Mavericks 3, Bulldogs 1

Freddy's three thoughts ...

1. Better effort: Minnesota State clearly wasn't happy with its performance on Friday despite a 3-0 victory. Jared Spooner described their play as "arrogant" and "ungrateful" afterward. The Mavericks came out much better on Saturday, going hard to the net and making plays amid the Ferris State traffic, which it simply did not do much on Friday. If not for a stellar effort by Bulldogs goaltender Ron Salmenkangas (28 saves, 14 in the first period), the Mavericks would have put the game away early in the first period. As it turned out, the game was scoreless again through the first 20 minutes. Go figure. "It was a battle," coach Mike Hastings said. "The last one is always hard to win in a series, and a Bob Daniels (coached) team is not going to go away."

2. Do it, Duehr: Walker Duehr broke the scoreless stalemate at 9:03 of the second period, burying a nice behind-the-net pass from Spooner. Spooner and Shane McMahan did the dirty work along the wall and behind the net, but Walker had the nice finish and improved his point-scoring streak to five games. He's really come on over the second half of the season after a slow start. His 15 points equal his total from last year and is one shy of his total from his sophomore season. "A real honest, heavy line," Hastings said.

3. And the rest: Sam Morton put MSU up 2-0 at 2:19 of the third period with a shot that hit the pipe but went into the net after hitting Salmenkangas in the skates. Jake Livingstone gave the Mavericks a 3-1 cushion with a 180-foot empty-net goal with 45 seconds to play. Livingstone and his D partner, Riese Zmolek each finished plus-3. As for Dryden McKay, no shutout this night, but he was rock-solid once again, making 23 saves, including a few flurries. Ferris broke through with 7:00 to go on Marshall Moise's power-play goal.

Up next: Minnesota State will host the WCHA semifinals and finals on Friday and Saturday. Schedule to be determined. As of right now, the Mavericks and Lake Superior State, the No. 2 seed, are in. The Lakers swept Alabama Huntsville, 6-1 and 4-1.

Mavericks 3, Bulldogs 0

Freddy's three thoughts ...

1. Let's wait awhile: The playoff game between the No. 1 and No. 8 seeds in the WCHA was a tight one and remained scoreless until 8:49 of the third period when Julian Napravnik scored a power-play goal. The WCHA Offensive Player of the Year cashed in with his 10th goal of the season and his sixth game-winner. That loosened up the Bulldogs' tightly packed defense a bit, and the Mavericks added two more goals, one from Jared Spooner just 53 seconds later and another from Walker Duehr, who continues to stay hot.

2. Big day: On Friday afternoon, the WCHA announced that Dryden McKay had won the league's Player of the Year Award, joining Marc Michaelis and C.J. Suess to claim that honor. He backed that up by recording his ninth shutout of the season and the 23rd of his career — 23 of his 72 career wins have been shutouts. Crazy. McKay made just 15 saves but several tough ones, especially over the game's first 10 minutes but also throughout the game's scoreless stretch. "We hung him out to dry a couple times," coach Mike Hastings said. "But he's OK at handling that type of situation. He gave us an opportunity to get our feet underneath us."

3. Playing hard: Watching MSU play Ferris State a few times this season, you figured the Bulldogs might be a tough out. They play hard defensively and block shots, and they were aggressive offensively early on Friday's game to try to get a quick lead. "They played with a lot more jam and desperation," Hastings said. "Thank goodness we had Dryden McKay." It's been a tough season for them, going 1-21-1 with the lone win coming against a Division III team. The Bulldogs look like a better team than than that. They'll try to get a win and keep their season alive in Game 2 at 4:07 p.m. Saturday.

Friday Morning Skate

It was one year ago today, March 12, that sports shut down around the country. I don't think I'll ever forget the deep sadness that lingered around the Minnesota State hockey facility when those players found out their season was over, that their dreams of getting to the Frozen Four, or even winning a national championship, had died. Heartbreaking.

Today, although we're all still under the cloud of COVID-19, the Mavericks begin another playoff run. They will host Ferris State in the first game of a best-of-three series in the first round of the WCHA tournament. This weekend's other matchups include Lake Superior State vs. Alabama Huntsville, Bowling Green vs. Northern Michigan and Bemidji State vs. Michigan Tech. 

As always, the question is: Will anyone be playing on Sunday?

The four winners will advance to a single-elimination semifinal/championship weekend. That will take place in Mankato, if Minnesota State advances past this weekend.

Remember: MSU's game times this weekend are 6 p.m. today, 4 p.m. Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday (if necessary).

A lot of the coverage this week centers around the WCHA awards, which the Mavericks cleaned up on. Here's coverage from The Rink Live's Jason Feldman and The Free Press' Kevin Dudley.

One player who did not get an award this week was forward Walker Duehr, but the senior has been on a tear over the second half of the season, Feldman writes.

Last season's top WCHA player, Marc Michaelis, made his NHL debut a week ago, and Dudley caught up with the Vancouver Canucks rookie to see how it went.

