Mavericks 4, Seawolves 2

Freddy's three thoughts of the game

1. Sunday Funday: Alaska Anchorage, specifically goaltender Kris Carlson, did its best to try to upset MSU and force a Game 3, but the Mavericks prevailed and will get Sunday off. "It will be nice to get the extra day of rest," said Jake Jaremko, who scored the game-winning goal. "It was a hard series; they were a physical team." Minnesota State will have to wait until Sunday to find out who it plays. It will be either Michigan Tech, which swept Northern Michigan at Marquette, or Lake Superior State, which defeated Bemidji State on Saturday to force a Sunday game in Bemidji.

2. River rises: Jaremko centered the Mavericks' best line in the game, playing between Reggie Lutz and Charlie Gerard. Jaremko had the GWG, finishing off a play with the two linemates. Lutz had a goal and an assist, and Gerard assisted on two scores. If the trio sticks together, you can call them the River Line. Jaremko and Lutz are from Elk River, and Gerard is from Rocky River, Ohio. Gerard's two assists put him at 30 points for the season and 70 for his career.

3. Up to No. 2: Marc Michaelis had one assist on Saturday, putting a laser pass on the tape of Nathan Smith for the Mavericks' second goal. That gave him five points for the series and also put him at 162 points for his career, tying him with Matt Leitner for second place on MSU's D1 era scoring list. He's now two points shy of first place. For the season, he's now at 44 points, a career high, on 20 goals and 24 assists.

Read my game story here.



Around the WCHA: Lake Superior State 5, Bemidji State 3 (series tied 1-1) ... Michigan Tech 4, Northern Michigan 3, 3OT (Tech wins 2-0) ... Bowling Green at Alaska, late (BG leads 1-0)

Deep thought: The Gustavus Adolphus women's team won the MIAC playoff title on Saturday and advanced to the NCAA tournament. Read Kevin Dudley's coverage of the game.

Mavericks 8, Seawolves 1

Freddy's three thoughts of the game ...

1. Depth becomes them: Eight players had goals and seven players had multiple-point games as the Mavericks won Game 1 of the best-of-three WCHA playoff series between the WCHA's 1 and 8 seeds. Coach Mike Hastings mixed things up a bit from last week, moving Parker Tuomie back to the top line with Marc Michaelis and freshman Nathan Smith back to center. Tuomie (1G, 1A) helped his line finish with a 10-point game, playing with Michaelis (1G, 3A) and freshman Lucas Sowder (4A). As for Smith (1G, 1A), who centered Dallas Gerads (1G) and Julian Napravnik (2A), Hastings said, "Nathan Smith is a good hockey player. Doesn’t matter where we seem to put him, he’s productive. I like the maturation of his game."

2. Milestone night: The Mavericks hit a few milestones on Friday night. They won their 30th game for the third time in their history and the second time in two years (they won 32 games last year). Dryden McKay won his 29th game in goal, tying the mark set by Steve Carroll during the 1980 national-championship season. And Ian Scheid (1G, 1A) broke the program's Division I era record for points by a defenseman, reaching 97 points. That total also puts him third all-time for MSU D-men. (Read more about Scheid in my game story).

3. Milestone in sight: As for Michaelis, his four points put him at 161 for his career, just three points from tying the program's D-I era scoring record of 164 held by Aaron Fox, who played from 1996-2000). Michaelis, who reached a career-high for points in a season with 43 (despite missing seven games with an injury) is one point behind Matt Leitner, who had 162 points for the Mavericks from 2001-15.

Around the WCHA: Bemidji State 2, Lake Superior State 0 ... Michigan Tech 4, Northern Michigan 1 ... Bowling Green 4, Alaska 2

Minnesota State vs. Alaska Anchorage, Game 1

The Mavericks and Seawolves will play in the first game of a best-of-three, first-round WCHA series at 7:07 p.m. at Mayo Clinic Health System Event Center.

