The preview notes from St. Cloud State and Colorado College are available by clicking the school name. Here is my preview focusing on the freshman class and a blog post about the contributions of the sophomores.

Here is the St. Cloud Times preview focusing on former SCSU assistant and current Tigers mentor Eric Rud.

CC senior defenseman Mike Boivin weighs in the underclassmen and talks about the SCSU offense he will try to contain this weekend in this video.

Tickets remain available for the series. About 750 seats remain for Friday with 400 left for Saturday as of Thursday afternoon. The $5 kids tickets are available at World Arena box office only from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday & Saturday.

Here is the Air Force at RIT preview focusing on Pine Creek High School graduate Kyle De Laurell.

This preview for the North Dakota at seventh-place Denver series focuses on the importance of nonconference games.  Friday’s game is on NBC Sports Network; Saturday’s contest is on ROOT Sports. DU will try to take the vocal UND fans out of the game. Both programs are churning out NHL-ready players. UND fans are still struggling to see a Zajac in a Denver uniform.

Minnesota and Minnesota-Duluth renew their 60-year-old rivalry for the first time in almost two seasons this weekend. UM captain Zach Budish leads the Gophers. The rivals will next play a nonconference series Nov. 22-23, 2013. UMD is tied for eighth with CC so this series bears watching by Tiger fans.

The Pairwise rankings bear watching as this College Hockey News analysis shows.

The nonconference tournament involving the Minnesota schools next season needs a good name ala  The Beanpot in Boston. This columnist thinks Hotdish might be the ticket.

Sixth-place Wisconsin, seven points ahead of Colorado College, has struggled down the stretch in recent years. The problem this year could be a struggling power play. UW is expecting its ticket revenue to drop considerably after joining the Big 10.

The final Division I team without a win, Sacred Heart, broke through on Tuesday nigh with, a convincing 7-3 decision against Holy Cross. Five regular-season games remain before they will face the fifth-seeded team in the Atlantic Hockey tournament.

“The playoffs are a second chance, a second season,” head coach C.J. Marottolo told USCHO.com prior to the win. “Down the stretch we’re looking to gain some momentum and upset someone in the playoffs.”

The Penn State women’s hockey team, which includes junior captain Taylor Gross of Colorado Springs, was featured by the Big Ten Network in this video.