There are a lot of similarities between St. Cloud State and the University of Maine.

The 22-10-7 Huskies and 21-14-2 Black Bears will meet in the East Regional on Friday at 6 p.m. at the Blue Cross Arena in Rochester, N.Y.

Both teams lost important offensive catalysts but they returned their goalie and some key defensemen. Both boast their respective league’s Rookie of the Year.

“We weren’t sure what to expect,” said second-year St. Cloud State coach Bob Motzko. “We knew we had our goalie back [Providence College transfer Bob Goepfert] and all of our defense back except one. So we knew we were strong from the goal out. But we graduated some real quality kids and a lot of offense so we wondered what kind of step we would take offensively.

“But we’ve taken a nice step offensively,” said Motzko, the WCHA’s co-Coach of the Year.

Motzko, a former assistant at Minnesota, has received important production from his returning forwards and a tremendous lift from freshmen wingers Andreas Nodl and Ryan Lasch.

Austrian left wing Nodl was the WCHA’s Rookie of the Year and is the Huskies’ leading scorer with 18 goals and 28 assists for 46 points. He is tied among the country’s freshmen in scoring.

“He’s had a very solid freshman year. He isn’t spectacular but, like our team, he has been very consistent. He has been able to play in a lot of situations,” said Motzko.

Maine RW Teddy Purcell was Hockey East’s Rookie of the Year.

Right winger Lasch, who joined Nodl on the WCHA’s All-Rookie team, is the third-leading point-getter with 16 goals and 23 assists.

Junior right wing Andrew Gordon has a team-high 22 goals to go with 23 assists. Gordon, a first-team All-WCHA selection, is tied for third in the country in power-play goals with 12. Gordon was the team’s top scorer a year with 20 & 20.

Nodl and Gordon are on a high-powered line centered by junior Nate Dey (10 & 22).

Lasch plays on a line with left wing Dan Kronick (14 & 12) and center Nate Raduns (6 & 6), who are both seniors.

Sophomore center John Swanson (9 & 14) has also had a resourceful season and role players like left wings Aaron Brockleurst (5 & 6) and Gary Houseman (5 & 4) and right wing Matt Hartman (4 & 5) have made contributions.

The defense corps has been anchored by seniors Justin Fletcher (5 & 18) and Casey Borer (2 & 9) along with junior Matt Stephenson (2 & 21). Grant Clafton (2 & 6), another senior, has been steady and freshman Garrett Raboin (0 & 7) has had a solid campaign.

Goepfert was chosen to the All-WCHA first team and is a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award, given to the nation’s best college hockey player. He is 17-9-7 with a 2.24 goals-against average, which ties him for 13th in the country, and a .927 save percentage, seventh best.

“He has had a very good year,” said Motzko, whose Huskies are 12th in the country in goals-against average (2.44) and 20th in offense (3.23 GPG). They are tied for 17th on the power play (19 percent).

Motzko said his team has been “pretty consistent.

“We were able to take at least a point out of every weekend [series],” said Motzko. “The only hiccup we had was last weekend. That was the only time we got swept.”

Motzko was referring to his team’s 6-2 loss to North Dakota in the WCHA semifinals and 4-3 overtime loss to Wisconsin in the consolation game.

The Huskies, who finished second in the WCHA, swept WCHA regular season and tournament champion Minnesota 5-1, 5-3 on Feb. 22-23 but have gone 2-4-1 in their last seven.

“They have two very strong lines and three elite defensemen in Stephenson, Fletcher and Borer,” said Maine coach Tim Whitehead. “They are really fast and skilled. Gordon, Nodl and Lasch have had outstanding seasons. Goepfert is outstanding. He’s very quick and very athletic.”

ST. CLOUD STATE UNIVERSITY

Records

Overall: 22-10-7; conference: 14-7-7; home: 13-5-3; away: 8-3-4; neutral: 1-2-0

Goals-shot attempts

SCSU: 126-1,166; opponents: 95-1,225

Goals per game

SCSU: 3.2; opponents: 2.4

Shots per game

SCSU: 29.9; opponents: 31.4

Power-play goals

SCSU: 43-226 (.190 percent); opponents: 33-175 (.189 percent)

Total goals

SCSU: 126; opponents: 95

Power-play goals

SCSU: 43; opponents: 33

Shorthanded goals

SCSU: 3; opponents: 0

Penalty minutes

SCSU: 455 (11.7 minutes per game); opponents: 609 (15.6 minutes per game)