A new coach and a crop of talented underclassmen have Minnesota State excited to take a big step in 2012-13.<\/p>\n
Mike Hastings was hired in April to replace long-time coach Troy Jutting, who was fired after the worst season (12-24-2) in his 12 years leading the Mavericks.<\/p>\n
“It’s a privilege to be back with a lot of people I consider friends and competing against them as a head coach,” said Hastings, who left his associate head coach position at Nebraska-Omaha.<\/p>\n
Then there are the youngsters, some of them in their second season, Hastings hopes will boost the Mavericks’ offense.<\/p>\n
Matt Leitner (11-18–29) and Jean-Paul Lafontaine (13-15–28) led MSU in scoring as freshmen, and freshman Teddy Blueger is expected to make an impact right away.<\/p>\n
“We can’t afford to have [Leitner] and [Lafontaine] have a sophomore slump,” Hastings said. “We need those guys to make the impression they have already. They’ve established themselves as guys that can play in all aspects for us.”<\/p>\n
Blueger scored three points for Team Latvia in the IIHF World Junior Championship last year and scored 88 points to lead Shattuck St. Mary’s to a second-straight U.S. Under-18 title.<\/p>\n
The youth has Minnesota State eyeing its first home playoff series since 2008. The Mavericks are also looking for their first Final Five and NCAA tournament appearance since 2003.<\/p>\n
The 2007-08 season was the one time in 10 years that Minnesota State finished higher than .500.<\/p>\n
The key will be how much the Mavericks defense will limit goals this season. Phil Cook returns for his final year in net after a junior season when he had a .887 save percentage and a 3.55 goals against average in just 17 games.<\/p>\n
Senior Tyler Elbrecht and sophomores Josh Nelson and Zach Palmquist are all key returners on defense. Freshmen Nick Buchanan and Jon Jutzi have been added to the blue line.<\/p>\n
2011-12 overall record:<\/strong> 12-24-2<\/p>\n 2011-12 WCHA record:<\/strong> 8-18-2 (11th)<\/p>\n 2011-12 predicted finish (coaches poll):<\/strong> 10th<\/p>\n Key losses:<\/strong> G Austin Lee, F Michael Dorr<\/p>\n Players to watch:<\/strong> F Matt Leitner, F Jean-Paul Lafontaine, F Eriah Hayes, F Bryce Gervais, D Zach Palmquist, D Tyler Elbrecht, G Phil Cook<\/p>\n Impact rookie:<\/strong> F Teddy Blueger<\/p>\n Why the Mavericks will finish higher than the coaches poll:<\/strong> The promising young talent up front will provide the Mavericks with plenty of offense.<\/p>\n Why the Mavericks will finish lower than the coaches poll:<\/strong> The offense won’t be able to score enough keep up with its own defense, which let in 3.4 goals per game last season, second-worst in the WCHA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A new coach and a crop of talented underclassmen have Minnesota State excited to take a big step in 2012-13. Mike Hastings was hired in April to replace long-time coach Troy Jutting, who was fired after the worst season (12-24-2) in his 12 years leading the Mavericks. “It’s a privilege to be back with a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":140328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[322],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n