On Tap:  Unbeaten in its last nine games, Minnesota State (22-13-1, 20-7-1 WCHA) hosts Northern Michigan in the first round of the WCHA play-off this weekend in Mankato.

The Mavericks and the Wildcats square-off at Verizon Wireless Center (4,832) 7:07 p.m. Friday and 7:07 p.m. Saturday and 7:07 p.m. (if necessary) in the best-of-three series.

MSU Most Recently:  The Mavericks, who finished second in the WCHA regular-season standings, are coming off of a three-point weekend in which they closed out the 2013-14 regular season with a 3-0 win and a 1-1 tie with Michigan Tech.

About the Series: Minnesota State  went 3-1-0 in four games with Northern Michigan this winter. The Mavericks swept the Wildcats in a two-game set played in Mankato Dec. 6-7 (3-2 and 3-0 wins) before splitting a road series at NMU Jan. 31-Feb. 1 (5-2 loss, 5-1 win).

MSU in WCHA Postseason: This year's home WCHA play-off series will mark the fifth time the Mavericks have been at home for the first round of the league play-offs.

MSU defeated Alaska Anchorage 2-0 in 1999-00, defeated Wisconsin 2-0 in 2002-03 and lost a 2-1 series to Minnesota in 2007-08 before beating Nebraska-Omaha 2-1 in 2013-14. MSU stands 7-3 all-time in home WCHA first-round games.

MSU owns an all-time WCHA play-off mark of 11-31. The Mavericks, who have participated in the WCHA postseason since the 1997-98 season (MSU participated as an affiliate member prior to joining the league on a full-time basis in 1999-2000), have played in 15 WCHA postseason tournaments and have won three first-round play-off series (1999-2000, 2002-03 and 20012-13).

The Wildcats Report:  Including a sweep over Alabama Huntsville last weekend, Northern Michigan heads into the series with Minnesota State having won four of its last seven games. Senior forward Stephan Vigier has 15-15--30 in 36 games this year in leading NMU offensively. Junior Reed Seckel ranks second on the team scoring charts with 12-11--23.  Freshman Mathias Dahlstrom (14-17-2, 2.57, .912) has seen the bulk of the netminding chores.  Head coach Walt Kyle is in his 12th season behind the NMU bench and enters the weekend with a 223-205-51 career coaching record.

What the What: The Mavericks, who had gone 4-for-46 (.086) on the power play through the first ten games of the year, have gone 42-for-124 (.338) with the man advantage in the last 26 contests.

Minnesota State is fourth in the nation in power play percentage (45/179, 25.1%) and is fourth in the nation in penalty kill (133/152, 87.5%). Minnesota State's record this year in Friday games is 10-9-0. In Saturday games, the Mavericks stand 13-4-1. The Mavericks are 14-1-1 in home games this year, 8-10 on the road and 0-2 in neutral site contests. During the course of Minnesota State's nine-game unbeaten streak, the Mavericks have outscored their opponents 34-9.

The Mavericks enter the postseason having claimed shut-out victories in four of the last six games and outscored their opponents by a 21-4 margin during that time.

MSU's current unbeaten streak of nine games is tied with Union for longest in the nation.  Union is also 8-0-1 in its last nine contests.

Winning: The Mavericks have won 20 games in a season during their NCAA Division I-era four times, but never in back-to-back seasons until now:

Minnesota State 20-Win Seasons (DI-Era)
Year    Record        
1999-2000    21-14-4
2002-03     20-11-10
2012-13    24-14-3
2013-14    22-13-1

Including other eras, Minnesota State has had 13 20-win seasons and the school record for wins in a season is 30 (the Mavericks went 30-9-1 in 1979-80 en route to a NCAA DII national championship).

Next: The four winners of the three best-of-three WCHA first-round play-off series will travel to Grand Rapids, Mich., for the WCHA Final Five slated for March 21-22.

Go HERE for this week's release in its entirety.