Not so lonely at the top

This is what Minnesota State fans have been waiting for, right? With one weekend to play in the regular season, the Mavericks are in the midst of a wide-open WCHA race. 

Amazingly, five teams still have a shot at winning at least a share of the MacNaughton Cup as league champion (including Minnesota State), and five teams could end up in seventh place and going on the road for the playofffs (including Minnesota State). And with Denver playing Alaska Anchorage in a Friday-Sunday series, we might not know how everything shakes out until late Sunday afternoon.

Although Minnesota State can clinch a share of the title, it can't be the top overall seed for the playoffs due to the league's tiebreaking system. 

Going into the weekend, only St. Cloud State and North Dakota have wrapped up upper-division (home ice) spots. 

Other teams vying for home ice including MSU, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska Omaha and Denver. 

The only team locked into a spot is Anchorage, which will finish 12th (last). Other teams going on the road for the playoffs for certain will be Colorado College, Minnesota Duluth, Michigan Tech and Bemidji State.

This weekend's matchups are:

North Dakota at Minnesota State

St. Cloud State at Wisconsin

Minnesota at Bemidji State

Colorado College at Michigan Tech

Nebraska Omaha at Minnesota Duluth

Alaska Anchorage at Denver

As I wrote about in today's column, it has to be refreshing for MSU fans to see the Mavericks in this position after the team finished 11th the last two seasons and hasn't hosted a playoff series since 2008.

Gustavus X

Sport Pix photo via Gustavus Adolphus

The Gustavus women's hockey team captured its 10th consecutive — 10th! — MIAC playoff championship on Saturday afternoon. The Gusties defeated Concordia 4-1 to keep their undefeated season alive. They are 26-0-1.

There are only two other college teams in the country that are unbeaten. Division 1's top women's team, Minnesota, at 36-0-0, and another D3 women's team, Plattsburgh, at 25-0-2.

Led all season by MIAC Player of the Year Lindsey Hjelm, a senior forward who had a goal in the game, the Gusties got strong support from a pair of freshmen on Saturday, as forward Allison Eder-Zdechlik scored twice — she leads the team with 14 goals — and goalie Lindsey Hibbard stopped 16 shots.

Besides Hjelm getting her conference honor last week, coach Mike Carroll was named the MIAC's Coach of the Year.

Read more about the game here.

The Gusties advance to the NCAA tournament, which begins next weekend. The field will be announced on Monday. Check back on this blog post for an update on when and where Gustavus plays next.

UPDATE: Gustavus will host No. 6 Wisconsin-River Falls at 2 p.m. Saturday with the winner advancing to the D3 women's Frozen Four the following weekend in Superior, Wis.

Meanwhile, the Gustavus men saw their season end on Saturday when they fell 3-2 in the MIAC championship game at St. John's.  The Gusties were hoping to win their second straight tournament title.

The loss snapped an eight-game winning streak and ended the hockey season for Corey Leivermann, who transferred to Gustavus from Minnesota State during the semester break. Leivermann finished with 10 points, including two goals, in 13 games. He'll be a senior for the Gusties next season.

40-point scorers

With Matt Leitner joining Minnesota State's 40-point club on Saturday night, here's a look at the Mavericks' other 40-pointers in the WCHA era. It's good company.

Shane Joseph (2002-03)       65
Grant Stevenson (2002-03)   63
Aaron Fox (1999-2000)        50
Shane Joseph (2003-04)       43
David Backes (2005-06)       42
Travis Morin (2005-06)        42
Matt Leitner (2012-13)        40
David Backes (2004-05)       40

Leitner currently ranks seventh in the WCHA in overall point scoring and is tied for ninth nationally (Omaha's Ryan Walters and St. Lawrence's Greg Carey lead the country with 48). Leitner is second in the country behind Carey in power play points with 23.

Mavericks 7, Tigers 2

In a game filled with penalties, including three majors against Colorado College, Minnesota State finally found the cord to its power play and rebounded from Friday's loss.

The Mavericks scored five second-period goals, including three in the final 63 seconds of the period during the third of those majors, to get themselves back on track.

They're now in a tie for fourth place in the WCHA standings and moved back up to a more-comfortable eighth place spot in the Pairwise Rankings.

