MANKATO, Minn. - No. 19/18 Minnesota State men's hockey begins conference play this week with a home-and-home series against St. Thomas. Games are Friday, Oct. 31 at 7:07 p.m. at newly christened Lee & Penny Anderson Arena in St. Paul, then Saturday, Nov. 1 at 6:07 p.m. at the Mayo Clinic Health System Event Center. The teams met last on March 21, 2025 for the Mason Cup Championship in Mankato, which the Mavericks won 4-2 in front of a crowd of 4,538.

This fall, the Tommies were selected to finish first in the CCHA Preseason Coaches' Poll. However, the Mavericks were picked ahead of the Tommies in the CCHA Preseason Media Poll. The Mavericks are coming off a home sweep over RPI with 4-2 and 2-1 victories. St. Thomas tied No. 15 Providence last Friday 2-2, then fell to the Friars 7-4 on Saturday.

ALL TIME SERIES

• Minnesota State holds a 30-11-2 mark against St. Thomas all-time. The Mavericks are also 14-5-2 at home and 13-4 away against the Tommies.
• Last season, the teams met five times. Minnesota State went 3-1-1 in those matchups and won the most recent with a 4-2 win in the CCHA Mason Cup Championship on Mar. 21, 2025 at Mayo Clinic Health System Event Center.

LAST WEEKEND

• The Mavericks dropped CCHA Championship banners on Friday, then celebrated their senior players on Saturday, collecting a pair of wins against RPI along the way. Friday, Jack Smith tallied a goal and an assist in a 4-2 victory. Alex Zetterberg added a pair of assists and Jacob Conrad posted the eventual game-winner in the second period. MSU outshot RPI 40-19 and led 1-0 after the first period.
• RPI scored first on Saturday, but the Mavericks came back to win 2-1. Alex Tracy stopped 29 shots.
• Felikss Gavars and Charlie Lurie scored for MSU. The Maverick power play converted 2-3 opportunities while the penalty kill was perfect (3-3).

BY THE NUMBERS

• The Mavericks are averaging 2.5 goals per game and 29.2 shots per game. Eleven of the team's 15 goals have come on the power play.
• Junior Luigi Benincasa (Edmonton, Alberta) leads the team with seven points. Benincasa is on a five game point streak after adding three assists in two games against RPI.
• Junior Charlie Lurie (Minnetonka, Minn.) leads the Mavericks with three goals, including the game-winner on Saturday. Lurie also leads the team with 20 shots on goal.

TRUST IN TRACY

• Senior Alex Tracy (Chicago, Ill.) earned CCHA Goaltender of the Week honors for the eighth time in his career on Oct. 20. 
• Tracy totaled 50 saves against 53 shots in the series at Wisconsin for a .943 save percentage. 
• He stopped 46 shots for a .939 save percentage in the series against RPI.

MURR NAMED DEFENSEMAN OF THE WEEK

• For the fourth time in his Maverick career and first time this season, junior Evan Murr (Stillwater, Minn.) was named CCHA Defenseman of the Week on Monday.
• Murr recorded one goal and one assist, along with five shots on goal and one blocked shot in the weekend series against RPI.
• Friday, Murr scored in the third period at even strength, helping MSU to a 4-2 victory at home.
• On Saturday, he posted an assist on Charlie Lurie's game-winning goal in a 2-1 win.
• Murr leads MSU defensemen with four points (two goals, two assists) on the season. He also has 19 shots on goal and a pair of blocked shots.

SPECIAL TEAMS REPORT

• Associate Head Coach Troy G. Ward has the Maverick power play executing at a 37.9-percent clip, with 11 goals in 29 opportunities.
• The power play ranks third in NCAA Division I behind only St. Cloud State (42.4-percent) and Michigan (40-percent).
• The Mavericks scored a season high four power play goals at Omaha on Oct. 11. 
• Minnesota State's penalty kill has also been efficient. An 88.9-percent kill percentage ranks 13th in NCAA Division I. Only Augustana (sixth) has killed more penalties in the CCHA than MSU.

