St. Cloud Times du lieu suivant : Saint Cloud, Minnesota • Page D4

4D SPORTS ST. CLOUD www.sctimes.com ISYOURBANDTHEBEST? Saturday against St. Cloud, going to be i Earlier matchup The Huskies and Mavericks played one another ct. 16-17 at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center, and the Huskies wept the series 4-0 and 3-0. That was 22 games ago for each team.

They were in the NCAAs last year, and the share of their team is St. Cloud State coach Bob Motzko said. going to be well- coached, all their systems a re in place and ot a good group of he Mavericks are eading the WCHA race by three points and are oming off a series sweep ver Lake Superior State in which they outscored he Lakers 13-1in the series. had some things ome together that said Hastings, whose team is 37th in the nation in goals-per- game (2.54). had secondary scoring with all four lines contributing both nights.

scored some power-play goals, which been struggling said Hastings, whose team is 48th in the nation on the power play (13.3 percent). played well defensively and leave our goalie on an island. Hopefully, a tep in the right direct unior Cole Huggins 5-6-0, 2.36, .907) got the ins both nights in his irst games since Nov. 13. He was in the lineup be- ause freshman Jason awloski (8-2-5, 1.72, .908) was injured during prac- ice last week.

Both are expected to be available his weekend. Mankato is eighth in he nation in goals- against-per-game (2.12); t. Cloud State is seventh (2.00). 4teams playing well The other semifinals game in the tournament will be between Minnesota (13-10-0) and Bemidji State (10-10-5). All four teams in the tournament go into it with some momentum.

The Huskies are 8-1-1in their last 10 games. The Mavericks are 8-2-5 in their last 15 games. The Gophers are 8-2 in their last 10 games. The Beavers are 5-1-2 in their last eight games. Start times Hastings and Motzko oth point out that a lot of hockey to be layed before the posts eason, but both like the fact that the games this eekend are not going to played in the evening.

because in CAA regionals, teams often have to play after- oon games. been fortunate nough to be in the CAAs the last three ears and one thing I do know is hockey players are creatures of said Hastings, whose team is 0-3 in those app earances. we canbe ortunate enough to get ack into the (NCAA) tournament, this is good preparation because hese afternoon games do happen in a PairWise Rankings The PairWise Rankings get more relevant he deeper the season goes. The PairWise try to mimic the criteria used to pick the 16-team national tournament field. he Huskies (20-5-1) are No.

2 in the PairWise, he Gophers are No. 15, ankato is No. 21, Bemidji State is No. 35. A ll six conferences in ivision I will get automatic bids to the NCAA ournament for their ournament playoff champions.

Atlantic ockey and the WCHA do not have a team in the top 20, so barring a big hange down the stretch, those two conferences are likely to get only their tournament champion into the tournament. In the Big Ten, Michigan (14-3-4) is No. 6 in the PairWise and Penn State (16-5-3) is tied with the Gophers at No. 15. Again, barring a major change down the stretch, Michigan would likely get in and, if the Wolverines win the conference tournament title, that could be it for the Big Ten bids.

The top four teams in he PairWise after the six onference tournaments a the end of the season a re likely to get No. 1 eeds in the four regions. uinnipiac (19-1-5) is No. 1, North Dakota (20-3-3) is o. 3 and Providence 16-4-4) is No.

4. An oddity: Providence, the def ending national champion, is in fourth place and ix points out of first lace in Hockey East. he four regional sites a re the Xcel Energy Cent er; Cincinnati, Ohio (Midwest); Albany, New York (East); and Worcester, Massachusetts (Northeast). Coaches hate this ind of conjecture, but if he playoffs started to- ay, North Dakota and St. Cloud State would likely be the top seeds in the est and Midwest, Providence and Quinnipiac in the Northeast and East.

