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Men’s hockey prepares for WCHA opener
The Minnesota State University, Mankato Mavericks will be coming into this weekend’s series with the Huskies smelling blood for a couple different reasons.
First of all, the Huskies are the only team that they have not beaten since they made the jump to Division I in 1999. Secondly, unlike last season’s first series between these two teams when the Huskies were the hottest team in the nation, the scales will be a little more level due to the defensive weaknesses the Huskies have shown early on.
Although Mavericks head coach Troy Jutting knows that this may be his best shot yet to disarm the Huskies, he also knows how much respect he has for the hockey program at SCSU. This is mainly because his program’s blueprint is drawn up to resemble that of what coach Craig Dahl and his Huskies have done since 1987, when it jumped into Division I level.
“It takes a little time in this league and SCSU is the perfect testimony for that,” Jutting said. “The program that they’ve had now and for the last four years, it’s obviously an excellent hockey program, but it took them about 10 to 15 years to get to that point, and we’re only in our fourth season in the league.”
In four seasons, Mankato has accomplished a wide array of achievements that have already earned them respect. In their first year in the WCHA in 2000, they beat every team except SCSU, and ended up with a 19-18-1 record. In the three years the Mavericks have been in the WCHA, they have already conquered home-ice once, while being in contention until the last week of play in both of the other seasons.
Dahl, along with Jutting (discounting Don Brose’s one year), is one of the five coaches that has raised a Minnesota team into a Division I program, and he, above all, knows the challenges that still loom ahead for the Mankato hockey program.
“Troy Jutting is a very good coach,” Dahl said. “If it was easy to build national caliber Division I program, everybody in the country would do it, but it’s a very difficult thing that takes time. That program is still in its infancy and it’s tough to get recruits to come to your place when they have a number of other schools to pick from that have had more tradition and history.”
These two teams will come into the weekend not knowing much about one other, due to how young the season is, and have yet to switch any game tapes. Dahl has been focusing more time on his own team.
“I do know that it’s a WCHA team, and on any given night, anybody beats anybody,” he said. “We have enough of our own problems to worry about. It’s been hard having any sort of consistency in the first three weeks of practice because we’ve had so many defensemen out.”
The Huskies took full advantage of their week off in order to heal up some injuries that have plagued a couple of key blue liners. Ryan LaMere looks to be fully healed from off-season shoulder surgery and is probable to play. Assistant captain Jeff Finger will have a playing cast on his broken hand, allowing him to play.
Along with a slowly strengthening defensive core, the Huskies will also be looking for some fire from an offense that usually plays very well at home. Last season it was freshman Mike Doyle, Peter Szabo and Dave Iannazzo that prompted the season opening sweep against Mankato, combining for five goals.
“They have some of the better players in the league, obviously with Ryan Malone,” Jutting said. “They have good team speed up front and kids that can make plays. Their forwards are very dangerous.”
“I think they have a great atmosphere and a great environment and it’s a great home rink obviously for St. Cloud because the fans are very involved,” he said. “But, it’s a fun place for opponents to play too. That’s why you play the game, because you like to be in those environments and it helps to kind of try and get the kind of excitement they get. Most kids feed off that.”
Around the Rink
-Jake Moreland, who is coming off a huge 40 save performance, will get the start Friday night, while freshman Jason Montgomery will get the start on Saturday night. Jutting got a chance to see Montgomery play junior hockey and said “I knew he’d have the opportunity to be a very good college goaltender.”
-Justin Fletcher, from Sioux City of the USHL, will be the third defenseman that committed to play at SCSU next season. He will join Grant Clafton, and White Bear Lake’s Chris Anderson as defensemen that have made the commitment.
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