WORLD JUNIORS PRE-TOURNEY SERIES SCHEDULE ANNOUNCED FOR CITY OF MANKATO

• The 50th anniversary of the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship will take place Dec. 26, 2025 – Jan. 5, 2026, in Saint Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota.
• In the leadup to the tournament, teams from around the world will compete in the World Juniors Pre-Tournament Series, presented by Delta Dental of Minnesota, hosted by four Minnesota communities representing the State of Hockey: Mankato, Duluth, Bemidji and Rochester.
• As a part of this series, Mankato will host Team Denmark's official pre-tournament camp at the Mayo Clinic Health System Event Center and will host a pair of highly anticipated games; one between Switzerland and Minnesota State men's hockey (Dec. 16, 7 p.m.), and another between Denmark and Canada (Dec. 23, 7 p.m.).

HEADED TO THE POLLS

• Minnesota State men's hockey was ranked No. 18 by USCHO.com and No. 19 by USA Hockey/The Rink Live in NCAA Division I National polls on Monday. Michigan State remained the top-ranked team in the nation for a second straight week in both polls. Michigan, Western Michigan, Penn State and Boston University rounded out the top-five.
• The Mavericks were the top-ranked team in the CCHA. Michigan Tech, St. Thomas and Bemidji State received national votes.

TRACY CHOSEN FOR SPENGLER CUP

• Senior Alex Tracy was selected to participate in the 2025 Spengler Cup, joining a squad of college hockey players representing NCAA Division I hockey in the prestigious men's tournament. 
• Held annually in Davos, Switzerland, since 1923, the six-team invitational tournament traditionally features club and national teams from Europe and North America. It is hosted by the Swiss professional team HC Davos each year from Dec. 26-31 at Eisstadion Davos.
• The United States Collegiate Selects will face Team Canada to open play Spengler Cup play on December 26. Each team will play a minimum of three contests and maximum of five during the six-day event.

SCOUTING THE TOMMIES

• The Tommies are 2-4-1 overall and opened their brand new arena last week, which hosts both basketball and hockey, at a cost of $60 million and is called the Lee & Penny Anderson Arena.
• The Tommies fell 7-4 to Providence in their last outing. St. Thomas led 3-1 after the first period, then fell behind 5-4 heading into the third. A night prior, the Tommies opened their new home arena with a shootout win over the Friars. The game was officially a 2-2 overtime tie.
• The Tommies were selected to finish first in the CCHA Preseason Coaches' Poll and second in the CCHA Preseason Media Poll.
• Senior Lucas Wahlin (Woodbury, Minn.) was the CCHA Preseason Player of the Year. Wahlin netted 14 goals and 15 assists for 29 points in 26 conference games last season, while posting a +7 rating. Wahlin has four goals and 15 shots for UST with five games played.
• Graduate forward Alex Gaffney leads the Tommies with five goals and six assists. Gaffney posted one goal and one assist on Saturday against Providence. He came to UST from Harvard, where he suited up for 100 games and won the 2021-22 ECAC Championship.
• Freshman forward Nathan Pilling (Calgary, Alberta) is also off to a strong start, with three goals and two assists. Pilling has also won 70 and lost 55 faceoffs.
• Senior goaltender Aaron Trotter (Victoria, B.C.) holds a 2.24 goals against average and .929 save percentage in three games. Sophomore Carsen Musser (Fairmont, Minn.) holds a 5.25 goals against average and .831 save percentage in five games played. Musser was a sixth round selection by the Arizona Coyotes in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft.
• The Tommies opened the season with a 4-3 road victory over St. Cloud State, then were swept by No. 10 North Dakota in Grand Forks.

COLLEGE HOCKEY INC. NOTES

• Defenseman Mason Wheeler entered the season with a career +36 rating, 10th in NCAA Division I and No. 1 among active CCHA players and sixth among defensemen.
• Evan Murr entered the season with seven career power play goals, which ranks tied for fifth among active NCAA Division I defensemen. Murr's four game-winning goals are also tied for third among active Division I blueliners.
• Mason Wheeler began 2025-26 with 113 games played, tied for fourth among active NCAA Division I defensemen.
• Alex Tracy started 2025-26 ranked seventh among NCAA Division I goaltenders in games played (76), fifth in goals against average (1.91), third in save percentage (.926), second in shutouts (8), and seventh in minutes played (4463:53). Tracy is among three returning Hobey Baker Top-10 finalists (Aiden Fink, Penn State, Mac Gadowsky, Penn State).
• The Mavericks have the second fewest returning goals on the roster in NCAA Division I (21) behind Miami (OH) with 13.
• MSU has qualified for the NCAA Tournament seven times over the past 10 seasons, tied for third in NCAA Division I.
• MSU also has the most wins of any NCAA Division I program over the past 10 seasons.