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St. Cloud, Minn. – It's been a while since the Saint Benedict hockey team laced up the skates for game action. Nearly six weeks actually, if you're counting.

"Not playing a game in a long time is very strange,” senior Alex Carlson said. “We usually have multiple games that we play, espically over break. What we've done, though, is we've been practicing like normal, we've been getting into the flow of things and just worked on a few things.”

The last time they played was a series with St. Catherine on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, a series that the Blazers split to cap a successful first half. One where the Blazers went 3-3-3 overall, and sit 2-3-1 in the MIAC with five points, but heading the weekend are just two out of third place in the conference standings.

The time off was good though, as the Blazers were able to implement some new and different things, changes that they wouldn't have had a chance to look at in the weekly grind of the regular season.

“It was actually great for us,” head coach Jennifer Kranz said. “The lines were getting a little stale there at the end of the first half so it gave us a chance to tryout some new combinations and find some chemistry with a few new lines. So it actually works in our advantage. It's nice to have one game here that's a none MIAC opponent and kind of test everything we've been working on over break and get ready for the remainder of our MIAC games.”

And while they have had scrimmages and played mock games throughout the break, with the return to play, the coaches and players finally get to see their hard work come to fruition in a live setting.

They'll do so against Concordia University Wisconsin, a 2-9-2 team from the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association (NCHA). The Falcons and Blazers will drop the puck at 7:00 p.m. Thursday, playing in Ritchie Arena at the St. Cloud MAC. It will be a sinlge nonconference game, before the Blazers resume MIAC play next weekend.

“The game is a great opportunity for us because we get to try out our new power play combinations,” Kranz said. “See how our lines are going to function in an actual game setting and we can make adjustments from there. They are good opponent, they're going to be good for us to play, and it'll be a great tune up going into MIAC play.”

“It's really nice to play this one nonconference game,” Carlson added. “Just getting back into game situations, and we have new lines so working through that with another team, against another team, so were definitely really excited about that game and we're hoping to pull out a win.”