Sunday morning skate

Minnesota State takes the ice at 5:07 p.m. today (Sunday) in an exhibition game against the University of Alberta. It will be the first look at this year's Mavericks, especially their nine new players and veterans who may end up in different roles after all the big departures following last season.

To kick off the hockey season, I sat down with MSU coach Mike Hastings last week for a cup of coffee at Tandem Bagels, just a hop, skip and a jump from the Verizon Wireless Center and MSU's new hockey center there, to talk about his first three seasons with the Mavericks, the state of the program and the upcoming season.

Our chat has been transcribed into a Q&A format (and edited for length and clarity), and there's some good stuff in there. It's a long read, too, so grab a cup of coffee, sit back and enjoy. 

As for Alberta, it looks like it might be a somewhat tougher test than previous exhibitions, which is a good thing for a team that's going right into a meat grinder of a schedule in just five days. Alberta lost at St. Cloud State 6-2 on Saturday night, although it outshot the Huskies 34-25.

WCHA teams that kicked off the season Friday and Saturday in exhibition action included: 

• Alaska Anchorage, which fell 1-0 to Mount Royal on Friday.

• Bowling Green, which defeated Toronto 4-3 on Saturday.

• Northern Michigan, which defeated the U.S. Under-18 Team 4-0 on Saturday.

Other teams in action tonight include:

• Bemidji State, which hosts Manitoba

• Ferris State, which hosts the U.S. Under-18s

• Alaska, which hosts Mount Royal

• Ferris State, which hosts Lethbridge

Be sure to check back on the blog later for more coverage of the Mavericks' preseason game.

Start the season

Minnesota State was on the Verizon Wireless Center ice for the first time on Saturday, the first official day of the Division I men's season. No more two-hours-a-week limitations; the Mavericks had two practices on Saturday and will host Alberta in an exhibition game on Sunday afternoon.

MSU players finally got into the arena that they eventually will call their permanent home and saw the renovated hockey facility that includes new locker rooms, dress-down areas, strength-and-conditioning center, athletic training areas (including hot/cold therapy tubs), coaches offices and lounge.

Work remains (including fundraising) on that project, including signage, lighting and other displays, along with furniture and other final touch-ups. The hope is all will be completed in time for the men's and women's teams to move down there fulltime later this month.

Still, the players liked what they saw. Senior Teddy Blueger even compared the facility to NHL rinks he's seen.

"(I'm) a little bit of awe," Blueger said. "Pretty amazing. I think it's better than we ever expected. ... I never thought we'd have anything like this coming in. This is one of the best."

In the meantime, MSU will use what it can for some limited practices as well as Sunday's exhibition and next weekend's season-opening series against Nebraska Omaha. After that series (the MSU women will play North Dakota down there that weekend, too), the teams will go back to All Seasons Arena for two weeks as they play on the road, giving workers time to add the finishing touches and assemble and install the new video scoreboard above center ice.

"I just want to get down here fulltime as soon as possible," Blueger said. "Some guys are saying they'll never want to go home."

Must be a sign

Some nice signage has gone up above the Riverfont entrance of the Verizon Wireless Center, for the first time in 20 years showing that the arena is the home to Minnesota State hockey. Inside, renovations to the Mavericks' hockey center are in the final stages. Minnesota State has an exhibition game on Sunday afternoon against Alberta and then kicks off the regular season with a home series against Nebraska Omaha on Oct. 9-10.

MSU women's player honored

Corbin Boyd

The Minnesota State women's hockey team got off to a good start under new coach John Harrington, tying and defeating Union in a season-opening nonconference series in Mankato.

The Mavericks settled for a 2-2 tie on Friday, getting a late game-tying goal from freshman Corbin Boyd with 1:48 remaining in regulation. MSU outshot Union 46-19.

The next game, MSU goaltender Brianna Quade stopped 19 shots in a 3-0 victory for her first collegiate shutout. The Mavericks had 24 shots in that game.

Other goal scorers for MSU during the weekend included Katie Johnson, Anna Keys, Amanda Conway and Anna Fiegert. Johnson had a three-point weekend with a goal and two assists, as did Hannah Davidson, who had three assists.

Boyd, a Minnetonka native who played at Hopkins High, had an assist in the second game and was named the WCHA's Rookie of the Week for her two-point, five-shot, plus-2 weekend.