College Hockey News has a WCHA tournament preview.

If you missed it, be sure to check out the Maverick Hockey Podcast this week. I interview Richter Award finalist and two-time WCHA Goaltender of the Year Dryden McKay.

Mavericks clean up awards

The WCHA announced most of its postseason awards this week, and MacNaughton Cup champion Minnesota State did quite well, not surprisingly.

Mike Hastings was named WCHA Coach of the Year for the fourth time, while Dryden McKay earned the league's Goaltender of the Year award for the second year in a row, forward Julian Napravnik won Offensive Player of the Year and defenseman Akito Hirose was named Rookie of the Year. 

Other individual award winners were Bemidji State goaltender Zach Driscoll, who won Student-Athlete of the Year, while Defensive Player of the Year ended in a tie between BSU's Elias Rosen and Bowling Green's Will Cullen.

Only the WCHA's overall Player of the Year was not announced. The guess here is that McKay takes that hardware. We'll see.

Meanwhile, the All-WCHA Teams were also announced, and McKay and Napravnik were named to the first team. MSU's Nathan Smith made the second team, Hirose and Riese Zmolek were the third-team defensemen and Hirose and Jake Livingstone were the rookie-team D-men.

A conversation with Dryden McKay

I had the pleasure to interview Mavericks goaltender Dryden McKay for the Maverick Hockey Podcast this week. It was a lot of fun. Maybe this will turn into a thing. For now, enjoy my conversation with the Richter Award candidate:

 

Mavericks sweep Huskies

Freddy's three thoughts ...

1. Goal of the game: Julian Napravnik ended up with the game-winning goal on a beauty of a play Saturday to make it 3-1 in what would end up as a 3-2 victory. Napravnik started it with a nice back check at neutral ice that forced a turnover. Walker Duehr, who is playing the best hockey of his career, carried the puck to the hash marks and dropped a behind-the-back pass to Napravnik, who fired past goalie Blake Pietila. Napravnik leads the Mavericks with 24 points and has five GWGs.

2. Save of the game: Not long after Napravnik's goal, Dryden McKay stretched out wide to glove a great scoring chance by the Huskies' Chris Lipe, who had gotten a step on an MSU defender. McKay stopped 16 of 18 shots and picked up his 71st collegiate victory. His career record is now 71-13-4 in three seasons. As for this year, he is now 17-2-0 with a .933 save percentage and a 1.32 goals-against average. Richter-worthy numbers? We'll see!

3. Step right up: Sophomore defenseman Tony Malinowski had a goal and an assist, playing in just his eighth career game (all eight have been this season). The goal was the first of his career. A scratch on Friday, Malinowski got more and more ice time as the game went on, as the coaches showed they were trusting his play. He missed two great scoring chances on one shift, with the second resulting in a Duehr goal. Then, on his next shift, 61 seconds after Duehr's goal, he buried an open shot for a 2-0 MSU lead.

Up next: The WCHA tournament begins next week, with the top-seeded Mavericks hosting eighth-place Ferris State in the best-of-three quarterfinal round. The other matchups will be 2-Lake Superior State vs. 7-Alabama Huntsville, 3-Bowling Green vs. 6-Northern Michigan and 4-Bemidji State vs. 5-Michigan Tech. 

End of the regular season

Minnesota State will close out the regular season at home tonight against Michigan Tech after defeating the Huskies 2-1 in a tight, playoff-like game on Friday.

The Mavericks clinched the MacNaughton Cup a little over a week ago and know they'll be hosting Ferris State in the first round of the WCHA tournament next weekend. Barring an upset in the best-of-three series, MSU will host the single-elimination WCHA semifinals and championship a week later, a sort of mini-Final Five (minus one).

On Friday, the fourth-ranked Mavericks got first-period goals from Sam Morton and Nathan Smith and held on in the third period after giving up an early power-play goal. Goaltender Dryden McKay returned to his Richter Award-favorite form after giving up seven goals in a home-and-home split with Bemidji State last weekend, making some key saves while stopping 25 of 26 shots.

Earlier this week, former Mavericks standout Marc Michaelis made is NHL debut for the Vancouver Canucks, becoming the second MSU alum to skate in the show, following Connor Mackey:

Big welcome to Marc Michaelis, making his @NHL debut! #HockeyFightsCancer pic.twitter.com/RvfMUv1UFV

— Vancouver #Canucks (@Canucks) March 5, 2021

Back to the WCHA there are four games remaining in league play, as this was originally set as an open weekend for COVID-related makeup games. Ferris State plays at Lake Superior State this afternoon, and Alabama Huntsville and Bemidji State begin a Saturday-Sunday series.

Lake State, with a win, can tie Bowling Green for second place in the conference and grab the second seed for the tournament. Bemidji State, meanwhile, can secure home-ice position with a sweep of the Chargers. With its loss to Minnesota State last night, Michigan Tech is still in the fourth spot currently but, even with a win tonight, has to wait out the BSU-UAH results to see if it will be on the road or at home next week.*

* All based on my math.