March 22, 2023
by Anthony Travalgia/CHN Reporter (@A_Travalgia)
Teams in college hockey lose impactful players year after year. Players leaving school early to sign professional contracts and transfer portal departures have led to more frequent roster turnover.
Minnesota State was no different, losing several key players that had the program one period away from a national championship in Boston last year.
The hope is that when you lose impactful players such as a Nathan Smith or Dryden McKay, your next wave of players comes in and picks up where those former players left off.
In some cases that comes in the form of hitting on a transfer that decided to enter the portal searching for a fresh start. Sometimes that comes from a player who is the beneficiary of an increased role due to players moving on from the program for one reason or another.
For Minnesota State, they got it the old fashioned way: from incoming freshman.
Christian Fitzgerald has played a key role in the Mavericks’ success this season, helping Minnesota State capture the Mason Cup for the second straight season.
As Minnesota State often does, it started the season with a gauntlet of an opening stretch, facing non-conference opponents Minnesota, St. Cloud State and Minnesota-Duluth before beginning league play with a weekend set against Bowling Green.
It took Fitzgerald seven games to finally find the back of the net and earn his first career college hockey goal. Seven games without a goal can seem like an eternity for a freshman, weighing heavily on them.
That however, was not the case.
“You know what, I was really impressed [with his start] actually. We played at Minnesota, then we played Minnesota at home, we played Duluth at home then we had to go to St Cloud for two and then we got right into Bowling Green,” Minnesota State coach Mike Hastings said.
”His introduction to Division I hockey, we were playing some blue bloods and I just thought he handled it well.”
The Mavericks were dealt a tough blow in the beginning of November when top-line center Sam Morton went down with a season-ending injury. Morton had six goals in 10 games at the time of his injury.
At that time however, the Mavericks had no idea that would kickstart Fitzgerald’s stellar freshman campaign, one that ended with 16 goals and 29 points.
“When we lost Sam Morton after I think it was the St….
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