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Things never seem to get any easier for Colorado College from week to week.

Still with an outside chance to earn home ice for the opening round of the WCHA playoffs and avoid their first losing campaign in 20 years, the Tigers take on yet another team ranked among the nation's top 10 when they entertain Minnesota State University in a two-game series at the World Arena.

Faceoff for CC's final home games of the 2012-13 regular season is 7:37 p.m. (MT) Friday and 7:07 p.m. Saturday.

The Mavericks, who have won 15 of their last 22 outings, currently are fifth in the WCHA standings with a 14-9-1 record in league play. One of only five teams in the country with 20 or more victories, they are 20-9-3 overall and ranked No. 7 in the latest poll released on Monday by USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine. They're just four points out of first place.

Unranked Colorado College, 12-15-5 overall, owns a 9-11-4 WCHA mark and occupies eighth place in the standings. Currently five points behind sixth-place University of Denver and University of Wisconsin, the Tigers have only four regular-season games remaining in which to make up that ground and secure an upper-division finish. If they can't do it, they will be traveling for a best-of-three playoff series in two weeks after playing at Michigan Tech on March 8 and 9.

Friday's series opener marks the 47th all-time meeting between the CC and Minnesota State. After winning twice (2-1 in overtime and 6-2) at Mankato's Verizon Center last season, Colorado College owns a 31-14-1 advantage in the previous 46. That includes a 17-7 edge in 24 encounters at the World Arena, where the teams split a pair of decisions when MSU last visited in February 2011.

Tiger Bites: Senior center Rylan Schwartz, who collected 5 points (3g,2a) in the split with St. Cloud State University last Friday and Saturday, has been named a WCHA Offensive Player of the Week for the second time this season and fifth time overall as a Tiger. WIth 32 (11g,21a) of his 40 points  (14g,26a) in 2012-13 having come in conference play, Schwartz currently ranks fourth among the league's scoring leaders. He now has averaged exactly a point per game over the course of his collegiate career and heads into this week's action tied with two-time All-American Bob Collyard (1968-71) for 32nd place on the program's all-time chart with his 146 points (53g,93a) in 146 outings...The Tigers, who are just 5-12-5 overall since a promising 7-3 start to the season, are 4-3-3 in their last 10 WCHA games dating back to mid-January.