Apparently I wasn't the only one suprised at the score last night. Both the Tigers website and USCO put it as a major upset. The Tigers now have 60 minutes to keep their season alive or else it will plummet into a huge disappointment for a team once ranked #1. Below you will find the CC Athletics recap and below USCHO for your Saturday reading pleasure. I'm off to play on the red rocks of Moab!
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CC Athletics

Colorado College really has its work cut out now.

The Tigers head into Game 2 of their first-round WCHA playoff series with the University of Minnesota Duluth in a do-or-die predicament, facing elimination after suffering a 4-1 loss to the Bulldogs in Friday’s opener at the World Arena.

In plain and simple terms, CC must bounce back and win on Saturday and Sunday, or the season is over.

Senior center MacGregor Sharp set up a power-play goal then scored one of his own in the first period, as visiting UMD got an early jump and never looked back in Game 1 of this best-of-three set. Freshman forwards Mike and Jack Connolly collected a pair of assists apiece while Josh Meyers, Jordan Fulton and Justin Fontaine each clicked for a key tally in the victory.

Colorado College’s only goal, at 15:53 of the middle frame, came on a semi-breakaway by Eric Walsky. Sophomore net minder Richard Bachman banked a pass off the boards to Walsky as Duluth finished killing a long 5-on-3 power play for CC, and the senior winger soloed in to score his 11th goal of the season to pull the Tigers to within 3-1.

Fontaine’s red lighter at 3:52 of the third period ended any further hopes for a comeback.

Bachman finished with 35 saves compared to 36 by Bulldogs goaltender Alex Stalock, who made 15 of his stops in the second period when CC had four consecutive power plays, including the two-man advantage for 1:56.
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Duluth Shocks CC
Bulldog Power Play the Difference in Crucial Game 1 Win
by Theresa Spisak/WCHA Correspondent

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (March 13) — Though the lower seed in this series, the University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs proved why they have the fourth best power play in the country, getting two power-play goals to beat the Colorado College Tigers, 4-1, in the first game of the best-of-three series Friday night at World Arena.

The Tigers controlled play early, but they couldn’t get anything past Bulldog netminder Alex Stalock (36 saves).

“I thought Al made some big saves early,” said Duluth coach Scott Sandelin. “There’s no question he was good early.”

As a result, the Bulldogs got on the board first at the tail end of a five minute power play thanks to a Cody Lampl checking from behind call. About halfway through the period and with 32 seconds remaining in the power play, Josh Meyers unleashed a slapshot from the right face-off circle that beat Tiger goaltender Richard Bachman (35 saves) under his right shoulder.


“It happened early and it set the tone and we did a pretty good job killing it for about four and a half minutes until they score but it gave them life; it gave them momentum and life,” said CC coach Scott Owens.

Duluth took a 2-0 lead with 1:58 left in the first period when MacGregor Sharp’s power play shot from the slot beat Bachman five-hole.

The Bulldogs went up 3-0 on another five-hole goal from the slot 7:21 into the second period with Jordan Fulton doing the honors.

CC got on the board with about four minutes left in the middle period in the waning seconds of a 5-on-3 penalty. The Bulldogs cleared the puck out of their zone, but Bachman controlled the clear and quickly dished it to Eric Walsky for the breakaway. Walsky came down the center of the ice, cut to Stalock’s right and slid it under the sprawling goaltender to make it a 3-1 game.

Though the Tigers tried to get back into the game, the Bulldogs only furthered their lead with a goal four minutes into the third period when Justin Fontaine beat Bachman high glove side right off a face-off.

The Tigers almost had a goal with 16.8 seconds remaining, but Stalock made a goal-line glove save on Scott McCulloch.

“It was huge for us to get the lead and build on that lead,” said Sandelin. “I thought our [penalty-] killers did a great job, I thought Al came up big on certainly that last save [which] kind of epitomized his night, but you need your best players to play like your best players.”

“It was there for us to get back into it,” said Owens, “and it didn’t happen. They got better with confidence as they went along and I think their top guys outplayed our top guys tonight.

“In the end, you tell them, hey, it’s one game. You live to fight as a desperate team tomorrow and whatever happens, happens on Sunday. It’s not over.”

The two teams meet again on Saturday, March 14 at World Arena. Game time is at 7:05 p.m. Mountain.