a rough idea of of where things stand at this moment. Warning: ubjects are likely to shift during the flight to the end of the season. This is the opinion of Mick Hatten. Contact him a 259-3621or mhatten Foll ow him on Twitter MickHatten, a nd at Facebook.com/ ctimesmick. Hatten Continued from Page 1D Probable lineups MSU-MANKATO Forwards Knowles-Huntebrinker- oatta Margonari-Blueger-Knut- son Stepan-Franklin-McClure Gervais-Nelson-Madry Defense Jutzi-Foguth Brickley-Nelson Flanagan-Vanko oalies Huggins-Nelson SCSU orwards Eyssimont-Kossila-Russell Benik-Morley-Newell Russell-Peterson-Papa Tedesco-Winiecki-Benson Defense Schuldt-Prow Widman-Borgen Nevalainen-Lizotte Goalies Lindgren-Reijola North Star College Cup.

The other semifinals game will be between Minnesota and Bemidji State at 4 p.m. Saturday. Sunday, the third-place ame will be at 1p.m.; the hampionship game will at 4 p.m. All games will be on FOX Sports North. Before SCSU game will be the first Winiecki has played at the Xcel Energy Center since he was playing for Lakeville North High School as a junior.

Lakeville North made the lass 2A state tournament his sophomore and junior seasons. two years I was there, we lost both games at the Xcel and neither were too he said. junior year, we went and won two games at Mariucci (Arena) and won the consolation title, so that was pretty After graduating from Lakeville North, Winiecki played the next two seasons for the Waterloo Blackhawks of the United States Hockey League. Playing mostly wing, he elped Waterloo win the regular season title and reach the playoff championship series. t.

Cloud State redshirt ophomore wing Ryan Pap a was a teammate of in 2012-13. play on the ice has gotten exponentially bet- er and improved so uch since I played with im that season in Papa said. one the harder workers on and off the ice and you can tell worked for him. was stuck on the hird and fourth line when Iplayed with him in Wat erloo. His skill set has gotten a lot better.

He has aknack for being around the net, making plays. a big body and i- niecki, who is listed at 6-foot-1 and 195 pounds, played wing exclusively last season for the Huskies as a freshman when he had five goals and five assists and was a plus-5 in 35 games. But he also provided more physical play for the Husk ies. need a guy who works hard out in front of the net and in the corn Papa said. ne of our better players attling in the corners and become one of our better defensive Position change With Jonny Brodzinski oregoing his senior season to sign a pro contract a nd Nick Oliver finishing his eligibility last season, the Huskies had two holes at center this fall.

Since he third game of the season, Winiecki and Judd eterson have been moved to center and both have played there since. been very suc- Motzko said of the position changes for he two wings from last season. still playing around with the possibility of having the two of them on the same line as we continue to move forward. Blake has helped the power play and the penalty kill, and his point production is starting to be a good spark for Winiecki had a goal and assist in both games last weekend against Western Michigan. Four of his ight goals have come on the power play and he has 15 points and is a plus-3 in 26 games.

espite not having layed much center hroughout his career, Winiecki has embraced the change. played center for aybe a month or so in said Winiecki, ho has won 50.9 percent of his faceoffs. enjoy aking faceoffs and I take pride in that, and getting better each week. more respon- ibility defensively, moving around and covering own he said, comparing playing center to wing. playing wing, just mak- i ng sure the man do anything spe- Skating Because he spends more time close to the net in his defensive zone, another advantage at center.

get pucks flatfooted a lot when breaking out of the he said. are al- ays moving their feet a nd you can just fly hrough the neutral Skating is something that Winiecki worked on during the offseason. He spent some time with a skating coach and also worked on his leg strength. trying to get quicker in the corners and around the net with my oot speed and I did a lot of agility drills. focus quite as much on heavy (weight) lifting.

