What's On Tap: The Minnesota State women's hockey team will take on the St. Cloud State Huskies in a home-and-home series this weekend.

MSU will host SCSU on Friday at 7:07 p.m. inside All Seasons Arena before traveling up to St. Cloud to take on the Huskies on their home ice on Saturday at 7:07 p.m.

Looking Back at Last Week: The Mavericks drew a very tough test in their first action of the season last weekend as they battled No. 10 North Dakota at All Seasons Arena. The Mavericks dropped their home opener 5-0 before following up with a strong performance Saturday afternoon but it wasn't enough as they lost 2-1.

Friday night the Mavericks came out of the gates a little slow giving up two goals in the first period, the first being a power play goal by Meghan Dufault, to give UND a 2-0 lead after one period of action. North Dakota added one goal in the second and two more in the third to take the first game 5-0. Junior goaltender Erin Krichiver made 29 saves on the evening in the loss. The Mavericks were outshot 39-15 by UND.

The Mavericks came out with a much stronger effort on Saturday night and skated with much more aggression. MSU took the lead in the first period as Freshman Elin Johansson scored her first career goal in Mavericks uniform with 6:37 left to play in the first period. Freshman Nicole Schammel tallied her first career assist as a Maverick while senior captain Natalie Stoltz produced her first point of the season assisting on the play as well. Power-play goals would prove to be the Mavericks nemesis as UND scored twice with the extra skater to win 2-1. Sophomore goalie Brianna Quade made her first career start for MSU stopping 47 UND shots on the afternoon.

Looking at the Huskies: St. Cloud State has come out of the gates with a 1-3 overall record and will begin WCHA action this weekend against the Mavericks. Last weekend the Huskies split their series with Lindenwood defeating the Lions 2-0 on Friday while dropping the second game 5-3. The Huskies are averaging 2.25 goals per game ranking 10th nationally while allowing 3.25 placing them 20th. They are outshooting their opponents by a slight edge of 123-112.
St. Cloud State is guided by first year head coach Eric Rud who has posted a record of 1-3 thus far. The Huskies are led by junior Molly Illikainen (F, 5-9, Grand Rapids, Minn.) who has posted 2-2--4 during the 2014-15 season while senior Audrey Hanmer (D, 5-7, Wyoming, Minn.) has produced four assists for four points. The leading goal scorer for SCSU is Payge Pena (F, 5-7, Maple Ridge, B.C.) who has tallied three in four games. Senior Julie Friend (G, 5-8, Minnetonka, Minn.) has started three games in goal for the Huskies and is 1-2-0 with a goals against average of 3.38.
 
Last Time Around: The Mavericks went 2-1-1 against the Huskies in 2013-14. MSU and SCSU are deadlocked in their all-time series at 29-29-7.

Minnesota State All-Time: The MSU women's hockey program - started in 1998-99 - is currently in its 17th season of competition and has compiled a 158-351-47 (.328) record in 556 total games played. The Mavericks are in their 16th year as members of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association and boast an 89-276-39 (.270) mark in 404 league contests.

Maverick Special Teams:  The Mavericks special team's unit got off to a slow start in its first action of the season. The Mavericks allowed three power-play goals against North Dakota in six opportunities. MSU was unable to cash in on their own power-play opportunites going 0-5. MSU will look to improve upon these numbers this weekend against the Huskies.

Freshman Tandem: A couple of freshman connected on the team's only goal last weekend. Elin Johansson (F, 5-9, Hudiksvall, Sweden) netted her first career goal and Nicole Schammel produced her first assist in the 2-1 loss to UND on Saturday.

Welcome to Mankato: The Mavericks bring in 12 freshman to this seasons squad including eight forwards, three defenseman, and one goalie. Five of the newcomers will continue to play in their home state of Minensota. Three other players come to the Mavericks from Arizona, Colorado and Illinois. The final four come from outside the United States with two coming from Ontario, Canada and the other two from Sweden and Norway.

Protecting Our House: MSU dropped its first series at home this weekend against North Dakota at all Seasons Arena. The Mavericks now stand 91-151-29 all-time at home.  The Mavericks  have called the arena home since their inception in 1998.

Road Warriors: The Mavericks owned a 6-13-0 record on the road last season and swept Lindenwood on Oct. 11-12 and North Dakota on Feb. 15-16.

Beat the Best to Be the Best: Three teams in the WCHA are ranked in the top-ten of the USCHO and USA Today/USA Hockey polls this week. Wisconsin comes in at No. 1, Minnesota is No.2, and North Dakota is No. 8 in the USA Today/USA Hockey poll and No. 10 in the USCHO poll. The Mavericks dropped two games last weekend against North Dakota who was ranked No. 10 at the time.

Fifteen of Minnesota State's 37 games last season came against opponents ranked in the top-ten nationally. MSU possessed a 4-11-0 record in those contests.

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