The Mavericks will hit the road this week, going to RIT to perhaps try to avenge the MSU men's NCAA tournament loss to the Tigers. The non conference series will take place at 6 p.m. Friday and 1 p.m. Saturday.

Mavericks ranked 6th

The first U.S. College Hockey Online poll of the season — preseason, rather — was released on Monday, and Minnesota State is ranked sixth in the country to start the year. The Mavericks, who also received one first-place vote, were seventh in last year's final rankings and first at the start of the NCAA tournament.

I am a voter on this weekly poll and struggled with putting together a top 20. Proving I wasn't alone, there were 10 different teams that received at least one of 50 possible first place votes. Also, 35 of the 60 teams that play Division I men's hockey received at least one vote. Crazy.

Here's what the poll looked like (first-place votes in parenthesis; WCHA teams in bold):

1. Boston College (19) 907 points

2. Minnesota-Duluth (12) 836 

3. Boston University (6) 820 

4. North Dakota (1) 766 

5. Denver 739 

6. Minnesota State (1) 699 

7. Providence (6) 642 

8. Harvard (1) 592 

9. Minnesota (1) 530 

10. Nebraska Omaha 505 

11. Miami (1) 461 

12. Yale 432

13. Michigan 417 

14. UMass-Lowell (2) 398 

15. Michigan Tech 390 

16. Bowling Green 316 

17. St. Cloud State 236 

18. Quinnipiac 228 

19. St. Lawrence 156 

20. Colgate 129 

Others receiving votes: Robert Morris 63, Notre Dame 45, RIT 39, Michigan State 37, Northeastern 31, Vermont 23, Penn State 19, New Hampshire 18, Ferris State 11, Wisconsin 5, Bemidji State 4, Union 3, Alaska 1, Brown 1, Dartmouth 1.

Game on for the MSU women

John Cross/The Free Press

The Minnesota State women's hockey team begin their 18th season today and first under new coach John Harrington. The Mavericks will host Union in the first game of a two-game set at All Seasons Arena (gametimes are 7:07 p.m. today and 2:07 p.m. Saturday). These are expected to be the final college hockey games at the arena before the women move downtown to the renovated Verizon Wireless Center.

I wrote about Harrington and the Mavericks getting started in today's Free Press. Read that story here.

A few things to know about this year's MSU women's hockey team ...

Coaching staff: head coach John Harrington (first year), associate head coach Jeff Giesen, assistant coach Shari Dickerman.

Roster breakdown: 1 senior, 4 juniors, 10 sophomores, 10 freshmen.

Key returners: Hanna Davidison, so. F (6-9—15), Katie Johnson, sr. F (3-4—7), Elin Johansson, so. F (3-3—6), Anna Keys, so. D (3-3—6), Amanda Conway, so. F (2-4—6), Anna Fiegert, jr. D (0-4—4), Brianna Quade, jr. G (1-8-0, .888, 5.01).

Mavericks on TV

Pat Christman/The Free Press

On Wednesday, members of the Minnesota State men's hockey team underwent their annual media day, which, really, was the time when the outstanding TV crew from Bethany Lutheran College shot footage to be used during the local broadcasts. Above is a photo of some of what was taking place — spotlights, fog machines, even drones.

All home games are broadcast on Charter cable, but there will be at least four other chances to catch the Mavericks on TV.

If the two-time defending Broadmoor Trophy champions can get back to the Final Five, they'll be on Fox Sports North. The WCHA announced on Wednesday that its championship weekend, the Final Five, will be televised on FSN, as it has been the last two seasons. This year's event, which includes the league playoff semifinals and championship game, will take place March 18-19 in Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Mich.

Fox Sports North also announced a college hockey TV schedule for the season that includes four games involving Minnesota State. They are:

Friday, Oct. 16 at St. Cloud State
Saturday, Nov. 14 at Minnesota
Saturday, Jan. 30 vs. St. Cloud State (North Star College Cup)
Sunday, Jan. 31 vs. Bemidji State or Minnesota (North Star championship or consolation)

Besides the Charter broadcast, MSU's all other WCHA teams' home games will be available on WCHA.tv, an online subscription service which, this season, will be provided by Stretch Internet. More information, including pricing, can be found here.