Oh, that’s right, these two teams played just a few short
weeks ago up at Anchorage, where the teams split the weekend, after the
Seawolves shut the Lakers out (which was incredible. I mean, even UAH, the
worst team in the rankings put 2 on NoDak, then #1). But that’s all in the past, right?
After that split, however, the Seawolves were swept by
Northern Michigan, then last week swept Alabama-Huntsville (winning Saturday
night in 3×3 overtime, so technically a tie).
The Seawolves are led
in scoring by freshman forward Nick Wicks, with 6 goals, 8 assists for 13
points. Following him Is senior defensemen Tmi Hakkavirta, who has 1 goal and
12 assists.
Goaltending looks to have been mostly junior Kris Carlson,
who has played in 14 games, with a 2-8-2 record, good for 776 minutes, a 2.55
GAA and a .922 save %. Junior Kristian Stead has appeared in 9 games, and
Brandon Perrone has appeared in just one game.
Oh Captain my
Captain!
When a team isn’t doing well, it’s easy to focus on the
negatives, and in this column I’ve certainly done my fair share of that.
However, this week is a little different. This weekend the Laker family
welcomes back one of our own & a former Captain: Matt Bruneteau. In the
2012-2013 campaign he started as an assistant captain before being named the
Captain in 2013-14. He finished the
2013-14 year trying out in the ECHL, but wound up playing for Strasbourg in the
French league for two seasons. He retired from playing and started as an
assistant coach with Stevenson University one year after they started their
NCAA D3 mens program. This is the second year with the Seawolves, but the first
time returning to Taffy Abel Arena.
So let’s give him a warm welcome home.
After being held to a single goal in their last game, Max
Humitz is still sitting at 97 career points. This should be a good team to
tally the final three to get to the century mark & looking forward to pass
that going into the final month of the regular season, but we will have to see
about that.
Puck drops at 7:00pm both Friday and Saturday at
Abel Arena. Listen to the game locally by tuning your dial to 99.5, or listen
through TuneIn or other streaming methods. If you want to view the game,
FloHockey is where you need to go if you cannot make it to the arena.
It’s been no secret over the last few seasons that the
Fairbanks based Alaska Nanooks have had some consistency issues over the last
few seasons, usually dwelling in the middle to low-mid of the standings, but
still usually making playoffs. This year, however, they are proving themselves
this year, sweeping or splitting with some tough opponents: Starting out
conference play by sweeping Michigan Tech in Houghton, shutting out then #9
Penn State in Happy Valley, taking another win from Tech in Alaska.
The Nanooks are currently sitting in the #4 spot in the
WCHA, which is also the last home playoff spot.
They are led in scoring by a trio of junior forwards, Max
Newton (6-8-14), Justin Young (7-6-13) and Steven Jandric (5-8-13). In net they
are leaning heavily on Anton Martinsson, the senior out of Klippan, Sweden.
They have played sophomore Gustavs Grigals, out of Latvia, having played in 9
games with the same tally of wins.
Bailing Water
The Lakers are sitting just 3 points ahead of Ferris who
currently own the final playoff spot, and just 4 points ahead of Alaska
Anchorage, who they will face again in two weeks at Abel Arena. This is a far
cry from the success the team had last season, but certainly seems closer to
what we as Laker fans have come to expect in recent years.
The one bright spot on the team has been Max Humitz, who is
currently sitting at 97 career points. Humitz is leading the team in both
overall points and goals by quite a bit, with 21 points and 14 goals. Junior
center Hampus Eriksson is second in scoring with 16 points. Pierre-Luc Veilette
is second in goals with 6.
Goaltending has been pretty much Mareks Mitens exclusively,
playing in 25 games, with a 7-16-1 record. Roman Bengert has appeared in 3
games, going 0-2-0. Freshman Seth Eisele has yet to appear in a game.
In other news, it appears some players have left the team at
some point. Forwards Owen Guy and Roberts Bluegers, defensemen Bennet Vida have
all been removed from LSSU’s roster on their website. It appears Vida is now
with Trinity Western University of the BCIHL, playing in 2 games so far with 1
assist. Neither Guy nor Bluegers have updated profiles on Elite Prospects. One
would have to guess the reason they left was lack of playing time. We here at
LakerHockeyBlog would like to wish them the best with their future endeavors,
and also thank them for their time as Lakers.
