Men's Hockey Takes Aim at WCHA

by Brad Wheeler
October 14, 2005

When dissecting his teams schedule, Troy Jutting doesn’t even have to look to know that each conference game will be just as tough as the last one. The WCHA is arguably the best conference in the nation.

“Some people think our conference will be even more competitive this year than it was last year,” Jutting said.

The final four teams playing for last year’s national championship were from the WCHA, and when Denver won the title, it meant that a WCHA team had won the national championship for the fifth time in six years.

“I think a couple of those teams look better on paper this year than they were last year,” Jutting said.

MSU enters this season healthy and with a lot of depth. In past seasons, the Mavericks have had to throw its freshmen class into the action right away due to injuries. Jutting says they can be freshmen and have a chance to learn as the season goes on unlike years past.

“We’ve got a lot of guy who might be role players, but will play big roles,” junior David Backes said. “We’ve got a good mixture of guys this year.”

Backes, who has put up 77 points in his first two seasons, is the Mavericks’ captain after the graduation of Brad Thompson. Backes needs to step up again and be one of the top players in the WCHA for the Mavericks this season.

“Expectations are always high at the beginning of a season,” Backes said. “Guys are in better shape through preparation this summer and we’ve grown a lot as a team.”

Offensively, the Mavericks need to focus on scoring more goals when they have chances. Last season, there were many times where MSU out-shot its opponents but couldn’t beat them on the scoreboard. Junior Travis Morin is a big impact player in this category as he was second in scoring behind Backes last season. Ryan Carter looks to follow up a big rookie season last year when he led all MSU freshmen in scoring.

“We created chances, but we didn’t finish on them last year,” Jutting said. “This year, we need to find finishers.”

Defensively Jutting says MSU is as experienced as they’ve been for quite a while. Junior Kyle Peto has led all MSU defensemen in scoring for the past two seasons and last year he was third on the team in scoring with 27 points. Other veterans will be assistant captain Chad Brownlee and senior Jon Dubel.

“Those guys have a lot of experience now at this level and we need to benefit from that,” Jutting said.