Jutting hopes recruits can help team compete
Coach says 'record-wise' team could fight for home playoffs spot
By Shane Frederick
Free Press Staff Writer
MANKATO — Less than a week after watching four Western Collegiate Hockey Association teams battle for the national championship, Minnesota State coach Troy Jutting has the beginnings of a recruiting class he hopes will boost the Mavericks back into an echelon with those Frozen Four teams.
Minnesota State signed two forwards and two defenseman Wednesday, the first day of the national signing period.
Denver won the NCAA championship Saturday. The WCHA tournament and regular-season champion defeated North Dakota in the finals. Minnesota and regular-season co-champion Colorado College were also in the Frozen Four, marking the first time four teams from one conference advance to the national semifinals.
Last season, the Mavericks went 2-12-2 against those teams, losing six times to the Gophers. Also, half of those 16 games, including all four against North Dakota, were decided by one goal or less.
"It shows how close we were, but we definitely have a ways to go," Jutting said. "We weren't quite there to turn the corner."
With the incoming recruiting class, Jutting is hoping to solidify the Mavericks' goaltending situation, add size to the defensive corps and depth in the skill positions up front.
"We have a chance to be a home-ice team," Jutting said, referring to the WCHA tournament. "Record-wise, we have a chance to be good."
The incoming defensemen are United States Hockey League players Brian Kilburg and Blake Friesen.
Kilburg, a 6-3, 210-pound native of Mendota Heights, played for Tri-City, was the USHL's seventh-leading scorer among defensemen and was named second-team All-USHL Wednesday. A former Cretin-Derham Hall high school player, Kilburg had 11 goals and 15 assists and 115 penalty minutes in 60 games this season.
"He's a big, strong, tough, hard-playing kid," Jutting said, comparing Kilburg to North Dakota's Matt Greene.
The 6-2, 190-pound Friesen, a former Benilde-St. Margaret's player, recorded 13 points for the USHL's Sioux Falls Stampede this season.
"He's gotten better and better," Jutting said.
At forward, the Mavericks will bring in Mick Berge of the USHL's Lincoln Stars and Kevin Huck of the North American Hockey League's Wichita Falls Wildcats.
Berge, 5-10, 170 pounds, was 12th in scoring and third in assists in the USHL with 13 goals and 44 assists in his third season in the league. He is a native of Oklahoma City.
Huck, a 6-0, 185-pound Eden Prairie native, was third in the NAHL in scoring with 24 goals and 54 assists.
Goalie Mike Zacharias signed with Minnesota State in November of 2003.
A Plymouth native, Zacharias finished the year with the Tri-City Storm, earning team MVP honors. He went 27-17-3 on the year with a .888 save percentage and a 2.98 goals-against average. He led the league in games played and was second in the league in saves.
Zacharias will join Maverick goalies Chris Clark and Kyle Nixon. At the end of the season, however, Jutting said he wasn't ruling out adding another goaltender in the offseason.
"We feel we've addressed some weaknesses on our roster with this class," Jutting said.