The Lakers play in Fairbanks Friday and Saturday, puck drops
at 7:07 AT, which should be -4 hours from Eastern time, so the game would start
at 11:07pm eastern. As always, the game will be on Flohockey.tv for a fee, or
you can listen in on 99.5 YesFM locally or on TuneIn.
The WCHA is having a great year in the national standings,
with Minnesota State having been in the #1 spot for the last month or so,
Bowling Green has also been up and down the rankings most of the season &
the league currently has MTU and NMU receiving the most votes of teams not
ranked.
The Falcons of Bowling Green are coming off an interesting
weekend. After what looks to have been meltdown of epic proportions from
Alabama-Huntsville Chargers on Friday night, allowing 9 unanswered goals after
going up 3-0, and two players taking 10 minute misconducts within 2 minutes of
each other in the second, the Chargers forced a close game Saturday night. The
two battled to a 2-2 tie, with Bowling Green taking the extra conference point
in 3×3 overtime.
Senior Defenseman Alec Rauhauser leads the team in points,
totaling 17, followed b a pair a junior forwards, Connor Ford with 17, and
Cameron Wright with 16 – 11 of those being goals, which leads the team. Junior
Eric Dop continues to be their workhorse goalie with a 2.06 GAA and a .914 Save
%.
Lakers Gored by
Minnesota State
This season has been a rough one for our Lakers, to say the
least. They took a drumming last week against the Minnesota State Mavericks,
being outscored 7-1, with Saturday night being a shutout. Mareks Mitens also
sits on top for Division 1 goalies for goals against, with a whopping 60, 7
more than UConn’s Thomas Vomacka, a Nashivlledraft pick, and 10 more than
Wisconson’s Daniel Lebedeff. He sits 64rd out of 71 ranked goalies in Save
Percentage (.886) and 64th in Goals Against Average (3.34).
Now, don’t get this wrong – I am not suggesting that this is
Marek’s fault alone. In fact, it’s the opposite. We sit tied in 8th place overall
for most penalties, with 97 on the year (Alaska leads the group by a mile, with
128 penalties), resulting in 238 penalty minutes, which is good enough for 14th
place. Again I say that the coaching staff either needs to come up with
different combinations, or try out some kids who don’t normally play. At this
point, why not see what Vida can do, for instance? Or the players need to come
together and figure out who they work well with in practice and suggest using
said line.
There are some bright spots, While we are tied with Maine on
faceoffs lost, we are second in faceoffs won, also behind Maine. The Lakers
have 620 FW with Maine taking 637. At this point last year, the Lakers were
ranked 44th in shots blocked, with 168. This year, we are sitting in
27th with 193.
But this is the last weekend of play for the half, not
counting the Catamount Cup just after Christmas. The Lakers are sitting alone
in 7th place, just ahead of Ferris State and Alaska Anchorage by a
single point, and trailing Northern Michigan by 7. Depending on how well the
Lakers, Bulldogs and Chargers play this weekend (UAH is in last with 5 points,
but play Ferris this weekend. UAA are off), we could, possibly, be even more on
the bubble of missing playoffs. I believe we currently have the tiebreaker on
Ferris, but I am not sure about UAA.
Puck drops at 7:00pm both Friday and Saturday nights here in
Sault Sainte Marie. Listen to the game locally by tuning your dial to 99.5, or
listen through TuneIn or other streaming methods. If you want to view the game,
FloHockey is where you need to go if you cannot make it to the arena.
One big changeup in college hockey this past summer was that
there was going to be a change behind the bench for the Falcons. 9-Year bench
boss for BG, Chris Bergeron, after a spot opened up in his Alma Mater of Miami
(Ohio). Bergeron was the first coach
since Jerry York, whose tenure ran between 1979-1994, to post a positive win
percentage for the team.
Now leading the club is Ty Eigner, a 1993 graduate of
Bowling Green. He is off to a good start too, posting a 7-4-0 record thus far.
The wins come curtasey of Miami (Ohio), a sweep of Western in a home-and-home
series (after a loss to them at the Icebreaker), the split with Michigan Tech,
a split in an overtime win with Minnesota State-Mankato before finally sweeping
Alaska Anchorage.
Bowling Green is led in scoring by senior defenseman Alec
Rauhauser who has 12 points, Connor Ford, a junior forward has 11 points and
Alex Barber, a sophomore forward follows up with 10 total points. Cameron
Wright, a junior forward leads the team with 8 goals. Eric Dop is the go-to
goalie this year, playing in 10 of their 11 games. He has a 7-3-0 record, a
2.19 GAA and a .914 Save%.
Lakers Not Weathering
Early Storms
Whew this season has been rough. At this point last season,
the Lakers were flying high at 6-3-1 record (6-4 if you count the tie as a
loss, as it was in 3v3 OT). They started the season winning 7 straight, between
2 on-conference series, an exhibition weekend, and a weekend of WCHA play. It
seemed the team morale was high, fans were having fun (and would continue to do
so, winning another 8 straight after dropping three in a row).