I had a rare Sunday mid-day game today so my schedule is all wacked-but here are the pics from the weekend sweep of the Gophers. The pics from Friday with the Tigers in white are courtesy of my dad and Saturday night with the massive amounts of gold on the ice are from Missy J. The Tigers are still "bubblelicious" and could provide some crazy drama to end the WCHA season if they can manage a sweet up at North Dakota.
Note: the Tigers play Saturday and Sunday night up at the Ralph.

Pics from Saturday night vs Minnesota

Pics from Friday night vs Minnesota

As if you can't put any more emphasis on the two games this weekend, how about home ice for the WCHA playoffs AND a potential NCAA invite hanging in the balance?

Tigers want to be home for WCHA playoffs
FRANK SCHWAB
THE GAZETTE

In a week, Colorado College should have a better idea if it can make plans for a home series in the first round of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association playoffs.

The Tigers host a pair of games this weekend against Minnesota, which is sixth in the WCHA. The Gophers are a point behind CC, but the Tigers have played one more league game. The top five teams in the WCHA host first-round playoff series.

The Tigers are 10-8-5 in the WCHA, tied for fourth with St. Cloud State. CC had a chance to make a move in the standings but settled for a tie against Denver in its only game of the weekend.

"That makes this series even more important," coach Scott Owens said.

The Tigers were the second team among others receiving votes in Monday's USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll. Air Force didn't receive any votes after splitting a pair of games at Bentley.

CC and Air Force are tied for 20th in the U.S. College Hockey Online PairWise rankings, which mimic the NCAA Tournament selection committee's rankings. Usually a team needs to be in the top 12 or 13 to receive an at-large bid to the NCAAs.

The Tigers' immediate concern isn't the NCAA Tournament, but their seeding in the WCHA playoffs. The Tigers are two points ahead of seventh-place Minnesota-Duluth and three points behind third-place Wisconsin. North Dakota and Denver are tied for first with 29 points, four ahead of CC.

"I think we're just right in the middle," Owens said. "We're right there, and it's going to be a battle."

So much for momentum, the Tigers were beaten by the USA U-18 team today in a game played just for fun. The Tigers used the opportunity to play some lesser-used players and get some guys used to the speed of the game. I'm pretty bummed to lose an exhibition, but these players are future NHL stars and did just win a world tournament, plus it was our lower line players so I'll let it go. The Tigers better rest up quickly as they host Minnesota this upcoming weekend.
Missy J sent me some great pics from the game, they'll be up Monday night (I gotta sleep since work begins at 7am!)

U.S. Under-18 Team rallies past Tigers
CC suffers 3-2 exhibition loss
David Civitarese-Athletic Media Relations

They may be young, but the players on the United States Under-18 Team continue to show that they are very capable of competing against anyone.

On Sunday afternoon at the World Arena, a week after winning the 2009 Five Nations Tournament in Sweden, they pulled off what no other opponent has done against Colorado College all season.

Third-period goals by Jeremy Morin and Ryan Bourque rallied the visiting USA squad from a 2-1 deficit after 40 minutes of play and lifted them to a come-from-behind 3-2 exhibition victory over the Tigers.

Fortunately, the loss doesn’t count for CC, which officially remains undefeated (11-0-6) this 2008-09 campaign when ahead entering the third period.

Tallies by freshman right wing David Civitarese just 1:16 into the contest and senior center Chad Rau with 2:15 left in the middle frame staked the Tigers to leads of 1-0 and 2-1 in this one.

But, after Morin pulled Team USA even for the second time at 7:40 of the final stanza, Bourque beat sophomore goaltender Tyler O’Brien with a quick wrist shot after a steal at the blue line by A.J. Treais. The game winner came with 4:43 remaining in regulation.

Colorado College pulled O’Brien with a little more than a minute to play, but could not strike for the equalizer. O’Brien made 23 saves in the game while Under-18 net minder Adam Murray finished with 44, including 18 in the third period.

Morin and Drew Shore combined to set up a power-play goal by Nick Mattson that tied the score at 1-1 midway through the second period. Shore also assisted on Morin’s red lighter as Team USA improved to 7-9-1 against NCAA Division I opponents in ‘08-09.

The loss was CC’s first ever against the Under-18 Team after four consecutive victories dating back to February 2003.

Despite what many of us view as a disappointing season so far, the Tigers can still land some hardware and stomp on the face of a rival. Remember the Gold Pan? Turns out the Tigers still have the upper hand and can win it once again with a win or tie Friday night. DU can rag on us all they want, but if we get that thing 3 years in a row, their head-to-head frat boy arguments won't hold much water!
Oh, and where can I get some of the Tigers' sweet yellow socks in the shot below?!!
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Johnson powers Tigers past Michigan Tech
Sophomore's two goals fuel 4-1 CC victory
Athletic Media Relations

Thanks in no small measure to Tyler Johnson, Colorado College rediscovered what a successful weekend is all about on Saturday.

