Shane Frederick
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Mavs best make hay during Olympic year
Minnesota State women’s hockey players Christina Lee and Holly Snyder are scheduled to go to St. Paul today and meet a group of Western Collegiate Hockey Association all-stars who will take on the U.S. Olympic team on Friday night at the Xcel Energy Center.
“It’s exciting,” said Lee, a senior forward for the Mavericks. “It’s a good opportunity for Holly and I to represent our school and put our names out there for MSU. We’re honored they picked us.”
The team the WCHA all-stars will be facing won’t be unfamiliar.
Team USA has several college hockey alumni, including nine players who played in the WCHA last season.
Four of those players are taking the season off from the college game in order to wear red, white and blue in Vancouver next February. That group includes last year’s top-three league scorers: Wisconsin’s Hilary Knight and the former Minnesota, future North Dakota standout twin sisters, Monique and Jocelyne Lamoureux.
The good news for Lee and Snyder is: That will be the last time they and the Mavericks will see those players this season.
In fact, the WCHA will be missing several stars due to the Olympics this season.
Six players from Minnesota Duluth are taking redshirt seasons to play for national teams in Canada and Sweden, and Minnesota State even loses one player, defenseman Emilia Anderson, who is trying to earn a spot with Team Sweden.
With so many top-flight players out of the WCHA — especially among its traditional top three teams, the Badgers, Gophers and Bulldogs — this season, it just might benefit a team like the Mavericks, who have hopes of finishing among the top four in the conference standings for the first time in seven years.
Minnesota State has never had a player or an alum compete in the Olympics. It came close four years ago when goalie Shari Vogt was among Team USA’s final cuts.
Vogt is now an assistant coach for the Mavericks, part of new coach Eric Means’ staff, which conducted its first official practice of the season on Saturday morning.
While Minnesota State is going through the transition that comes with a new coach, Means and company aren’t necessarily in complete rebuilding mode.
Including Lee and Snyder, the Mavericks have seven seniors and five of their top six scorers back from a team that underachieved early in the year; saw its coach, Jeff Vizenor, resign over winter break; and make a surprising, late-season playoff push that included a trip to the conference’s playoff championship weekend in Minneapolis.
“Last year’s team finished on a good run and for the first time won a playoff series,” Means said. “We need to build on that momentum.”
Last week, Means talked about recruiting athletes who will develop into impact players by the time they are juniors and seniors. He’s fortunate that this year’s team potentially has a few of those already, including those all-star picks and other double-digit scorers like seniors Kala Buganski and Ashley Young.
And it certainly doesn’t hurt that an Olympic year has leveled the WCHA playing field a little bit.
Shane Frederick is a Free Press staff writer. Click here to access his college hockey blog or e-mail him at sfrederick@mankatofreepress.com.
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