This campaign isn’t as much fun. While we have played
against two ranked opponents so far this season, keeping it closer than the
score says with then #2 Denver, then a few weeks later at #5 Notre Dame, they
were swept by a really bad Michigan team, having won only 3 games this season
(the other win coming from a pounding of Western), they have yet to win a
conference game and sit at the bottom of the B1G. And save for Saturday night’s
game against cross UP rivals Michigan Tech, they have been mostly blown out.
The defense corp needs to figure itself out. There was only
one loss in that department after last season, Steven Ruggerio. Ruggerio, as a
refresher, was second in the nation with the number of penalties taken (36), and only scored 11 points on the year,
and blocking 57 shots (second to Colin Saccoman). Saccoman already has 9 points
on the season. Only two defensemen ended their year with a worse +/-. Anderson
and Semandel, but they only played 29 and 17 games respectively, whereas
Ruggerio played in all but one. This isn’t trying to say that Steven wasn’t a
good player, he was, but losing just guy shouldn’t make the blue line this
porous. The goaltending could step it up too, but when the play in front of him
is subpar, there’s only so much one man can do.
A split or sweep this weekend would do wonders for this team
and it’s fans. Bowling Green is a long time rival of the Lakers, going all the
way back to the CCHA days. And save for the playoff series that we don’t talk
about, the Lakers always seem to step up their game against the Falcons.
Max Humitz notched another point last week, bringing his
career point total to 88.
Puck drops at 7:00pm both Friday and Saturday nights in
Bowling Green. Listen to the game locally by tuning your dial to 99.5, or
listen through TuneIn or other streaming methods.If you want to view the game,
FloHockey is where you need to go. Get every in conference game for one price.
First, I would like to apologize for the lack of previews
over the last couple of weeks. For the Michigan series, I was still getting
over the sickness I got while on vacation. Then last week a stick of RAM
decided to die in my PC, which made pretty much anything that I opened became
corrupted, and that didn’t get fixed until late Friday. So, let’s get back on
track:
Bulldogs In the
Doghouse
The start of the Bulldog’s season has been an interesting
one. Since starting NCAA play, they’ve beat Colgate in a best-of-one, and split
with Miami in Miami before getting swept by conference rivals Northern Michigan
on their own ice.
They are led by senior defenseman Nate Kallen with senior
forward Dominic Lutz being named as an alternative captain. Bob Daniels also
returns for his 28th season as bench boss. Roni Salmenkangas, the
Finnish sophomore goalie looks to be their workhorse, playing in 4 games, with Carter
McPhail, a Michigan native having played in two games looking like the backup
in the early part of the season, although other than the two wins that Salmenkangas
has posted, their stat lines look very similar.
Lake State Heading
Toward Dry Dock
While there may have
been a number of fans who though the Lakers were going to come out swinging,
starting off where they left off last year, I was not really one of them.
Excited to see what would happen? Sure. But losing the likes of Nellis and
Cuglietta scoring was going to depend greatly on who could step – would it be
sophomore Mucha? One of the Freshman? So far Humitz and Erikson lead the pack
with 8 total points, followed closely by Ashton Calder and Collin Saccoman, each
of whom have 6 total points.
Looking at the start of this season, it has not been easy on
the Lakers. After sweeping Merrimack to start the season, they’ve dropped six
straight, all against non-conference opponents and two ranked teams. In those
six games, they’ve been outscored 26-13. With this week starting conference
play, the rest of the team has to step up and contribute more.
Both games this weekend drop the puck at 7:00pm EST. Bill Crawford
will have the call on 99.5 YesFM, both locally and streaming online. WCHA
Partner FloHockey will have the livestream from the Taffy Abel Arena if you
want to watch the game but can’t make it to the arena.
First, let me congratulate all the teams that made it to the
WCHA tournament this year, from top to bottom. As for Ferris & Anchorage:
Better luck next year.
The Beavers from Bemidji has certainly had some interesting
series this year: Starting the year at #13 North Dakota and taking the first
game of the series, to splitting with Northern Michigan to start a 4-game
streak, sweeping Anchorage in the process and taking one against Merrimack.
