'Major' announcement coming from WCHA

At 1 p.m. today, the WCHA will be making what it's billing as a "major business announcement," and speculation is rampant as to what's coming.

I'll be on the conference call and will report the news, although the early whispers are that this has to do with a change in the league's playoff format and a return to on-campus sites instead of having a Final Five championship weekend. Stay tuned.

While the playoffs are a big concern for the WCHA to figure out, they may not be the biggest issue facing the league this offseason, as I wrote about in my Free Press column today. When you have a member team's best player transferring and blasting the league's style of play on his way out the door, it magnifies a problem that seemed to turn into a trend during the 2015-16 season that followed an excellent '14-15 campaign.

Meanwhile, another concern is the financial situation at the Alaska schools and what that means to their future both academically and athletically.

MSU hockey awards

On Thursday night, Minnesota State announced its team award winners for the 2015-16 season. Senior forward Teddy Blueger cleaned up, winning three of the team's awards — Most Valuable Player, Hardest Worker and the Don Brose Leadership Award.

A first-team All-WCHA pick this season, Blueger led the Mavericks in scoring (35 points) and assists (24) and ranked second in the WCHA in scoring (28 points, including a conference-high 21 assists in 28 league games). He finished his career with 108 points in 155 games. His 13 game-winning goals rank fourth on MSU's all-time list.

Here's the rest of the list:

Unsung Hero — Jon Jutzi, senior defenseman. Established career highs for goals (5) and points (15) in his final collegiate season while playing in all 41 games. He tied for second on the team with four power play goals and was second with 56 blocked shots

Most Improved Player — Daniel Brickley, freshman defenseman. A WCHA All-Rooke selection, he had 2 goals and 11 points in 36 points.  He tied for third on team at +9, and his 66 shots on goal led MSU freshmen and tied for 11th in the nation among freshmen defensemen.

Three-Star Award — Bryce Gervais, senior forward. A third-team All-WCHA pick, he led MSU with 16 goals and was second on the team with 26 points. He also led the Mavericks with 141 shots on goal and three short-handed goals. He finished his college career with school records for games played (163), consecutive games played (163) and short-handed goals (9).

If Puckato had a vote on some of these awards, here's who I would have picked (I omit the leadership award because it's more of an internal award and the Three Stars because it's based on tallies from the the post-game Three Stars during home games):

Most Valuable Player: Blueger. Not only was he the team's top point-producer, but he was an excellent defensive forward (+10, which led MSU's forwards) and reliable faceoff taker. Saw a ton of ice time late in so many close games. Coach Mike Hastings' praise for Blueger's value to the team, it seemed, grew every week as the season went on.

Hardest Worker: It's hard to argue with Blueger for this, but if I were spreading the awards around, I might give it to C.J. Franklin, who was third on the team in points (25) and second in goals (14). Brought a lot of energy, was willing to learn and play a new position during the season, moving from wing to center (corrected).

Unsung Hero: Jutzi is a good choice here. I think, as a defenseman, he flew under the radar while fellow D Casey Nelson — the WCHA's Defensive Player of the Year — and team captain Carter Foguth received more attention. Logged a lot of minutes, blocked shots, scored a couple of game-winners. 

Most Improved: Again, hard to quarrel with Brickley, especially if you recall his struggles early in the year (remember the preseason exhibition game?). His play and his confidence improved week after week, and he'll be a key D next season. However, I like to compare season to season, so I'd give this award to forward Zeb Knutson for his transformation from freshman (3 points, 9 games) to sophomore (17 points, 39 games).

'Minneflowta' to debut on May 10

Even a bald man such as I can appreciate this ... 

ESPN's E:60 special about Minnesota high school hockey hair with NHL analyst Barry Melrose will be aired next Tuesday, May 10 at 9 p.m.  

This was filmed during the Minnesota state boys hockey tournament and features players from those teams -- included Mankato West. Be on the lookout for some of those Scarlets players in the trailer, which makes the special look absolutely fantastic.

Oh, the password is hair.

Mavs add one recruit

After inking a sizable recruiting class during the early signing period in November, Minnesota State has signed just one in the April period, which began Wednesday. MSU announced on Saturday that defenseman Ian Scheid has signed his letter of intent. 

Scheid is a 5-foot-11, 180-pound defenseman from Coon Rapids. He played at Sioux City of the USHL this season where he had five goals and 11 assists for 16 points in 47 games. He started the year in Fargo but was traded after five games. He spent 2014-15 in Austin of the NHL where he had 12 goals and 23 assists for 35 points in 55 games. 

A high school player at Blaine, Scheid, was a finalist for the Reed Larson Award as the state's top defenseman as a senior. His father, Jim, played at Wisconsin from 1976 to 1980, and his brother, Eric, just wrapped up his college career at Penn State.

According to MSU's release, the Mavericks will have eight rookies next season, as Scheid joins forwards Charlie Gerard, Josh French, Marc Michaelis, Nicholas Rivera and Parker Tuomie; and defensemen Michael Bigelbach and Edwin Hookenson. The release does not mention forward Jake Jaremko, who signed last November, which may mean he is remaining in the USHL for a second season.

Season's over

The Associated Press

North Dakota defeated Quinnipiac 5-1 on Saturday night in Tampa, Fla., in the national championship game, winning its first title since 2000 and eighth overall. It's also the team's first title as the Fighting Hawks, the school's new nickname — although you wouldn't know that it had changed by all of the Sioux jersey shown on TV and the chants by the UND faithful during and after the game.

Senior Drake Caggiula scored twice in the third period and freshman Brock Boeser had a goal and three assists. Sophomore goalie Cam Johnson had 32 saves. Caggiula had four goals in the Frozen Four and was named Frozen Four MVP.

Read The Associated Press story here.

That will wrap up the 2015-16 college hockey season.

Fighting Hawks vs. Bobcats

The Associated Press

The national championship game is all set. North Dakota beat NCHC-rival Denver 4-2 last night in the Frozen Four semifinal games in Tampa, Fla., after Quinnipiac topped Boston College 3-2.

You can read The Associated Press accounts of the games on the Free Press website by going here and here.

The championship game will take place at 7 p.m. Saturday and will be broadcast on ESPN2.

Margonari signs with Hershey

Minnesota State senior forward Dylan Margonari is the latest Mavericks player to turn pro, agreeing to an amateur tryout contract with the American Hockey League's Hershey Bears this week. The Bears' next game is Friday.

Margonari, 24, finished his four-year career at MSU with 66 points in 143 games, including 12 points in 30 games this season. He missed his first 10 games of his final season after undergoing surgery to correct a stress fracture in his ankle.

The Greensburg, Pa., native, was also a three-time WCHA scholar-athlete and all-academic honoree.

Margonari joins fellow seniors Teddy Blueger (NHL-Pittsburgh Penguins/AHL-Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins), Bryce Gervais (AHL-Chicago Wolves) and Jon Jutzi (AHL-Manitoba Moose) and junior Casey Nelson (NHL-Buffalo Sabres) as players who turned pro following the season.

The WCHA also put out a release of league players who have begun pro careers this spring.