Michigan Tech (11-12-1) faces Minnesota Duluth (17-4-3) at 7:07 p.m. Friday at Amsoil Arena to open a WCHA series (94.1 FM and My9).

A News Tribune live blog will be here.

The News Tribune has a Jack Connolly feature here and some series notes here.

Stephen Anderson of the Houghton Daily Mining Gazette writes that Michigan Tech has only one thing on its mind in making its Amsoil Arena debut: Winning. That story is here.

By coincidence, there was a multitude of other Connolly-related stories elsewhere so here we go: Bruce Ciskie has a piece here and College Hockey News here and U.S. College Hockey Online here and Chris Dilks of Western College Hockey here.

For Friday pre-game information there’s more Ciskie here.

And Brad Schlossman of the Grand Forks Herald here.

And Shane Frederick of the Mankato Free Press here.

U.S. College Hockey Online has WCHA series picks here.

Roman Augustoviz of the Minneapolis Star Tribune makes his WCHA series picks here.

Eric Burton of Goon’s World has WCHA picks here.

Audio from Jim Rich and This Week in the WCHA is here.

Also, ESPN.com has a feature on Florida defenseman Jason Garrison here.

The Omaha World-Herald has an update on a possible outdoor game between Nebraska-Omaha and North Dakota for next season here.

Michigan Tech is making its first appearance at Amsoil Arena this weekend and will practice at the rink Thursday. Minnesota Duluth has won eight straight home games and is 11-2-2 against Michigan Tech the last 15 games in the series (including seven straight wins).

The Michigan Tech sports information office has series notes here and the UMD sports information office has series notes here.

Joe Paisley of Colorado Springs takes you around the WCHA so read him right here.

U.S. College Hockey Online has its first edition of Brackeology for 2011-12. See where UMD may go for regional play (think Packers). The brackets are here.

Former UMD defenseman Evan Oberg, 23, made his debut with the Tampa Bay Lightning in Tuesday’s 4-2 home win over Columbus. Oberg was then returned to the Norfolk Admirals of the American Hockey League. He was acquired by the Lightning with Mike Kostka from the Florida Panthers on December 2 in exchange for James Wright and Mike Vernace. He played in four previous NHL games with Vancouver.

The No. 14-ranked St. Scholastica men play at Wisconsin-Superior at 7:05 p.m. Thursday at Wessman Arena. The News Tribune has an update here.

North Dakota women’s coach Brian Idalski sat out last Saturday’s 9-0 win at St. Cloud State because of a one-game NCAA suspension for a rules vilolation. U.S. College Hockey Online has the details here.

Michigan Tech comes to Duluth this weekend with a 3-6 road record and facing eight of its final 12 games away from Houghton, Mich. Stephen Anderson of the Houghton Daily Mining Gazette looks at what the Huskies need to do to win on the road here

News Tribune prep editor Rick Weegman talked with Duluth East forward Dom Toninato about making a commitment to UMD here.

Chris Peters of the United States of Hockey makes his picks for Division I All-Americans at mid-season. Jack Connolly may be mentioned here.

Alex Stalock earned a second victory in his rehab assignment with the Stockton (Calif.) Thunder in the East Coast Hockey League on Tuesday night, 4-1 over Idaho, in a Stockton Record update here.

UMD recruit Austin Farley, a forward with the Fargo (N.D.) Force, was named Team West Player of the Game at the U.S. Hockey League Prospects Game on Tuesday night in Muskegon, Mich. NHL.com has a recap here.

Chuck Schwartz of SB Nation has some Bracketology right here.

The Fargo (N.D.) Forum says Minnesota State-Moorhead is getting ever closer to adding hockey as a varsity sport in a report here.

Blake High School girls star Dani Cameranesi talks about hockey and the influence of older brother, Tony, a UMD recruit, in a Hockey Hub Q&A here.

The Daily Free Press, an independent student newspaper at Boston University, looks at BU’s rise to No. 1 (in the PairWise Rankings), helped by Duluth captain Chris Connolly, here.

The Denver Post reports that two injured players — goalie Sam Brittain and defenseman John Ryder — have returned to Denver’s team here.

Duluth East senior forward Dom Toninato, 17, has made an oral scholarship commitment to Minnesota Duluth, according to his dad, Jim, a former Bulldog forward.

Jim Toninato, originally from Bemidji, Minn., played on some of the best teams in UMD history as a forward from 1982-86, and had 54 points in 155 games.

Dom Toninato, 6-foot-1 and 170 pounds, is the second-leading scorer for Duluth East with 19 goals and 28 assists for 47 points in 18 games. The Greyhounds are 17-1.

