201-pounder from Corcoran, Minn. He has a goal and two assists in seven games this year. In two years with the U.S. team, he had six goals and 12 assists in 55 games.

Brett Knowles, Salmon Arm (BCHL) —The 5-11, 181-pounder from Vanderhoff, British Columbia, is tied for second in scoring for the Silverbacks with five goals and 14 assists in 17 games. Last season he ahd 30 goals and 28 assists inf 57 games. Seems like the Mavericks have a nice 1-2 punch with ...

Bryce Gervais, Salmon Arm (BCHL) —The top goal-scorer for the Silverbacks, the 5-9, 175-pounder from Battlefords, Saskatchewan has 10 goals and nine assists in 17 games, equalling the point total of his teammate Knowles. A year ago he had 29 goals and 22 assists in 58 games.

Dylan Margonari, Youngstown (USHL) — The 6-0, 190-pound forward was last week's USHL offensive player of the week. Through nine games this season he has five goals.The Greensburg, Pa., native is in this third season with the Phantoms.

Defensemen
Jon Juntzi, Powell River (BCHL) —The 6-2, 190-pounder from Tavistock, Ontario, ranks third in scoring on his team with four goals and nine assists for 13 points. Last year he had six goals and 18 assists in 56 games

Goaltenders
Stephon Williams, Sioux Falls (USHL) —The 6-2, 190-pound Fairbanks, Alaska, native has played in eight games this season and is 3-3-1 with a .921 save percentage (seventh in the league) and a 2.53 goals-against average (10th). Last season he played in 35 games with 20 wins, a .909 SV% and a 2.59 GAA.

The Mavericks will lose seven players to graduation after this season, including goalie Austin Lee, defenseman Cameron Cooper and forwards Mike Louwerse, Justin Jokinen, Michael Dorr, Adam Mueller and Joe Schiller.

Minnesota State has one more player committed, but it's possible he won't sign until the April signing period. That is:

Teddy Bluegar, Shattuck-St. Mary's — One recruiting website lists him as a possible 2013 recruit, but he's off to a fantastic start to this season and seems like a big-timer. A native of Riga, Latvia, who has been living in the U.S. since he was 15 (he's currently 17), he had eight goals and 18 assists for Shattuck's team playing in the Midwest High School Elite League this fall. Here is a story on him from last weekend's Bauer NIT in New Hope.

For more on the Mavericks' signed recruiting class, see the MSU press release here.