Friday reading: Harstad homecoming, WCHA previews, videos

Tigers sophomore defenseman Aaron Harstad will get a chance to play before family and friends when the Stevens Point, Wis, resident plays in the Kohl Center for the first time when CC travels to Wisconsin to open WCHA play this weekend.

“It’s exciting to get to play in place like the Kohl Center,” said Harstad, who played a state tournament game in the smaller UW women’s arena during his high school days. “A lot of my family will be there.”

CC practiced Thursday night at UW’s new practice rink because of a basketball game at the Kohl Center that night.

Also, Wisconsin’s Derek Lee is reportedly ready to play this weekend after missing last weekend due to injuries from a car-scooter accident.

Here are the preview notes for Colorado College at Wisconsin; No. 12 Boston University at No. 5 North Dakota; No. 18 St. Cloud State at No. 3 Denver; unranked Minnesota State vs. No. 2 Minnesota; and Nebraska-Omaha at Michigan Tech.

Alaska-Anchorage, Bemidji State and No. 17 Minnesota-Duluth are idle.

Here is a look at SCSU’s Nic Dowd. North Dakota received a commit from the son of its longtime athletic trainer.

Videos are becoming more commonplace for sports information departments. Here is North Dakota’s latest Through These Doors episode:

Michigan Tech’s latest In The Crease episode concerns the recent home split against Minnesota:

Updated Monday reading: Rau, polls and rankings

Wild forward Chad Rau, left, celebrates with Marco Scandella (6) after scoring on Boston Bruins goalie Tim Thomas (30) during the second period of an NHL hockey game, Sunday, Feb. 19, 2012, in St. Paul, Minn. ASSOCIATED PRESS

Former Tiger Chad Rau fought off some travel problems to make it to Minnesota Sunday in time to score his second NHL career game-winner on Hockey Day in America. Two game-winners in four NHL career games? Not a bad average.

Ryan Lowery scored for ECHL Stockton over the weekend.

Colorado College dropped to No. 16 in the latest USCHO.com weekly poll and USA Hockey Poll (listed at bottom)  and up to No. 19 in the latest Pairwise rankings. The Tigers sit in 14th in the Inside College Hockey rankings.

If you’re an Alabama football fan, you may want to bid on these signed memorabilia and help out the Alabama Huntsville program.

Here’s that video of that ridiculous shorthanded goal by Detroit Lake’s Alex Mason, who lives on the White Earth reservation in Minnesota and has not made a decision about his post-prep future.

The rink at the Kohl Center will be named after “Badger Bob” Johnson, a former CC coach.

Here’s the USA Hockey poll:

USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine rankings

1 Ferris State (36) 22- 8-4 979 1
2 Boston College (11) 21-10-1 939 3
3 Michigan ( 3) 20-10-4 860 5
4 Minnesota-Duluth 20- 7-5 836 4
5 Boston University 18-11-1 757 2
6 Minnesota 21-11-1 748 7
7 UMass-Lowell 20- 9-0 736 6
8 Union 19- 6-7 677 8
9 Denver 18-10-4 521 10
10 Maine 18-10-3 511 11
11 Cornell 14- 6-7 472 12
12 Merrimack 15- 9-6 434 9
13 Michigan State 18-12-4 388 16
14 North Dakota 17-11-3 384 14
15 Miami 19-13-2 331 19
16 Colorado College 16-12-2 254 15
17 Ohio State 15-11-5 227 17
18 Notre Dame 16-15-3 140 13
19 Western Michigan 16-13-5 133 18
20 Colgate 17-12-3 52 NR