It was more about quick feet drills and doing something quick for 10 Put the improved footwork with a season of experience and his other skills, and Winiecki has the coaching staff excited. got great hands, agreat feel for the Motzko said. calm and cool with the puck. helped us raise he said Motzko, whose team is scoring an average of 1.62 more goals-per-game this seas on than last. ben- fited because we needed ore scoring depth offensively other than two lines Winiecki has also been onsistently producing in he classroom.

He has a 3 .4 grade-point average as abusiness major. If a class is boring, I look forward to it, but always been a math person and I ind crunching Winiecki said. ollow Mick Hatten on Twitter In- stagram and at Facebook.com/ ctimesmick. Reach him by phone at 259-3621. SCSU Continued from Page 1D DAVE SCHWARZ, St.

Cloud Blake Winiecki tries to get past Michael Parks of North Dakota during the NCAA West Regional in Fargo. Blake Winiecki crazy, five games in seven Apollo sophomore forward Carter Rieland said. going to have to get our rest and play hard every Rieland and the Eagles definitely got a workout Thursday from the Tigers (8-5, 12-11), who gave them all they could handle. thought beat them with four Tech head coach Joel eitkamp said. getting better.

is always room for improvement. With a ll the sophomores we layed tonight (seven) a nd to go and play Apollo with their 14 seniors, a good testament to how well we ieland is one of four nderclassmen who gets arsity ice team for Apollo. He had two goals, his ighth and ninth of the season, including the winner at 13:48. He recognized the iron of the situation. a good chance his might be the last Tech-Apollo game.

The Eagles have small youth numbers. And while no ne has officially said anything, both coaches a cknowledge that the programs may have to merge because of projected lack of layers. course, they could eet in the Section 6A playoffs. The seeds will be announced Feb. 10.

hope Heitkamp said, noting that his squad ust went through a tretch of six games in 11 ays. Rieland could be playing with those seven Tech ophomores next season. kind of weird thinking about Riel and said. playing against them this year and I might have to play ith them next next year. At the moment, that seems a long way away.

The Eagles regroup aft er allowing the most goals since the third ame of last year, when hey tied Alexandria, 4-4 in overtime. atanich will take the in, of course. He just wishes there could be a little practice time to fine-tune things between all the games. As for Riel and, happy with his progress this season. starting to come into his Matanich said.

a good player who works hard. can shoot the puck Apollo has a lot of those guys. Take Lucia. He had a goal and assist. In four games against Tech the past two years, he has six goals and five assists.

Also scoring for the Eagles: Cameron Anderman (his seventh goal) and Brandon Baker (his ourth). Brandon Bissett had three assists. goal came less than a minute into the ame. Tech quickly an- wered with David second goal of the season. Apollo grabbed a 2-1 lead on goal, hich included assists to issett and Baker.

ech tied it up at 13:32 when Joey Mendel scored is 11th goal of the season. Tyler Streitz was credited with an assist. Apollo led 4-3 after two eriods. Rieland and Baker scored for the Eagles. ick Portz got his team- leading 20th goal for the Tigers.

Kaleb Woodman got the assist. ech tied it up on Andrew goal at 6 :18. The senior defense- man broke his stick on a shot from the point. Tyler Lunderby and Lars Olson ot assists. here it stayed until goal at 13:48.

Apollo then had to kill a penalty with 1:52 to go and with Tech eventually pulling its goalie. hey did. And despite utshooting Tech 37-24 and hitting two posts), they had a hard-fought, tough victory. ext up is Chisholm. The Bluejack- ets feature one of the top efensemen in the country in Scott Perunovich.

He played for the USA lite 18-and-under team that played St. Cloud State over the holiday break. Tech is host to Alexand ria on Tuesday at the National Hockey Center. a key section game for oth teams, who are neck- and-neck in 6A. ollow Tom Elliott on witter or call 259-3661.

KIMM ANDERSON, St. Cloud Apollo's Noah Bissett (12) collides with St. Cloud Tech goalie Justin Hagstrom (38) and Sam Kruchten (10). Apollo Continued from Page 1D.