Then: A four game losing skid, starting with Merrimack, heading into a series
against #2 St. Cloud State, before splitting with #3 Minnesota State. After this
start, we would see them splitting most series.
Going into the post season, they are led in scoring by
senior defenseman & co-captain Justin Baudry, with 8-22-30pts. Following
him are two forwards: sophomore Charlie Combs (11-10-21) and junior Adam Brady
(8-13-21). In addition to Combs, Aaron Miller and Owen Sillinger round out the
top 3 goal scorers.
Their goaltending situation is similar to that of the
Lakers: Zach Driscoll has been the go-to, with the freshman netminder playing
in 25 games & posting a 10-9-4 record with a 2.296 GAA and a .910 Save %.
Henry Johnson, a sophomore, has played 14 games, with an overall record of
5-5-2, with a 1.96 GAA and a .916 Save %. Jack Burgart has a single start &
posted a loss in that contest.
These two teams have met once before this season, on January
25th & 26th, with the Beavers losing Friday night
before winning 5-3 Saturday.
Lakers Face Familiar
Foes in Familiar Waters
Well, Laker fans, what a turnaround this series has been,
eh?
The fans at the Taffy Abel Arena were able to thank the outgoing
seniors and wish them off, in what would be their final regular season game…and
for the first time in a long time, not their final home game of the year. The
Lakers would go to split the weekend, and Senior Night was ruined with the loss
Saturday.
Your top scorers and goal-getters are of no surprise: They’ve
been the ones we’ve been talking about all season. Co-Captain Diego Cuglietta
leads the pack with 23-14-37pts and is currently only 4 points off the century
mark. Following him is fellow Senior & Assistant Captain Anthony Nellis,
with 14-17-31pts and Max Humitz with 14-16-30pts. Everyone wants to see Diego
hit that mark, but I hope the team does not try to feed him this weekend: winning
is much more important than an individual record.
Kossoff, again, owns the net. Playing in 23 contests, the
senior netminder has a 15-6-2 record, with a 2.53 GAA and a .913 Save %. Sophomore
Mareks Mittens did not play last weekend, so his 11 games & 6-5-0 record
and 2.31 GAA and .919 Save % remain unchanged.
The Lakers will have to play much better than they did the
last time they saw Bemidji, and better than we saw for most of Saturday night’s
game last week. They also cannot take any stupid penalties; the Beavers are too
good of a team to give them any help. Note: The winner of this series will go
on to face the winner of the Minnesota State-Alabama-Huntsville series.
Potential Parting
Thoughts
Win or lose this weekend, we as fans should be proud of the
team, it’s been full of fun little tidbits & records: with 23 goals, Diego has
the most goals of any Laker since Joe Blaznek & Jason Sessa had 22 back in
1996-1997 season. Only one player since has even reached 20: Domenic Monardo. Staying
with Diego, he is tied for first in most goals in NCAA with Arizona State’s
Johnny Walker, & finally he is a Hobey Baker nominee.
With 21 wins on the season, Damon Whitten ties Jim Roque for
the most wins in the regular season since Jeff Jackson left the school. Roque
did it in 2006-2007, and Jackson posted 30 wins in his final season in
1995-1996
For the first time in program history, the Lakers took home
a Great Lakes Invitational win.
They have been ranked every week since January 7th.
The Lakers have had 17 players be named for either Player of
the Week or Player on the month between all categories:
The puck drops at 7:07pm Friday and Saturday nights. If a
third game is needed, it will be played at 4:07pm Sunday. Tickets are now
available at the box office or online. If you are in the area, or can make to
the arena, I implore you to, our boys will need all that energy. If you cannot
make it, or are too far away, turn your dials to 99.5 YESfm, or online at yesfm.net,
or use the Tunein App to listen to the game. Or you can watch the game online
for a fee using FloHockey.tv, which is the official source to view every WCHA
game.
This is the second part of the annual Cappo Cup series
between Northern Michigan and LSSU. Going into this series, hosted in
Marquette, the series is tied 1-1, with a +1-goal differential going to LSSU.
This year’s Wildcat team has gotten a lot of help from their
blue line in scoring, as their top scorer is junior defenseman Philip Beaulieu,
who in 30 games has amassed 5 goals and 23 assists for 28 points. Close behind
him is senior Troy Loggins (15g 12a for 27tp) then by Adam Rockwood, another
senior forward with 5 goals, 16 assists and 21 points.