Here are tonight's lines:

MINNESOTA STATE
6-Tuomie, 20-Michaelis, 21-Sowder
16-Lutz, 5-Jaremko, 9-Gerard
22-Gerads, 8-Smith, 15-Napravnik
23-Rivera, 26-French, 17-Duehr

2-Mackey, 3-McNeely
25-Zmolek, 18-Scheid
7-Aamodt, 24-Hookenson
4-Carroll

29-McKay
31-Berger

Scratches: Borchardt, Bukes, Malinowski, McMahan, Sandelin, Spooner, Van Os-Shaw

ALASKA ANCHORAGE
10-Schachle, 13-Frye, 12-Nazzarett
16-Court, 9-Wicks, 24-Brown
28-St. Onge, 14-Nash, 15-Lantz
29-DeGraaf, 25-Mitchell, 17-Masson
20-Renwick

7-Nicholas, 23-Sinclair
18-Hiekkavirta, 22-Buono
27-Trinkberger, 8-Pears

30-Carlson
1-Perrone

Friday Morning Skate

It's playoff time, and the Mavericks are hoping to begin a long run, starting with the WCHA tournament. Third-ranked MSU hosts Alaska Anchorage this weekend in the 1-8 matchup. This is Minnesota State's third straight season as the No. 1 seed, and the Seawolves' first time in the postseason since 2014.

Minnesota State's depth has been a strength all season, and it's showing now with some unlikely players coming through at important times. One player who fits that bill is junior forward Walker Duehr, who has 12 points in 2020, including a team-high eight points in February.

For more on the series and start of MSU's Sauer Trophy defense, check out the College Hockey Gameday preview.

In case you missed it from earlier in the week, I opine on the Mavericks' third straight MacNaughton Cup and how MSU's dominance in the WCHA should be appreciated.

As for the Seawolves, they're making their first postseason appearance since 2014 when they went to that first WCHA Final Five in Grand Rapids, Mich. (I liked Grand Rapids as a host city for that, by the way. It was too bad it didn't catch on.)

Here are the WCHA's other first-round matchups:

7-Lake Superior State at 2-Bemidji State: The Lakers have lost twice in their last 11 games and are 7-3-3 in their last 13, finding ways to get points in WCHA play. They'll go to Bemidji where the Beavers have been red-hot, losing just twice (albeit once last Saturday to MSU).

6-Michigan Tech at 3-Northern Michigan: The U.P. rivals square off for the second week in a row, and why do I have a feeling this is the series most likely to go three games? Tech won the season series 3-1, but last week was a split. NMU has won 2 of 3 but that came after a five-game skid. Someone to watch for this weekend is WCHA scoring champion Griffin Loughran, who was involved a play last weekend that caused a bit of buzz on social media:

As @wilson_marvin brought up earlier...what exactly is @GriffinLoughran doing here? Is he upset he didn't get the call on his dive so he checks the Ref for missing the "call?" I don't think I've ever seen anything like this before. @mtuhky @NMUHockey @WCHA_MHockey @ChasingMacPod pic.twitter.com/wQWDAFxDFG

— Tim Braun (@TBraunTHG) March 2, 2020

5-Bowling Green at 4-Alaska: The Nanooks are hosting a playoff series after going 6-5-1 with two extra-point wins in its last 12 games. The Falcons enter the weekend on an eight-game unbeaten streak, so these teams certainly could be playing on Sunday, too. Bowling Green has made some interesting travel plans. Knowing they could be playing on Sunday, if they win the series, they'll likely fly to Minneapolis from Fairbanks on Tuesday for the next round, which, if things go as expected, likely will be in Mankato or maybe Bemidji.

In other hockey action:

• The Gustavus Adolphus women's team will play Augsburg at 2 p.m. Saturday in the MIAC championship game at the Don Roberts Ice Rink in St. Peter.

• Mankato East/Loyola went 0-2 at the state tournament, running into some pretty good teams, but the future of the Cougars remains bright.

• The WCHA women's Final Faceoff takes place this weekend in Minneapolis. The league also announced its individual award winners with Wisconsin's Abby Roque winning Player of the Year.

Mavericks 4, Beavers 1

Freddy's three thoughts of the game ...

1. No place like home: I, for one, am glad that there will be no travel the next three weeks. I'm sure the Mavericks are, too, as they secured home ice throughout the WCHA tournament with Saturday's victory. MSU will host eighth-seeded Alaska Anchorage in the best-of-three first round on Friday, Saturday and Sunday (if necessary), while Bemidji State will get Lake Superior State. If the Mavericks and Beavers meet again (and they sure could, considering the only each has lost to in 2020 has been the other), it will be in Mankato, not Bemidji. As the announcer said before the game, "This is a big one." And it was. The league playoffs are not completely set yet but will be later tonight.

