MANKATO — When the regular season resumes in a week, the Minnesota State men’s hockey team hopes it’s poised to make one of its patented second-half surges.
“We need to get back to doing the right things well,” senior defenseman Cameron Cooper said. “We’ve played really well the last couple of games, with the exception of the Saturday night game against (Colorado College).”
That 6-2 loss to the Tigers was the Mavericks’ last game before the holiday break. Minnesota State returned to practice this week and will play the U.S. National Under-18 Team in an exhibition game tonight at the Verizon Wireless Center.
“We’ve been off for eight days; it’s time to get back into it,” MSU coach Troy Jutting said. “For us, it’s a great time to play this game. It’s an opportunity to play at game speed before we have to do it for the second half of the season.”
Jutting can dress all of his healthy players for the game, meaning Mike Louwerse, Brett Stern, Danny Heath and Chase Grant will be the only players who won’t dress for the game. Jutting said that each goalie will get one period of action, but Austin Lee remains in the No. 1 spot.
Despite the Mavericks having just five wins over the first half of the season, Lee has a .909 save percentage and a 3.09 goals-against average in 17 appearances.
“I’ve been pleased with Austin,” Jutting said. “He’s done a pretty good job for us.”
Next week, the Mavericks will begin a nonconference series at St. Lawrence (N.Y.). After that, they will play 14 Western Collegiate Hockey Association games the rest of the way, including six straight weekend series before catching a break on Feb. 24-25. They will close out the regular season the following weekend at North Dakota.
“I’m looking forward to the second half,” Jutting said. “Obviously, I hope we stay away from the injuries that hurt us in the first half. But we’ve done some things very well, and we’ve done some things that we need to get better at.”
Cooper agreed.
“We’ve played well,” he said. “Things just haven’t gone our way as much as we’d like. … Hopefully, we’ll get some puck luck in the second half.”
As for the Under-18s, the senior team in the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based USA Hockey National Team Development Program plays a 50-game schedule that includes regular play in the Junior A-level United States Hockey League, as well as exhibition games against college teams and competition in international tournaments. Danton Cole, formerly the coach at Alabama-Huntsville, is the head coach.
Most of its players already have committed to play college hockey.
Leading point scorer Stefan Matteau (19 points in 27 games) is North Dakota bound, while the top goal scorer Nicolas Kerdiles (11 goals) is committed to Wisconsin, where the national team will play on Saturday.
“They’re a very skilled team; they’re a team that can skate,” Jutting said.
A player from last year’s Under-18 team, forward Dan Carlson, will be coming to Minnesota State in the fall. Carlson is currently with the USHL’s Sioux Falls Stampede.
For more coverage of Minnesota State hockey, read Shane Frederick’s blog at mankatofreepresshockey.blogspot.com and follow him on Twitter @puckato.
