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Minnesota State University, Mankato
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Page address: https://web.mnsu.edu/sports/bluelineclub/news/html/2007/men_seek_homeice.html

Men's Hockey Seeks Home-Ice

by Dan Myers
Issue date: 2/8/07 Section: Mens Sports

Its been four seasons since the Minnesota State men's hockey team has played in a regular season series with these kind of implications.

It was March of 2003 and a series at Colorado College as the Mavericks were trying to nail down a tie for second place in the WCHA standings.

After finishing 20-11-10 that season, the Mavericks have gone 50-77-20 in the three-plus seasons since, but have improved every year. In order to continue that trend, they will have to win out and win a playoff series, another thing that hasn't been done since the 2002-03 season.

But with the pressure of securing the winning trend, playing for home-ice and positioning themselves for a playoff run, the Mavericks (10-15-5 overall, 7-11-4 WCHA) are doing something that has been hard to come by in recent seasons having fun.

"We haven't had much of that in the four years I have been here," said senior captain Travis Morin. "We'd love to play a home playoff series here and see how the crowd gets."

"Its fun to be in this race for home-ice," said captain Chad Brownlee. "I don't think that has happened since I have been here."

"I'm happy for the guys," said Mavericks head coach Troy Jutting. "They have worked hard all year. I don't think we got what we deserved early on, but they have worked hard to get back in a position to give themselves that opportunity."

With a pair of wins at North Dakota (15-11-2 overall, 9-9-2 WCHA) this weekend, the Mavericks will launch themselves into fifth-place the conference, the final home-ice spot.

But wins won't be easy.

UND has won five straight games, including two at then-No. 1 Minnesota two weeks ago at Mariucci Arena. Overall, the Fighting Sioux are riding a seven-game unbeaten streak.

Additionally, the Sioux are finally getting healthy. When these two teams played at Midwest Wireless Civic Center in October, a sweep for UND, they were without their starting netminder Phillippe Lamoureux and star forward Jonathan Toews.

Both are scheduled to be in the lineup this weekend.

"They're a lot better hockey team than they were in October," Jutting said.

"But we're also a better hockey team than we were in October."

On the bright side, MSU has had some success at Ralph Engelstad Arena the last couple years. They split their regular season meeting there two years ago and MSU won a playoff game there last season. North Dakota also has a losing record at home this season, winning six and losing seven games at "The Ralph" while tying twice.

"It takes a full effort and nothing less," Brownlee said. "Every guy has to go 60 minutes. Anything less, and we're not going to get four points."

Four points this weekend will put the Mavericks in another place that has been hard to come by: the driver's seat.

Dan Myers is the Reporter Sports Editor

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