Matt Leitner had a hat trick, including two goals in the quick rally. The last came with just 13 seconds left in the period. He now has 15 goals and 40 points, becoming the first 40-point scorer for MSU since David Backes and Travis Morin each had 42 in 2005-06.

"In my opinion, he's all in," coach Mike Hastings said of the sophomore center.

Josh Nelson had a goal and three assists for his first four-point game. Brett Knowles, Zach Lehrke and Johnny McInnis had the other MSU goals.

The Mavs finished 4 for 13 on the power play, while CC was 1 for 8. They also outshot the Tigers 45-28.

There were so many penalties that only the last two goals were 5x5 goals. The Mavericks scored 4x4, 4x4 with an extra attacker during a delayed penalty, and three 5x4 power-play goals. Early in the second period when the game was still scoreless, MSU failed to score during an extended 5x3 with two Tigers serving majors. When CC killed that, Hastings thought the Tigers had the momentum. But the Mavericks quelled that when a Nelson floater toward the net was tipped in by Knowles for the game's first goal.

More in The Free Press here and in the Colorado Springs Gazette here.

Other notes: The win was the 21st of the season, tying a Division 1-era record. ... The Mavericks are 11-5-2 away from Mankato. ... Dylan Margonari did not play due to an upper-body injury. ... With Margonari out, the Mavericks did some line shuffling, and sophomore forwrd Charlie Thauwald saw his first action of the season. He saw action in seven games last season. Thauwald's brother, Scott, was a captain at CC, playing there 2003-2008. ... There were 81 minutes worth of penalties called in the game, including 55 on CC.

Around the WCHA: Minnesota Duluth 4, Alabama Huntsville 0 ... Bemidji State 2, North Dakota 2 (OT) ... Minnesota 5, Denver 1 ... Michigan Tech 5, St. Cloud State 1 ... Wisconsin 6, Nebraska Omaha 2 ... Alaska 3, Alaska Anchorage 1

WCHA standings
1. St. Cloud State (35 points)
2. Minnesota (33)
    North Dakota (33)
4. Minnesota State (31)
    Wisconsin (31)
6. Nebraska Omaha (30)
7. Denver (29)
8. Colorado College (24)
9. Minnesota Duluth (21)
10. Michigan Tech (18)
11. Bemidji State (17)
12. Alaska Anchorage (10)

Tigers 4, Mavericks 1

Minnesota State's been strong on special teams and in third periods this season, but Colorado College turned the table on Friday night at the World Arena.

The Tigers scored two power-play goals and a short-handed goal and broke a 1-1 tie with a three-goal third period to defeat the ninth-ranked Mavericks.

The loss kept MSU in fifth-place in the WCHA standings, although now in a three-way tie, when it had a chance to go to a tie for third on a wild night in the league. The Mavericks also fell from seventh all the way to 13th 15th by the end of the night in the Pairwise.

"We have to regroup," coach Mike Hastings said in a phone interview afterward.

The Mavericks led 1-0 on a Dylan Margonari goal early in the second period. It was the ninth of the season for the freshman. Matt Leitner picked up his 25th assist, and Johnny McInnis also assisted.

Colorado College tied the game on Zach Lehrke's major penalty for contact to the head in the second period and took a 2-1 lead in the third with a power-play goal. After that, Alexander Krushelnyski scored twice, including a short-handed empty-netter with 3:24 remaining as the Mavericks tried to cut their deficit skating 6 on 4.

"I thought our first period was pretty good," Hastings said. "The turning point was the five-minute major. ... We spent quite a bit of energy there."

The Mavericks finished 0 for 3 on the power play, while the Tigers were 2 for 4.

"We had some good looks on the power play and didn't finish," Hastings said.

Tigers goalie Joe Howe was strong, making 16 saves in the third period and finishing with 31. MSU's Stephon Williams stopped 23 shots.

