Minnesota State (6-7-1 overall, 4-7-1 WCHA) plays a home and home series with the Gophers this weekend.

Friday's game is at Mariucci Arena (10,000) in Minneapolis at 7:07 p.m., Saturday's game is at Verizon Wireless Center (4,832) in downtown Mankato at the same time.

Minnesota leads the series 28-5-6 margin, but the Mavericks swept the last series 6-2 and 3-1 on Jan. 30-31. Senior forward Kael Mouillierat is MSU's active career scoring leader vs. the Gophers with 3-5--8 in 13 games. Coach Troy Jutting owns a 4-24-4 mark vs. Minnesota.

Minnesota State swept Michigan Tech last weekend 5-2, 3-2. It was the Mavs' their first sweep of a conference opponent since they defeated the Gophers.

MSU will distribute 1,100 student tickets today for Saturday's game. The corporate sponsor for that game is Verizon Wireless, so the first 1,000 fans receive a cellphone eZgrip. Golly gee, maybe I should leave early to make sure to snare one of those. (You think I am joking. Talk to my wife. She will tell you I bring free stuff home all the time and she makes fun of me.)

MSU HOT

The Mavs are 3-1-0 in their last four games. Seniors have been leading the way in those recent victories.

Jared Stewart had four goals as MSU beat Alaska Anchorage 8-2 on Nov. 20 way up north. Then last weekend, seniors scored seven of the eight goals as the Mavs swept Tech. Captain Geoff Irwin, Zach Harrison and Kael Mouilliert each had two during the weekend.

Irwin and Harrison are teammates on the first line. They also lead the Mavs in scoring with 12 points apiece; Stewart is 6-6-12, Harrison 4-8-12. Top scoring defenseman is Ben Youds, 0-10-10. Sophomore Austin Lee has started five of last six games in the nets. He is 5-4-0, with a 2.54 goals-against average and a .913 save percentage.

Stewart is one point away from his career high of 13 points as a freshman.

Both games will be tape-delayed and shown after Wild games. I asked for a comparison of the TV ratings for Gophers games and Wild games and FSN said they are not available right now. Hmmm.

I wonder, as bad as the Gophers are playing, if they are not putting up respectable TV ratings. I'll keep asking.