“UMD was always on the top of Dom’s list, but he also had some other options and had some other schools interested, and he also had to look at those,” Jim Toninato said Tuesday.

Toninato is expected to play for Fargo (N.D.) in the U.S. Hockey League in 2012-13 and come to UMD in 2013-14 or 2014-15.

On Monday, East scoring leader Jake Randolph made a commitment to Nebraska-Omaha.

Two current Bulldogs also had dads who played at UMD — senior center Travis Oleksuk (his dad, Bill) and freshman defenseman Derik Johnson (his dad, Jim). Junior winger Dan DeLisle had an uncle (Joe DeLisle) play for the Bulldogs.

For the second time in less than two months, Minnesota Duluth faces Michigan Tech in the WCHA. Games are 7:07 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Amsoil Arena.

The Huskies (11-12-1) are tied for seventh in the league. UMD (17-4-3) is two points out of first. Michigan Tech is 3-7 the last 10 games, but does have a win, on the road, over Minnesota in that stretch.

The Houghton (Mich.) Mining Gazette has a recap of Northern Michigan’s 5-2 non-conference win over Michigan Tech on Saturday in Houghton here.

Former UMD defenseman Justin Faulk, a rookie with Carolina,, heads to this weekend’s NHL All-Star Game festivities in Ottawa, Ontario, and will participate in the NHL All-Star Player Fantasy Draft on Thursday and the All-Star Skills Competition on Saturday. He continues to get glowing reviews in his first season, including a story in the Charlotte (N.C.) News Observer here.

Also, it appears that there will be a first-time game Sept. 28 which would include 40 of the top 18-year-old U.S.-born players eligible for the 2013 NHL Entry Draft. The inaugural All-American Prospects Game is being sponsored by USA Hockey and details from NHL.com are here.

Nebraska-Omaha coach Dean Blais was in Duluth on Monday and received an oral scholarship commitment from Duluth East senior forward Jake Randolph, son of East coach Mike Randolph. A News Tribune update from prep writer Rick Weegman is here.

College Hockey Inc. provides a look at new hockey buildings in the college game, including at Penn State and Rochester Institute of Technology, and plans for renovations in St. Cloud in a story here.

An official Penn State release, with drawings for the 6,000-seat Pegula Ice Arena, is here.

Minnesota Duluth remained No. 1 in the U.S. College Hockey Online poll here and USA Today-USA Hockey Magazine poll here.

Inside College Hockey’s weekly Power Rankings, led by UMD, are here.

UMD has received oral commitments from two forward recruits for 2013-14, or beyond. The News Tribune has updates on Jared Thomas of Hermantown and Brett Boehm of Martensville, Saskatchewan here.

Erin Burton’s weekly Goon’s World WCHA Power Rankings are here.

U.S. College Hockey Online looks back at the weekend in the WCHA here.

Nearly a year after suffering nerve damage to his left leg, Alex Stalock was back in goal Saturday night, playing for Stockton (Calif.) in a 7-5 home win over Las Vegas in the East Coast Hockey League. A game story on Stalock, on loan from Worcester (Mass.) of the American Hockey League, is here.

A pre-game video from Stalock on the Stockton web site is here.

The Fairbanks (Alaska) Daily News-Miner has an update on behind-the-scenes work on the WCHA for 2013-14, including candidates as a 10th team in the revamped league, including Alabama-Huntsville. The story is here.

Minnesota Duluth’s 4-3 home victory over Alabama-Huntsville on Saturday was indicative of down-to-the-wire play by WCHA teams as four of five games involving league members were decided by one goal.

The results left Minnesota in the league lead and UMD two points back (with two games in hand). The top six teams are separated by eight points, The Bulldogs have six regular-season series remaining.

Jack Connolly remains the top scorer in Division I at 15-25-40. He has a 22-game point streak and stands No. 12 in UMD career scoring at 61-116-177 in 149 games. UMD is No. 1 in scoring (3.96), ninth in defense (2.33) and first in win percentage at 17-4-3. While UMD is 0-15 on power plays the last four games, over the weekend WCHA teams were just 6-of-66.

Boston University (15-6-1) has taken over the top spot in the PairWise Rankings and UMD is No. 2. The PairWise is here.

At Minneapolis, senior winger Nico Sacchetti scored his first goal of the season (in just his eighth game) as No. 4 Minnesota topped No. 11 Colorado College 2-1 before 10,087 fans. CC’s Jaden Schwartz and Minnesota’s Nate Condon (sh) traded first-period goals. Sacchetti scored early in the second. Minnesota led in shots 37-20 and split the series. Kent Patterson had 19 saves. Minnesota and UMD lead Division I with 17 wins. Stories from the Minneapolis Star Tribune here, St. Paul Pioneer Press here and Colorado Springs Gazette here.