Around the WCHA: Wisconsin 4, Nebraska Omaha 3 ... Denver 2, Minnesota 0 ... St. Cloud State 5, Michigan Tech 3 ... North Dakota 4, Bemidji State 2 ... Minnesota Duluth 4, Alabama Huntsville 2 ... Alaska Anchorage at Alaska (late)

WCHA standings
1. St. Cloud State (35 points)
2. North Dakota (32)
3. Minnesota (31)
4. Nebraska Omaha (30)
5. Denver (29)
    Minnesota State (29)
    Wisconsin (29)
8. Colorado College (24)
9. Minnesota Duluth (21)
10. Bemidji State (16)
      Michigan Tech (16)
12. Alaska Anchorage (10)

Minnesota State at Colorado College

I'm not in Colorado Springs this weekend (sadly) and will be monitoring MSU's game via the radio and other areas. I'll have updates on Twitter throughout the night and a recap later on.

In the meantime, you can also follow some of the action through the coverage of The Gazette's Joe Paisely, who covers the Tigers. His blog is here, and his Twitter feed is here.

Friday morning skate

Minnesota State has four games remaining in the regular season, starting this weekend at Colorado College. There's a lot on the line over the next two weeks — home ice, a secure spot in the Pairwise Rankings. In some ways, the latter may be more secure than the former. Either way, the recipe seems to be, to quote Al Davis, "Just win, baby."

The Mavericks like the position they're in — it sure beats where they've been the last few seasons —and coach Mike Hastings says the team has been very good about "controlling what we can control" all season. "There's no scoreboard we'll be watching more than the one in the arena we're at," he said.

Even if the Mavericks aren't speculating about the postseason, others sure are (see here and here)

As for playing the Tigers, Minnesota State has been good coming off bye weeks this season. The team will be without Eli Zuck, who suffered a lower body injury in its last game and is week to week. He has not skated in practice since getting hurt. Freshman Taylor Herndon will get a chance with Zuck out.

For Colorado College, it appears senior Joe Howe will get the start in goal tonight. Born in Mankato (although he didn't grow up there), he ranks among CC's all-time goalie leaders.

Going around the WCHA ...

Wisconsin at Nebraska Omaha: The Badgers will try to bounce back from Monday's crushing home loss to upstart Penn State, while the red Mavericks are treating the series like a pair of playoff games.

Denver at Minnesota: The Pioneers are taking Omaha's approach as they try to stay in home-ice position in the conference. For the Gophers, defenseman Seth Helgeson will be the only senior playing his final regular-season games at Mariucci Arena this weekend.

Bemidji State at North Dakota: The Beavers are out of the home-ice race but will try to improve their standing against a tough UND team. For North Dakota, it's still trying to determine who its No. 1 goaltender is.

Michigan Tech at St. Cloud State: St. Cloud senior Drew LeBlanc is having an outstanding season and is about to set a program record for games played. Tech might be on the road, but there are exciting things happening in their home rink, which will get a new four-screen video board installed this summer. 

The money quote in that press release, one that the city, arena and university leaders in Mankato need to see comes from Tech athletic director Suzanne Sanregret: "Video boards are the standard in Division I hockey, and we're thrilled to make this enhancement to our fan experience. We will be able to provide our fans with game replays, highlights and information."

Alabama Huntsville at Minnesota Duluth: The Bulldogs are stepping out of conference play and will host Huntsville, whose coach grew up in northern Minnesota.

Alaska Anchorage vs. Alaska: This nonconference rivalry will be an intraleague matchup next year. But for now, the Seawolves are simply hoping to hoist the Governor's Cup, something no player on the current team has done.

The WCHA women's league begins postseason play with best-of-three first-round series to decide who goes to next week's Final Face-Off. Minnesota State, which placed sixth in the conference (it's best finish in five years) will go to North Dakota where they will play the talented Lamoureux twins for the last time. Jocelyne is the WCHA's all-time leading scorer, while Monique has a chance to move into second place before the season ends.

Back in southern Minnesota, the Gustavus Adolphus men and women both play for their respective MIAC championships on Saturday afternoon, with the men going to St. John's and the women hosting Concordia after a come-from-behind win on Thursday night. The women have the MIAC's player of the year in senior Lindsey Hejlm — who scored Thursday's game-winner with 5:22 remaining in the game — and coach of the year in Mike Carroll.

Also, former Maverick Tim Jackman was in St. Paul earlier this week as the Calgary Flames played the Minnesota Wild. Minnesota Hockey Magazine caught up with MSU's first-ever NHL draft pick.