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Men's Hockey To Host Colorado College

Mavericks look to hold down one of the best scoring tandems in college hockey.

by Brad Wheeler
October 27, 2005

Last year, Colorado College tied with Denver for a share of the MacNaughton Cup as co-champions of the Western Collegiate Hockcey Association. The Tigers went on to the Frozen Four and lost to eventual national champion, Denver.

This year, the Tigers could be even better than last year as they return to the ice with all the elements of their offensive machine intact. Senior Marty Sertich led the nation in scoring with 64 points and won the Hobey Baker Memorial Award — which is given to college hockey's top player. Teammate Brett Sterling trailed Sertich in scoring with 63 points and was also nominated for the award.

The Tigers are 5-1 coming into their first WCHA match up. They've outscored their opponents 21-11 while the Mavericks have scored 11 goals in four games.

Colorado College lost two veteran defenders to the NHL — last year's captain Mark Stuart and Brady Greco. The Tigers also lost senior goaltender Curtis McElhinney — who started in 26 games, going 21-4-1 with two shutouts. Junior Matt Zaba returns and played in 10 games last year and also had two shutouts. Zaba has seen action in five games thus far and has posted a 4-1 record.

Last Season

When the two teams played last year, Colorado College dominated in the Friday matchups with MSU starting slow, winning 8-5 at home and 7-1 at MSU. Saturday's games were much closer as CC won 4-3 and the teams tied 2-2. In both of those games, MSU scored the first goal of the game and came out ready to play. In the tie, Zaba had 32 saves while Chris Clark had 40. The Mavericks need to get solid goaltending this weekend from their starters between the pipes.

Last year, MSU went 0-3-1 against CC. In four games, first-liners Sertich and Sterling hooked up for 21 combined points against the Mavericks. Sophomore Jimmy Kilpatrick also played on the first line for the Tigers and finished his season with 25 points. MSU will have an extremely difficult time shutting down Sertich and Sterling but it has to contain the two and make someone else on CC beat them.

Keys to the Series

MSU must get its power play rolling this weekend against the Tigers. The Mavericks are currently 4 for 33 on the man advantage, converting only 12 percent of their power plays. On the other hand, CC is only 9 for 45, converting 20 percent of its chances. With the way referees are calling many penalties early in the season, both teams will get many chances. MSU needs to keep the Tigers off the scoreboard when they have power play opportunities. So far, MSU has successfully killed 26 of its opponents’ 31 power play chances.

The Mavericks need to start scoring goals. Last year, MSU out-shot its opponents, but finished the WCHA in eighth place. Sophomore Ryan Carter had five points against the Tigers in four games last season. Carter has scored 16 goals in his career with eight goals coming on the power play. Junior Travis Morin leads MSU in scoring with five points and currently has a scoring streak of 11 games dating back to the final seven games of last season. Captain David Backes has four assists this season and will be looking for his first goal this weekend against the Tigers. Backes tallied 40 points last season.

The puck drops 7:37 Friday, and 7:07 Saturday at the Midwest Wireless Civic Center.