The net has been owned by the excellent senior Finnish
netminder Atte Tolvanen, who has played in every game this season, earning
their 15-14-2 record, with a 2.31 GAA and .915 Save%. Freshman backup Nolan
Kent has appeared in 2 games, but looks like mostly in relief as no wins or
losses are attributed to him.
After last year’s run, this year has certainly been a disappointment
to Wildcat fans, and there are certainly some questions concerning the future progress
of the team, especially in net. Tolvanen has played very well in spite of some
of the play in front of him over the years, even managing to score a goal this
season. With the workhorse leaving after this season, I hope for the sake of
their fans they have another workhorse or two coming in next season.
Cappo Cup 2: Electric
Boogaloo
What can be said about this team that hasn’t already been
said across the College Hockey world this last week? I’ll for sure be doing a
writeup at some point as a retrospective on the season, but needless to say it’s
been one for the ages. I can’t imagine what this year must be like for longtime
fans, who’ve seen some of the worst seasons the Lakers have had.
This year, though, has been a dream. Another dream may be
realized over the next few weeks: another 100 point scorer. That player is
Diego Cuglietta, who has a total of 93 points heading into this weekend. (34
senior, 23 junior, 25 sophomore,11 freshman). After him looks to be Max Humitz,
who has 73 points, of course he should be hitting it next season. Tied with
Humitz, for this season’s point total, is Anthony Nellis with 30 points.
Kossoff again owns the net, though Mitens did post a huge
win Friday night against rival Michigan Tech. It’s anyone’s guess as to what
will happen in net over the weekend, and I’ve been wrong almost every time I’ve
guessed this season, so use your imagination.
Puck drops both Friday and Saturday at 7:07 at the Berry
Events Center in Marquette, MI. In the Soo, the game will be broadcast on 99.5
YESFm, and can be heard online at yesfm.net and on the TuneIn App. FloHockey.tv
will also have the video for the game.
What a season it has been for the Ferris State Bulldogs. Head coach of the Bulldogs is now in his 27th season with the school and has an overall record of 444-466-101. During his tenure, they’ve had some massive success: making a tournament appearance in 2003, 2012, 2014 & 2016, winning the WCHA tournament in 2016, winning regular season titles in 2002-2003, 2011-12 and 2013-14. Heck, in 2012 they made their lone Frozen Four appearance. You wouldn’t know that if you asked the fanbase how they feel, or by looking at the standings, as they are now 7 points out of the playoffs, sitting above Alaska Anchorage.
With this in mind, they did shut out #9 Bowling Green last Saturday 3-0 after shutout Friday night 2-0. Despite all the above doom and gloom, they do have a bright light on their team, and that’s Freshman Defenseman Cooper Zech, who is tied at #7 in scoring in the conference, alongside LSSU’s own Max Humitz and Jared Spooner, all with 23 points. Another Defenseman, Junior Nate Kallen is second in scoring and senior forward Corey Mackin make up the top 3 Ferris State scorers.
Roni Salmenkangas is the go-to goaltender for the Bulldogs, having played in 20 games, but he does hold a 3.69 Goals Against Average and a .878 Save %. Justin Kapelmaster, a junior, is their backup, playing in 9 games and holding a 2.94 GAA and a .923 Save %.
Whitten’s Wonderful Traveling Circus
This team feels like a mystery wrapped in an enigma this season. They’ve won 12 games on the road (counting the GLI), and have lost 2. At home, in 6 series (12 games), the Lakers have won 4 games, all of them on Friday. This brings up a lot of questions, but that’s probably for another article.
After last weekend’s set of games, Diego Cuglietta is still a point-a-game scorer, with 26 points in 26 games. Close behind him are Anthony Nellis and Max Humitz. Now, Max Humitz has been on one hell of a scoring streak since the Great Lakes Invitational, being within one goal of a hat trick at least twice since the tournament.
The goaltending situation is still a bit muddled. Nick Kossoff had an amazing game last Friday night, but would probably want to forget his performance Saturday night (though, the rest of the team may follow suit). We’ll see if Whitten & Co will split the net this weekend, but I expect Nick to start at least Friday night.
Puck drops at 7:07 at the Robert L. Ewigleben Ice Arena in Big Rapids both Friday and Saturday nights, for those who are travelling to the game or who are in the area. Bill Crawford will have the call on 99.5 YESFm, or through YESFM streaming online on their website or on TuneIn. You can also watch the game through Flohockey.tv. For those in the Sault this weekend, the school will be hosting a viewing party Friday night at Buffalo Wild Wings.
