College hockey preview
Minnesota State vs. Colorado College
By Shane Frederick
Free Press
7:37 p.m. today and 7:07 p.m. Saturday;
Midwest Wireless Civic Center
Radio: KDOG 96.7 FM
TV: Charter cable channel 14
Back in action
The Mavericks (9-13-4, 6-12-2 in WCHA) return to the rink after their final idle weekend of the season with a series against the second-ranked Tigers (22-4-2, 15-4-1). Colorado College is in first place in the WCHA with a three-point lead over Wisconsin. MSU is in seventh place. The two teams played in Colorado Springs Dec. 17-18 with the Tigers sweeping the series 8-5 and 4-3.
Peto jumps in
MSU sophomore defenseman Kyle Peto (2-19-21) has been on a tear with seven points in his last five games. He is third on the team in scoring and fifth in the WCHA in scoring among defensemen. He is one point shy of his totals from his redshirt freshman season. The Mavericks' second-best scoring defenseman are senior Steven Johns (1-8-9) and junior Jon Dubel (3-4-7).
Electric youth
Including Peto, the Mavericks' top four scorers are first or second-year players: sophomores David Backes (13-14-27) and Travis Morin (10-12-22), Peto and freshman Ryan Carter (9-5-14). Carter likely will move up to the Mavericks' No. 1 forward line with Morin and Backes tonight, as junior Brock Becker (7-5-12) continues to sit out with a broken foot.
National leaders
CC boasts the nation's top two leading scorers, juniors Marty Sertich (21-29-50) and Brett Sterling (21-21-42). The pair whom MSU coach Troy Jutting compares MSU's old duo of two seasons ago, Shane Joseph and Grant Stevenson, has combined for nine game-winning goals. In their last series with MSU, Sertich and Sterling accounted for four goals and eight assists.
Friday night lights
The Tigers are unbeaten on Friday's with an 11-0-1 record. They have also lost just once in their last 14 games. Goalie Curtis McElhinney (.924 SV%, 2.22 GAA) leads the WCHA in save percentage and has 14 wins. Matt Zaba (.920, 2.33) has eight victories. MSU likely will go with Jon Volp in net tonight (.899, 3.15). He has been splitting time with Chris Clark (.904, 3.11).
MSU women at Wisconsin
The Mavericks (8-12-6, 7-10-3 in WCHA) return from a week off and will head to Madison, Wis., to take on the fourth-ranked Badgers (18-7-1, 12-7-1).
MSU has never beaten Wisconsin, going 0-21-1 since the series started in 1999. The two teams played each other in December, with the Badgers winning 4-0 and 4-1. After that, the Mavericks went on a six-game unbeaten streak before dropping their last two games to Minnesota-Duluth.
Led by freshman Amanda Stohr (8-8-16), the Mavericks are in fifth place in the WCHA, two points out of the top half.
The Badgers have the nation's top goaltender in Christine Dufour (.955 SV%, 0.78 GAA), who, along with Meghan Horras, has helped Wisconsin in allowing just 1.42 goals per game.