The sophomore center struck for a pair of goals in a 4-1 victory over Michigan Tech that allowed the Tigers to escape Copper Country with three points and maintain their hold on fourth place in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association.

Johnson’s first tally, off a feed from Scott McCulloch, came at 15:35 of the opening period after Chad Rau had struck at the 8:29 mark to stake the visitors to an early lead. Both Rau’s goal and Johnson’s game winner came during power plays.

Johnson, who like Rau also scored the night before, added his third red lighter of the series early in the third period to put CC up 4-0. He was named Winter Carnival MVP after doing more than his share to spoil the Huskies’ annual festivities.

With the triumph, which came on the heels of a 2-2 tie in Friday’s series opener, Colorado College improved to 14-9-7 overall and 10-8-4 in the WCHA.

Sophomore net minder Richard Bachman, who finished with 27 saves, lost his shutout with 8:28 left to play when Tech defenseman Deron Cousens beat him on a one-timer with a pair of Tigers sitting in the penalty box. It was the second five-on-three goal of the series for Cousens, as CC allowed a power-play goal for the eighth consecutive game.

In between Johnson’s goals, Cody Lampl picked up his own rebound to score at 3:08 of the middle frame.

By beating MTU in Houghton, Mich., for the first time since the 2004-05 campaign, the Tigers snapped a three-game winless streak and pulled to within a point of third-place North Dakota in the WCHA standings.

Colorado College won its first weekend series in league play since tying and defeating Denver back on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1.

It's been a busy week so postings are hard to come by but I'll have 2 for today. Below is a great article from the Gazette about the Tigers struggles with not being able to string together consecutive quality games. Right now they are playing .500 hockey which isn't good come post-season time, yet they are still just out of first place in the WCHA so it will be a great finish. As far as the polls, the Tigers dropped to 13 in the USA Today poll. Full polls for the week are below the article. One poll ranking (or unranking) of note is Air Force, who went from 15 to gone-zo this week after getting whooped up on by Canisius. Have a great week!
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Tigers are tired of taking the bad with all the good
FRANK SCHWAB-THE GAZETTE

Saturday's win over Wisconsin was big for Colorado College. So were wins at Alaska-Anchorage and Minnesota and against Minnesota State-Mankato and North Dakota, but CC couldn't follow any of them with another victory.

The Tigers know that the come-from-behind 4-3 victory at Wisconsin won't mean as much if they don't play well this weekend against St. Cloud State.

"It would be huge if we could keep it going," said junior right wing Mike Testwuide, who scored his first goal of the season Saturday. "We usually get a good game and then a bad game, and we need to keep this going."

For as inconsistent as the Tigers have been this season - they haven't swept a series since Oct. 17-18 - they are still in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association race. CC is three points out of first place, even though it is tied for fourth with North Dakota and has played two more games than some of the top teams. With back-to-back series against eighth-place St. Cloud and last-place Michigan Tech, the Tigers could make up some ground.

CC dropped in the polls, despite Saturday's win. The Tigers are 13th in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll, down from 11th last week. Air Force, which was swept over the weekend after being No. 15, was not ranked. The U.S. College Hockey Online PairWise rankings, which mimics the NCAA selection committee's numbers, had CC tied for 19th. The Tigers were 18th last week.

That's fine with the Tigers, because coach Scott Owens was hopeful they have taken a step in the right direction.

"Everybody competed and played hard, a lot of guys contributed," Owens said of Saturday's win.

Still, there's no way to tell with this season's team. Owens said he wanted to see a good week of practice, but didn't know how to ensure the Tigers would keep playing like they did Saturday.

"That's the million-dollar question," Owens said. "But you'd like to think this would be a momentum changer for us."

Owens might have gotten his team's attention with some lineup moves Saturday night.

He benched alternate captain Scott McCulloch and freshman defenseman Gabe Guentzel after Friday's 6-1 loss. He said each player will probably be back in the lineup this weekend but wanted to see how they practiced this week.

CC hasn't always played with great passion this season, but played hard after falling behind 2-0 Saturday.

"I do think it helped us," Owens said of the lineup changes. "I think it was an attention getter, some guys played different positions and stepped up."