2. Keys to the game: I joked with Mike Hastings recently about the keys to the game, and how they're almost always: 1. Good start, 2. Good goaltender, 3. Special teams. Well, the first two definitely were keys to Saturday's win, as the Mavericks scored first on a nice play by Nick Rivera from Walker Duehr, and got a great bounce-back performance from Dryden McKay, who made 38 saves after a tough Friday. "Dryden McKay was outstanding tonight," Hastings said. "To win a championship on the road, your goaltender’s going to have to be that, and tonight he was." As for special teams, there just wasn't much of that all weekend. Just one penalty Friday, and each team went 0 for 2 on the power play on Saturday. Good PKs.

3. Vets club: Juniors and seniors win you games, and Nick Rivera, Riese Zmolek, Josh French and Connor Mackey had the goals on Saturday. French, Hastings, said played one of his finest weekends of hockey. On Saturday he was plus-1 with three shots on goal and three blocks and scored an empty-net goal from just above the blue paint at his own end of the rink, backhanding the puck high into the air and giving the term "Bemidji flip" a bit of a new meaning. Senior Edwin Hookenson blocked four shots, two or three of them on a third-period PK after he had lost his stick. Marc Michaelis had a huge faceoff win on Zmolek's goal with 24.5 seconds left in the second period.

Around the WCHA: Bowling Green 4, Alabama Huntsville 1 ... Lake Superior State 4, Ferris State 2 ... Northern Michigan 3, Michigan Tech 2 ... Alaska Anchorage at Alaska (late)

Beavers 3, Mavericks 1

Freddy’s three thoughts of the game …

1. Playoff hockey: There was no doubt something was on the line this weekend during Friday’s game, as Minnesota State and Bemidji State both played a tight game with only a handful of Grade A scoring chances between them. “Both teams played really good,” Bemidji State coach Tom Serratore said. “It was one of those games. This was playoff hockey. It’s been playoff hockey for four or five weeks.” The Beavers broke a scoreless tie with a bad-angle goal at 2:35 of the first period and ran with that bounce, scoring again at the 4:00 mark and adding an empty-net goal after Josh French made it 2-1 with 8:12 remaining.

2. Got to be aggressive: Both teams did play well defensively, but the Beavers seemed to be more disruptive of MSU’s game than the Mavericks were of theirs. Coach Mike Hastings talked about trying to be more assertive and making a better push, especially in the third period. The Beavers outshot the Mavericks 34-26, including 15-7 in the second period. It will be interesting to see if MSU is able to do that. In four games against each other this season, each team has won twice (including MSU’s nonconference victory at the Mariucci Classic) with Bemidji State outscoring Minnesota State 9-8 (with two empty-netters).

3. What’s ahead: Minnesota State already won a share of the MacNaughton Cup last weekend, but would like to have it outright, and Bemidji State really wants a piece of it. More importantly, each team wants home ice for the duration of the WCHA playoffs, and that will be determined by who wins Saturday’s regular-season finale. Minnesota State will get it with just one point, but Bemidji State needs to win to take the top spot. If both teams advance through the first two rounds of the tournament and face each other for the Sauer Trophy, Saturday’s game will determine where that game is played.

Around the WCHA: Lake Superior State 5, Ferris State 0 … Michigan Tech 8, Northern Michigan 4 … Bowling Green 4, Alabama Huntsville 3 (OT) … Alaska Anchorage at Alaska (late)

Minnesota State at Bemidji State, pregame blog

Minnesota State can clinch the MacNaughton Cup with one point tonight. Standing in the way is Bemidji State, which must sweep the Mavericks to earn a share of the championship and get the top seed for the league playoffs.

Here are tonight's lines:

MINNESOTA STATE21-Sowder, 20-Michaelis, 9-Gerard
16-Lutz, 5-Jaremko, 8-Smith
6-Tuomie, 26-French, 15-Napravnik
23-Rivera, 22-Gerads, 17-Duehr
14-Sandelin

2-Mackey, 3-McNeely
25-Zmolek, 18-Scheid
4-Carroll, 24-Hookenson

29-McKay
31-Berger

Scratches: Aamodt, Borchardt, Bukes, Malinowski, McMahan, Spooner, Van Os-Shaw

---

BEMIDJI STATE19-Brady, 21-Harris, 16-Miller
9-Somoza, 27-Kirkup, 11-Combs
14-Ierullo, 12-Sillinger, 25-Adams
13-Jones, 23-Sjodahl, 26-Cardelli
15-Jubenvill

3-Muck, 22-Vold
2-Zmolek, 28-Rosen
7-Looft, 18-Johnson

33-Driscoll
29-Johnson
35-Carr