{"id":90792,"date":"2019-01-31T10:00:20","date_gmt":"2019-01-31T16:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/?p=90792"},"modified":"2020-08-24T13:00:56","modified_gmt":"2020-08-24T18:00:56","slug":"minnesota-state-reclaims-top-spot-in-wcha-standings-wants-to-be-dominant-team-on-home-ice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2019\/01\/31\/minnesota-state-reclaims-top-spot-in-wcha-standings-wants-to-be-dominant-team-on-home-ice\/","title":{"rendered":"Minnesota State reclaims top spot in WCHA standings, wants to be ‘dominant’ team on home ice"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Marc<\/a>
Marc Michaelis leads Minnesota State in scoring with 13 goals and 29 points in 28 games this season (photo: Shelley M. Szwast).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A funny thing happened to the WCHA in December.<\/p>\n

The conference when into its holiday hiatus in December with a team that wasn\u2019t Minnesota State at the top of the standings.<\/p>\n

Despite a solid record at the time, two teams — Michigan Tech and Bowling Green — were ahead of the Mavericks in the standings. All three of those teams were within a point of one another at the break.<\/p>\n

But just when it looked like the conference might have itself a three-team race for the MacNaughton Cup championship, one team has pulled away.<\/p>\n

Minnesota State, winners of seven of the eight games they\u2019ve played in the month of January, has reaffirmed its lead at the top of the standings. And they\u2019ve done so, according to head coach Mike Hastings, because of their incredible depth.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve played well this month, and we\u2019re hoping we can continue to reply upon our depth,\u201d Hastings said. \u201cWe\u2019ve kind of had to recently because of injuries but also because of how our league is and the amount of games we\u2019re going to be playing moving into the last few weekends.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Mavericks (21-6-1) haven\u2019t had a break since Christmas — they played in the Desert Hockey Classic on Dec. 28-29 and won\u2019t be off again until the weekend of Feb. 15-16. And they\u2019ve been without a number of key contributors during that span, mostly due to injury. Forward Parker Tuomie missed a few weeks with an lower-body injury, while senior captain Max Coatta and defenseman Riese Zmolek were both banged up off and on. The Mavericks also lost forward Nick Rivera in the first period of their game against Northern Michigan last Friday.<\/p>\n

Playing without some of their top players — Tuomie is the team\u2019s second-leading scorer — has forced others into important roles.<\/p>\n

Last weekend, for instance, the Mavericks swept NMU on the road with 3-2 and 8-2 victories. On Friday, Walker Duehr scored the game-winning goal and also played well on defense. In Saturday\u2019s game, Dallas Gerads and Shane McMahan each scored twice in what was a much closer game than the 8-2 score indicated.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m hoping we can continue to have different guys step up, if we do, we\u2019re going to be better for it in the long run,\u201d Hastings said.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t mean Hastings isn\u2019t also happy to see his top guns — players like Tuomie, Marc Michaelis and Charlie Gerard, three of the team\u2019s four scoring leaders — play well. Those three had nine combined points on the weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cRecently, they\u2019d gone away a little bit, so to see them come out at a point where we really needed somebody to step up because of what we were missing in our lineup, I thought that group did a great job providing examples of how we needed to play to be successful,\u201d Hastings said. \u201cThey were good on the power play, they were good five-on-five, Marc Michaelis did a great job killing penalties. That group was really asserted themselves at an important time for us when we really needed them.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s clear that MSU\u2019s strength is in their depth. That extends to behind the bench, too. Hastings was away coaching Team USA in the International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship, which took place Dec. 26-Jan. 5 in Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia. Todd Knott and Darren Blue filled in for Hastings during the six games he missed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very appreciative of the opportunity USA Hockey gave me, and the support of the university, but probably the most important piece of that is being able to know when you put your head to the pillow that they guys are in great hands,\u201d Hastings said.<\/p>\n

He called that time he missed perhaps the toughest of the season. MSU went 2-3-1 in that stretch — a sweep at the hands of Bowling Green Dec. 15-16, the Desert Hockey Classic in which they finished fourth, then a home sweep of Michigan Tech Jan. 5-6 that kicked off their recent hot streak.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was probably the most challenging six-game set that we had back-to-back-to-back on our schedule,\u201d Hastings said. \u201cThey did a great job.\u201d<\/p>\n

The trick now is for the Mavericks to navigate the final eight games of the regular season. They have an eight-point lead on second-place Bowling Green, and a 12-point lead on third place Northern Michigan (who has two games in hand). Of those eight games, four will be at home — a series this weekend against Alabama Huntsville and then the regular season finale against rivals Bemidji State March 1-2. The Mavericks have been one of the nation\u2019s best teams when they play at the Verizon Wireless Center in Mankato, with a 12-1 record.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur crowds have been phenomenal. They\u2019ve done their part, they\u2019ve bought the tickets, they\u2019re in the building, and there\u2019s a great environment in there where we\u2019re at 90-some percent capacity almost every night,\u201d Hastings said, noting that it\u2019s been fun for his team to play in front of an energized crowd like that each night.<\/p>\n

The Mavericks\u2019 lone home loss was two weeks ago, a 1-0 defeat at the hands of a resurgent Lake Superior State. He hopes MSU won\u2019t lose in Mankato again — especially when the WCHA playoffs start in March.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou play your whole season in the conference to try and play at home in the end, so we\u2019ve got to go back and establish that as a place we\u2019re dominant,” said Hastings. “Last time we were in there, we didn\u2019t, so hopefully, that\u2019s a learning experience that doesn\u2019t go any longer than that. We have four more games left there, so we have to take advantage of the home ice this weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A funny thing happened to the WCHA in December. The conference when into its holiday hiatus in December with a team that wasn\u2019t Minnesota State at the top of the standings (photo: Shelley M. Szwast).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":90793,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[812],"coauthors":[854],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMinnesota State reclaims top spot in WCHA standings, wants to be 'dominant' team on home ice - College Hockey | USCHO.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A funny thing happened to the WCHA in December. The conference when into its holiday hiatus in December with a team that wasn\u2019t Minnesota State at the top of the standings (photo: Shelley M. 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