Don't Look Back

Minnesota State Aims For Repeat of First-half Performance

by Christopher Boulay/CHN Writer (@chrismboulay)

When you lose the final game of the first half, it’s easy to get down about a missed opportunity. You can go into the break feeling like there are more problems than there are and the feeling lingers

Mike Hastings isn’t letting that happen to Minnesota State.

The Mavericks finished the first half of the season with a split against Northern Michigan, but the 4-1 loss on Dec. 14 is the last action they will play for two weeks.

Hastings pointed to failures on special teams as a reason that the Mavericks dropped the Saturday game. But these were more fixable lapses than cause for long-term concern. The Mavericks are the top power-play unit in the country, converting on 31.5 percent of opportunities, and the third-best team on the penalty kill, halting 92.4 percent of chances.

“Those things, they are ebb and flow,” Hastings said. “If you don’t have that on a given night, that’s the difference between winning or losing hockey games. A little focus for us over the back half of the first half (of the year) was trying to balance ourselves with a little 5-on-5 scoring. As you get toward the end of the season, it seems like the opportunities for power plays aren’t what they are during the first half of the year. We tried to focus a bit to have some balance on offense on how we were getting (scoring).”

The loss was just the second of the season, with both games being in conference play (the other being a 3-2 overtime loss to Bowling Green on Nov. 1). Minnesota State is 15-2-1 overall and 10-2-1 in the WCHA. The Mavericks hold a five-point lead on Bemidji State in the WCHA and are third in the Pairwise.

It’s exactly where everyone expected them to be at this point.

“It’s a good start. It’s a productive productive first half for us in a couple of ways,” Hastings said. “One, our nonconference, which is always imperative with the number of league games we play, there’s a real importance of our nonconference schedule when you’re building your book of business for the NCAA Tournament. We had some important wins out of conference, which helps us in the Pairwise. (And two), we’re going into break in a good position in the league after the first half.”

There are plenty of reasons for this, but the team’s success can be the growth of goaltender Dryden McKay. Currently, the sophomore has a .955 save percentage, which is by far the best mark in the nation. Much of this is due to not only his development on the ice, but his preparation for the season with a year of experience under his belt.

McKay worked with Minnesota State strength and conditioning coach Tom Inkrott during the summer to improve himself, setting up for this impressive start.

“He had a really good freshman year that didn’t finish the way he wanted it to finish,” Hastings said. “Dryden doesn’t say a lot. He’s a quiet competitor, he’s a quiet leader. He expects a tremendous amount from himself. He took last year and this summer he dedicated himself to coming in a lot better shape than he did as a freshman. He just didn’t know, as freshman don’t, how they have to prepare until they go through it.”

This edition of the Mavericks, like many others in the past, have an ‘all hands on deck’ aspect to it. Hastings creates teams that creates offense from anywhere on the ice, which makes the team that much harder to plan for and compete against. Currently, 12 players have at least 10 points, and no matter the night, someone is going to step up. As a team, the Mavericks’ shots-for percentage is 56.5 percent, sixth in NCAA.

They’re at or near the top of nearly every offensive and defensive metric you can pull out. Even if you want to knock them for some of the lesser competition in the bottom half of the WCHA, there’s no denying this team is supremely talented as a unit.

“We hope we can continue to spread that throughout our lineup,” Hastings said. “I do think a shared approach makes you harder to match up against. We’ve had some guys that on a given weekend have elevated and carried us at times. ... If you can spread that out, it makes you a more difficult match, especially when you go on the road. If you’ve got one line that’s carrying you, you’re going to see that top set of defensemen, you’re going to see that one line that’s looking to try and shut you down.”

Minnesota State will get going quickly to begin the second half. Christmas is considered a travel day, and the team will reconvene that night in preparation for the Mariucci Classic, which starts with a game against St. Cloud State on the 28th. The Mavericks will face either Minnesota or Bemidji State in either the final or consolation game on the 29th.

“Really, what’s important at this time is that the guys enjoy their families and have safe travels and deal what is truly most important and be thankful for everything that we have,” Hastings said. "Then (we) come back and get back to work once we get here.”

Hastings hasn’t had to get too creative with lineups this year, and should be OK for the start of the second half. Injuries have been few and far between, with Jake Jaremko missing eight games for mononucleosis and sophomore forward Wyatt Aamodt missing some time with a lower body injury. Jaremko is already back in the lineup and Aamodt is “progressing well” heading into the second half.

The Mavericks accomplished most everything they set out to do in the first part of the year. A win and a tie over North Dakota, along with sweeps of Minnesota-Duluth and Arizona State set them up well nationally. This, paired with rolling through the early conference slate kept Hastings’ squad on track.

“We’ve put ourselves in position to hopefully take advantage of some work that has been accomplished,” Hastings said. “Now, it’s ‘don’t look backward.’ It’s not going to buy you a cup of coffee.”

This team is equipped to win championships, which is the aim for Minnesota State each year. With the first half in the books, the aim remains the same. If the Mavericks keep playing at such a high level, it’s safe to think they will run away with the WCHA regular season title.

Once that is accomplished, the team can aim to do damage in the WCHA Tournament and maybe finally break through with that first win in the NCAA Tournament.