Mike Hastings’ first season at Minnesota State had plenty of memorable moments.

MANKATO — Marc Michaelis was held off the score sheet on Friday night in Minnesota State’s series opener North Dakota. He had two shots on goal and was minus-1, as were his linemates, Parker Tuomie and Charlie Gerard.

MANKATO — One year ago at Grand Forks, Minnesota State goaltender Dryden McKay made a crucial mistake behind his own net that led to a third-period goal for North Dakota that broke a tie and ended up as the game-winner.

Nathan Smith’s debut for the Minnesota State men’s hockey team had to wait a couple of games due to an ankle injury.

The No. 2 Mavericks (2-0-0) continue their four-game homestand to start the season by hosting the No. 16 Fighting Hawks (2-0-0) in a nonconference series. It’s the first time since the 2012-13 season, the last year of the old WCHA, that North Dakota is playing at Mankato. The teams played la…

When it came time to vote for team captains, there was a particular name that Minnesota State goaltender Dryden McKay knew should be included on his ballot.

MANKATO — The Minnesota State men’s hockey team’s health appears to be improving rapidly.

The Minnesota State men’s hockey team’s great depth was tested already on the first weekend of the regular season.

MANKATO — Two Minnesota State men’s hockey players received WCHA weekly honors for their play in last weekend’s sweep over Arizona State.

MANKATO — With Parker Tuomie out of the lineup on Friday with injury, Minnesota State men’s hockey coach Mike Hastings opted to put freshman forward Lucas Sowder in Tuomie’s spot at left wing on the Mavericks’ top line.

Arizona State kept things close with Minnesota State for nearly two periods on Saturday, trailing by a goal with the hope of grabbing some momentum and maybe pulling off an upset in the third for a series split.

The speed demons got the best of the Sun Devils on Friday night.

Ian Scheid admits that when he was a young hockey player he’d “always lollygag up the ice.”

The No. 3 Mavericks open the season against the Sun Devils (1-1), who were No. 20 in the U.S. College Hockey Online preseason rankings but slipped out of the top 20 this week after splitting at home against Mercyhurst. In their only meeting, Minnesota State and Arizona State played to a 2-2 …

MANKATO — Marc Michaelis and Nick Rivera will have C’s stitched on their sweaters again this season.

When I was a student at the University of St. Thomas in the early 1990s, there were often rumors of the school going Division I in hockey.

There’s nothing lost in translation.

On his way to the office each day, Mike Hastings walks through a hall adorned with oversized photos from his teams’ WCHA championships over his seven seasons at Minnesota State.

MANKATO — The stats don’t count because it was an exhibition game, but for a trio of freshmen on the Minnesota State men’s hockey team, they’ll at least enjoy the promising start to their college careers.

The whistle blew, and McKenzie Sederberg kept skating.

The Minnesota State women’s hockey team won nine games in 2018-19, continuing a show of gradual improvement in coach John Harrington’s fourth season.

MANKATO — The Minnesota State men’s hockey team is No. 3 in the first U.S. College Hockey Online rankings of the season, which came out on Monday morning.

Nothing was going to keep Emily Antony from her fifth and final season of college hockey.

A year ago, the Minnesota State men’s hockey team was picked to finish first in the WCHA by the conference’s coaches in the annual preseason poll conducted by The Free Press.

MANKATO — The choice was easy — and as unanimous as it could be.

MANKATO — The Minnesota State women’s hockey team played five WCHA games that officially finished in ties last season.

The ice, it seems, goes in at what we’re now calling the Mankato Civic Center earlier and earlier each year.

Luke Regner graduated from the University of Wisconsin two years ago with a degree in marketing and risk management, but the worlds of business and insurance can wait.

The last time college hockey lost a Division I men’s program was in 2008 when Wayne State — the one in Michigan, not the one in Nebraska — folded after nine seasons.

The Western Collegiate Hockey Association’s two Alaska-based teams will play hockey this season, the league confirmed on Saturday, ending speculation about the sport’s immediate future at those universities and ensuring that WCHA teams will be able to play full schedules.

Travis Morin played in just 13 National Hockey League games during his professional career.

John Harrington always enjoys going back to the rink in Lake Placid, New York, the site of the “Miracle on Ice,” which he was part of during the 1980 Winter Olympics.

MANKATO — Rebekah Kolstad had a good relationship with women’s hockey coach Brian Idalski in her two seasons playing hockey for him at the University of North Dakota.

Casey Nelson has played in about half of the Buffalo Sabres’ games in each of the last two seasons.

Former Minnesota State men’s hockey player Teddy Blueger has re-signed with the Pittsburgh Penguins, the team announced on Tuesday.

Matt Schmidt recalls his first job as a college athletic trainer and having to deal with a baseball team that had seven players miss time with pulled hamstrings in the same season.

The Western Collegiate Hockey Association has existed as a conference since 1951 and has a rich history over nearly seven decades.

Minnesota State and six other universities are moving forward “expeditiously” toward a new men’s college hockey conference, the consultant working with the schools said on Monday.

The Western Collegiate Hockey Association in its current incarnation is a collection of left-behind programs cobbled together when college hockey’s Great Schism began to take place in 2011.