In Houghton, Mich., Northern Michigan scored the final three goals to stop Michigan Tech 5-2 before 3,708 fans in a non-league game on the UP. The Wildcats led 2-0, Michigan Tech (coming to Duluth this weekend) got PP goals from David Johnstone 1:53 apart in the second to tie the game. Tyler Gron had a goal and two assists on the final three goals for NMU. Josh Robinson went just 5:31 in goal for Tech before being replaced by Kevin Genoe. Tech led in shots 30-24. NMU is No. 10 in the Pairwise. U.S. College Hockey Online has a recap here.

At Madison, Wis., Joseph LaBate scored with 4:03 to play to give Wisconsin a 3-2 win over Alaska Anchorage and a series sweep before 13,713 fans. Joel Rumpel had 25 saves. Wisconsin led in shots 29-27. Stories from the Anchorage Daily News here and Wisconsin State Journal here.

At. St. Cloud, Minn., a pair of Corban Knight goals got North Dakota off to an early lead on the way to a 3-2 victory before 6,059 fans. David Eddy cut the North Dakota advantage to 3-2 with 5:46 left in the second period and there would be no further scoring. North Dakota led in shots 36-30 and continued an amazing streak of losing or tying in St. Cloud on Fridays and winning on Saturdays. Stories from the St. Cloud Times here and Grand Forks Herald here.

At Mankato, Minn., Johnny McInnis scored with 1:55 left in overtime as Minnesota State-Mankato beat Nebraska-Omaha 5-4 to split overtime games in the series. Eriah Hayes had three goals for the winning Mavericks. Josh Archibald had two goals for the losing Mavericks. UNO’s Jasyon Megna forced OT with a goal with 10 seconds left in regulation with an extra attacker. UNO led in shots 43-42. The game was tied at 1, 2, 3 and 4. Dayn Belfour started in goal for UNO and John Faulkner finished. Stories from the Omaha World-Herald here and Mankato Free Press here and here.

WCHA Standings Courtesy of CollegeHockeyStats.net

 1 Minnesota         26  18 13- 5- 0 .722  61- 35   27 17- 9- 1 .648 103- 56
 2 Minnesota Duluth  24  16 11- 3- 2 .750  66- 37   24 17- 4- 3 .771  95- 56
 3 Colorado College  22  18 11- 7- 0 .611  69- 57   24 14- 9- 1 .604  84- 68
 4 Nebraska Omaha    21  18  9- 6- 3 .583  57- 56   26 12-10- 4 .538  79- 76
 5 Denver            19  16  8- 5- 3 .594  56- 50   24 13- 8- 3 .604  85- 67
 6 North Dakota      18  18  9- 9- 0 .500  47- 49   25 13-10- 2 .560  73- 70
 7 Michigan Tech     17  16  8- 7- 1 .531  53- 49   24 11-12- 1 .479  70- 71
   St. Cloud State   17  18  7- 8- 3 .472  54- 52   26 10-12- 4 .462  80- 77
 9 Wisconsin         16  18  7- 9- 2 .444  51- 55   24 12-10- 2 .542  76- 68
10 Bemidji State     12  16  5- 9- 2 .375  41- 55   24 11-11- 2 .500  66- 67
11 Minnesota State    9  18  4-13- 1 .250  46- 70   26  8-17- 1 .327  70- 90
12 Alaska Anchorage   7  18  3-14- 1 .194  37- 73   22  6-14- 2 .318  54- 82

The highest-scoring team in Division I was back on its game Saturday night and top-ranked Minnesota Duluth needed every bit of its offense take get past independent Alabama-Huntsville.

The Bulldogs had a fight-to-the finish for a second straight game and prevailed 4-3 before an announced sellout crowd of 6,757 at Amsoil Arena. Freshman winger Caleb Herbert got the only goal of the third period, at 2:52 for the game winner.

UMD (17-4-3) has won eight straight home games, and swept six series this season and is 16-1-3 the last 20 games. But it was a battle with the Chargers (2-24-1), who lost 2-1 Friday.

“It was a difficult series. We didn’t know what to expect, we were playing Huntsville for the first time,” said UMD captain Jack Connolly, who had two goals and an assist. “Our defense wasn’t great (Saturday) and we lost track of a few guys. We were in a funk for a while.

“We needed to bring more pace and crash the net more. These were not our best games of the season by any means, but Huntsville is a lot better than their record shows.”