After an on-and-off start to the season, the Beavers of Bemidji has strung some big-time wins together, having split their weekend series at Bowling Green and sweeping Michigan Tech outside on Lake Bemidji last weekend, albeit with some extra time Friday night.
In an interesting turn, the Beavers are led in scoring by senior defenseman Justin Baudry with 19 points, though their leading goal scorers are a pair of sophomore forwards Aaron Miller (10g) and Charlie Combs (9g) .
Freshman Zach Driscoll and sophomore Henry Johnson seemed to have split more weekends, with Driscoll starting 15 games, and Johnson starting 13. GAA and Save % are nearly identical, though the freshman does have 2 more wins.
Lakers Leaning Towards the Light
With 10 series left before the post season, the Lakers have positioned themselves to be in the final spot for home ice this season. They have the tie breaker, as of now, on Michigan Tech, and are only a point ahead of their opponents this weekend. Through the USCHO poll, the Lakers are ranked #18, however through the Pairwise rankings, they are at #20. They’ll need to start a good run this weekend in order to break into the top 15, and a chance at an at-large bid.
Our top three scorers are the same as they’ve been for a while – led by captain Diego Cuglietta (17-7-24), Anthony Nellis (11-12-23) and Max Humitz (9-12-21). Diego is officially a point-a-game player, with Nellis being 1 point behind that mark, the same with Humitz going into the weekend.
The goaltending will be the story in the later half of the year. Nick Kosshoff has played in 16 games, with a record of 11-3-2, and Mareks Mitens following him with 8 games played and a 4-4-0 record, with all 4 of the wins being shutouts. This includes last weekend where Mareks made 29 saves. While I don’t think Nick has lost his net, I think Mareks is certainly lighting the fire – hopefully a bit of competition is a good thing.
Friday night, the Lakers will also try to battle domestic violence, providing a free t-shirt to the first 1000 fans so they can white-out the arena, so do try to come out to the arena this weekend to support your Lakers. However, if you can’t, it will be on over the air on 99.5 YESFm, streaming through Yesfm.net or through the TuneIn app. Flohockey.tv will have the video feed of the game.
So, we meet again, Mankato. Since the realignment, the Mavericks have had the Lakers number. Of course, Lake State hopes that changes this weekend, but looking at Minnesota State’s record of 18-5-1, and a perfect 11-0-0 at home, that this weekend will be another battle.
Surprisingly, the Maverick’s top scorers are either juniors or sophomores. Junior forwards Marc Michaelis and Parker Tuomie top this list, with 26 and 22 points respectively, followed by sophomore forward Jared Spooner at 21 points.
In net, Freshman Dryden McKay has won the starting role, having played in 17 games with a 11-4-1 record, 2.05 GAA and a .919 Save %. Behind him is senior Mathias Israelsson who has played in 9 games this season, 7-1-0 record, with 1.74 GAA and a .908 Save%.
On a side note, they’ve out of the 12 series they’ve played as part of the regular season, half of them have been against ranked opponents (Ferris x2, Bemidji, UAA, Michigan Tech and Alaska were unranked). They dropped 1 game against any of those opponents, Saturday night at Bemidji. The only series they were swept in was against the then #12 Bowling Green in December. They also lost against Minnesota Duluth and tied against Arizona State at the Desert Hockey Classic, and then #16 North Dakota early in the season.
Blue Bombshells Bombast the Best
Minnesota State-Mankato: The real test to any season. This season, however, having been ranked on and off throughout the season, becoming the new GLI champions, and being on a 8-game unbeaten streak, Mankato will be the ultimate gut check. Remember: Six of those wins came from opponents #52 or lower in the pairwise. The other two are #30 Michigan State and #31 Michigan Tech.
The top point getters stay the same, except Max Humitz breaks into the top. Diego Cuglietta and Anthony Nellis lead with 23 and 22 points respectively, with Humitz bringing up the rear at 19. Both Cuglietta and Nellis have also been nominated for the Hobey Baker Award – you can vote for them here (https://www.hobeybaker.com/vote) , and they also have a shot at breaking 100 points, though by my math, Humitz should be the next 100 point scorer next season.
Puck drops at 7:07pm CST, so 8:07 pm both Friday and Saturday nights in Mankato. Locally it can be heard on 99.5 YESFm, or on it’s website stream or on Tunein. You can see the game on FloHockey.tv for a nominal fee.
