Western Collegiate Hockey Association

Minnesota State Hockey: 2007-08 Season Preview

Minnesota State hopes to carry the momentum it gained during the course of the second half of last year into the 2007-08 season. The youthful Mavericks, who finished 2006-07 with a 13-19-6 overall record, went 10-8-3 in the last 21 games of the year giving rise to optimism for 2007-08.

"Going in to last season we were going to be extremely young with seven freshman forwards, so it definitely was going to be a work in progress," said head coach Troy Jutting. "I thought we got a lot better throughout the course of the year and we were playing our best hockey by the end of the season."

MSU loses six players from last year's roster, including its leading scorer in All-WCHA Second Team forward Travis Morin. Other graduates include defensemen Chad Brownlee and Lucas Fransen, along with forward Kurtis Kisio and goaltender Chris Clark. Grand Rapids, Minn., native Steve Wagner, an All-WCHA Third Team defenseman as a junior last year, opted to turn professional and signed a free agent contract with St. Louis.

The Mavericks, however, return 18 letterwinners including seven of the team's top scorers from last year, four veteran defensemen and two junior goaltenders.

"Obviously with Travis we lose a lot in scoring," said Jutting, who is entering his eighth year at the MSU men's hockey helm. "We'll have to replace that and any time your seniors move on you have to replace leadership and that is something we're going to have find a way to pick up.

"But at the same time I'm excited for this year. Having the youngsters from last year back with a year of experience is going to help the program tremendously with the amount of time they received as freshman. As sophomores, they're probably further along then that. We'll still only have three seniors on this year's team, so we're still young, but we'll have a better chance for success."

Senior forward Joel Hanson (15-13-28 in 2006-07) is the team's top returning scorer and finished last season strongly with 3-7-10 in the last eight games of the season. Junior forward Jon Kalinski (17-10-27 in 2006-07) is another forward who finished last year on a run. Kalinski, who had four shorthanded goals during the course of the season, racked up 8-7-15 in his last 14 games of the season. Despite missing eight games due to injury last year, junior forward Mick Berge totalled 12-7-19 in 30 games to rank fifth on the team scoring charts.

Besides this trio, other returning forwards include sophomores Kael Mouillierat (8-7-15), Trevor Bruess (3-11-14), Jerad Stewart (5-8-13), Zach Harrison (3-9-12), Geoff Irwin (3-8-11), James Gaulrapp (4-5-9), Jason Wiley (1-3-4), Ryan Gunderson (0-1-1) and senior Matt Tyree (1-0-1).

Additions to the roster from a forwards standpoint are Rylan Galiardi (Alexandria/NAHL), Mike Louwerse (Blake/USHS), Brett Peterson (Indiana/USHL) and Andy Sackrison (Tri City/USHL).

"I like this group," said Jutting. "We have some key veterans who have all gotten better as their college careers have progressed. And from Hanson, Kalinski, Berge, Tyree - we'll expect a little bit of everything from them this year. They can score and unquestionably they'll have to provide leadership. We're still very young up front and they're going to have to continue to be an example for our young guys. And with the large group of sophomore forwards I think we'll see a dramatic improvement.

"A year of understanding what our league is all about usually goes a long ways toward confidence and knowing what it takes. They'll continue to improve throughout their careers, but the biggest jump will likely take place from their freshman to sophomore season."

With the departures of Wagner, Brownlee and Fransen the MSU blueline absorbs the biggest turnover, percentage-wise. Senior R.J. Linder (1-3-4), juniors Brian Kilburg (0-6-6) and Blake Friesen (1-5-6) and sophomore Nick Canzanello (1-7-8) are the returnees.

And the additions of newcomers Channing Boe (Green Bay/USHL), Kurt Davis (Green Bay/USHL), Peter Lompado (Shattuck-St. Mary's/prep) and Ben Youds (Shattuck-St. Mary's/prep) give the Mavericks a optimistic outlook in this area.

"R.J. Linder, Brian Kilburg and Blake Friesen will have to be our veteran leaders with this corps," said Jutting. "And in Nick Canzanello, again, you have a young player who saw a lot of action as a freshman last year and showed a lot of offensive promise.

"Then there's four freshman defensemen who will all play and are expected to contribute quite a bit. In Ben Youds it's possible we have the most talented incoming defenseman we've had at MSU. Davis and Boe are a bit older and have junior experience and should be able to step in and contribute immediately."

MSU sports two veteran goaltenders in juniors Mike Zacharias (10-9-6, .892, 3.07) and Dan Tormey (3-8-0, .869, 3.90). Coming off a year in which he garnered 2005-06 WCHA All-Rookie Team honors, Tormey headed into last year tabbed as the program's #1 netminder. But after he suffered an injured wrist in December of 2006, Tormey suffered a wrist injury in a game versus Minnesota early in December and Zacharias played in 14 consecutive games to establish himself as a legitimate #1 netminder in the league.

So with Zacharias enjoying a break-out sophomore season, Tormey fully recovered by the end of the 2006-07 season and joined by freshman Austin Lee (Fargo-Moorhead/NAHL), MSU enters the 2007-08 campaign with depth between the pipes.

"We're probably as strong in the goaltending department as we've ever been," said Jutting. "It's exciting to have the depth in goaltending that we have. It's the most important position and it's exciting to have a pair of veterans to go along with a highly-rated incoming freshman."

Minnesota State is scheduled to kick-off the 2007-08 season Oct. 19 with a league game at Michigan Tech. In fact, the Mavericks will play its first six games on the road with the first home game at the newly-renamed Alltel Center not taking place until the University of Minnesota visits Nov. 9.