The Bulldogs led 47-17 in shots on goal Saturday, 16-2 in the third period, and 101-43 for two games. Huntsville sophomore goalie Clarke Saunders has been good all season and was the backbone for the Chargers in the series. Huntsville led 2-1 in the first period before UMD rallied.

Huntsville retained its varsity status for 2012-12 in a decision by the school last month after the administration considered dropping the program to a club level. While some players, like Saunders, have already agreed to transfer to other schools for next season, the Chargers have persevered despite having been shutout nine times this season.

“Through two periods (Saturday) all of us were gaining in confidence. But you have to keep it up for 60 minutes and the tank was a little empty at the end,” said Huntsville coach Chris Luongo. “We have a ways to go, but we showed ourselves a few things this weekend. I’m proud of how we played.”

The Bulldogs had a 17-game unbeaten streak broken a week earlier in a 3-1 loss at Nebraska-Omaha and eeked out a first win over Huntsville, with just three goals total in those games.

Four goals in the first six minutes Saturday, two by each team, indicated scoring might be back in fashion.

All-American center Connolly, the Division I scoring leader, connected at 67 seconds, coming out of the right corner and knocking in a Mike Seidel rebound. That put Connolly’s point streak at 22 games, tying a UMD single-season record set by Mark Pavelich in 1978-79.

But Huntsville wasn’t fazed. The Chargers scored twice in 59 seconds for a 2-1 lead. Winger Kyle Lysaght got a goal 20 seconds into the game’s first power play, on a rebound. Freshman Andrew Creppin earned his first collegiate goal, right in front of goalie Aaron Crandall, making his first start since Oct. 8.

Not to be outdone, UMD’s Joe Basaraba cranked a shot from the mid-slot for his seventh goal of the season at 5:44. It was a slugfest.

The teams exchanged second-period goals to remain tied, 3-3.

Connolly’s second goal of the night, and 61st of his career, came as freshman defenseman Chris Casto put him on a breakaway. Connolly scored from the bottom of the left circle over Saunders’ glove. It gave Connolly 177 points in 149 career games.

Defenseman Tom Durnie finished off some good pressure getting a shot behind Crandall and the puck just did dribble over the goal line at 7:49.

“Huntsville was tough to play against. They collapsed around the net, blocked shots and their goalie was great,” said Herbert. “We found ourselves again in the last period and played like we can.”

Herbert had possession at the left edge of the Huntsville net and was patient before ultimately knocking the puck through the legs of Saunders for his eighth goal of the season. Saunders was pulled with 54 seconds to play and UMD just missed a couple of empty-net chances.

“We did some good things, some not so good things, but did enough right to win,” said UMD coach Scott Sandelin. “Jack was good and I was happy for Crandall, and I was impressed by Huntsville. What I liked best was how we responded at the end of the game.”

The Bulldogs finished their non-conference schedule 6-1-1 and return to the Western Collegiate Hockey Association this Friday and Saturday against Michigan Tech at Amsoil Arena. UMD trails league-leading Minnesota by two points with two games in hand. Minnesota beat Colorado College 2-1 Saturday.

Alabama-Huntsville…………. 2-1-0—3

Minnesota Duluth……………. 2-1-1—4

First period —1. UMD, Jack Connolly 14 (Mike Seidel), 1:07; 2. Huntsville, Kyle Lysaght 6 (Graeme Strukoff, Sebastian Geoffrion), 1:55 (pp); 3. Huntsville, Andrew Creppin 1 (Jeff Vanderlugt, Doug Reid), 2:54; 4. UMD, Joe Basaraba 7 (Connolly), 5:44.  Penalties —Caleb Herbert, UMD (roughing), 1:34; Adam Krause, UMD (slashing), 6:43; Alex Allan, Huntsville (cross-checking), 14:31.

Second period — 5. UMD, Connolly 15 (Chris Casto), 2:12; 6. Huntsville, Tom Durnie 3 (Allan, Creppin), 7:49. Penalty — Craig Pierce, Huntsville (tripping), 10:01.

Third period —7. UMD, Caleb Herbert 8 (J.T. Brown), 2:52. Penalties — None.

Shots on goal — Alabama-Huntsville 8-7-2—17, UMD 14-17-16—47. Goalies — Clarke Saunders (2-19-1), Alabama-Huntsville (47 shots-43 saves); Aaron Crandall (1-1), UMD (17 shots-14 saves). Power plays — Alabama-Huntsville  1-of-2, UMD 0-of-2. Referees —Brett Klosowski, Scott Bokol. Linesmen — Rick Nelson, Chris Perrault. A — 6,757.