CC got out of the series at Wisconsin pretty healthy. Owens said there were no new noteworthy injuries. Backup goaltender Drew O'Connell has a sore shoulder and could miss a day or two of practice, but should be available this weekend.
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POLLS
USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Poll

The 14th annual USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Men's College Hockey Poll is conducted each week in conjunction with the American Hockey Coaches Association. The poll includes input from coaches and journalists representing each of the six NCAA Division I ice hockey conferences, as well as composite votes from officers of the American Hockey Coaches Association and USA Hockey Magazine, the official publication of USA Hockey.

Jan. 19, 2008

No.	Team (First-place votes)	Points	Last Poll
1.	Notre Dame (22)	496	1
2.	Boston University (6)	464	2
3.	Cornell (6)	434	5
4.	Denver	394	4
5.	Northeastern	386	3
6.	Minnesota	336	8
7.	Vermont	204	7
8.	Michigan	280	6
9.	Princeton	222	14
10.	Miami	188	9
11.	Ohio State	156	14
12.	New Hampshire	154	13
13.	Colorado College	132	11
14.	Boston College	46	12
15.	North Dakota	45	NR

Also receiving votes: Wisconsin 17, Alaska 9 Nebraska-Omaha 9, Air Force 2, Michigan State 2, Quinnipiac 2, Yale 2.

USCHO.com/CBS College Sports Poll

Jan. 19, 2008

No.	Team (First-place votes)	Points	Last Poll
1.	Notre Dame (38)	986	1
2.	Boston University (7)	931	2
3.	Cornell (5)	877	5
4.	Denver	828	4
5.	Northeastern	821	3
6.	Minnesota	753	7
7.	Vermont	673	8
8.	Michigan	637	6
9.	Princeton	562	10
10.	Miami	507	9
11.	New Hampshire	468	13
12.	Ohio State	467	14
13.	Colorado College	427	11
14.	Boston College	320	12
15.	North Dakota	316	17
16.	Wisconsin	280	17
17.	Minnesota Duluth	123	NR
18.	Dartmouth	117	18
19.	Alaska	100	NR
20.	Air Force	94	15

Also receiving votes: Nebraska-Omaha 67, Yale 39, Minnesota State 26, Quinnipiac 26, RIT 16, Maine 13, Union 7, Michigan State 6, St. Lawrence 5, St. Cloud State 4, Massachusetts 3, Niagara 1.

The Tigers came out for the FSN lights tonight and earned a dramatic split with the University of Wisconsin Badgers Saturday night. Game summary from CC Athletics below.

The Tigers traveled to Wisconsin and got pounded by the Badgers 6-1 Friday night. The Tigers had beaten UW 6 straight times.

Game links below.
USCHO
Gazette

CC Athletics

If there’s any heat to be felt in frigid Madison this weekend, Colorado College is likely to be burning from it.

CC saw its six-game winning streak against the University of Wisconsin screech to a halt on Friday, suffering a lopsided 6-1 loss to the Badgers in the opener of their two-game series at the Kohl Center.

The defeat, combined with Minnesota’s 5-1 victory over St. Cloud State and North Dakota’s 3-3 tie at Michigan Tech, dropped the Tigers into a fourth-place tie with the Fighting Sioux in the WCHA standings.

CC, now 12-8-5 overall and 8-7-2 in league play, remained in contention for nearly two periods, until a fluke goal with 17.3 seconds left in the middle frame put the Badgers up 3-1. Aaron Bendickson got credit for the tally, which was inadvertently batted past goaltender Richard Bachman by one of Bachman’s own teammates.

When Andy Bohmbach upped the count to 4-1 with his first of two red lighters during a Wisconsin power play early in the third period, it was all over for the frustrated Tigers and their sophomore netminder, who gave way to senior Drew O’Connell for the duration of the contest.

Despite 30 shots on goal for the night, all Colorado College had to show on the scoreboard was a power-play goal by junior defenseman Nate Prosser that tied the game at 1-1 midway through the opening period.

John Mitchell scored once and added a pair of assists for the second-place Badgers, who pulled to within a point of league-leading and idle Denver. Tom Gorowsky struck for the game winner on a rebound just 2:06 into the second period, moments after Bachman robbed Michael Davies twice from point-blank range. Davies scored against O’Connell in the third period. Bohmbach added an assist to go with his two goals.

The CC Tigers have just begun their game at Wisconsin. Tonights game is Not televised but tomorrow's (Saturday) is. Below are some series notes from CC Athletics.

--From CC Athletics--
Colorado College embarks on its first road trip in more than a month this week when the Tigers travel to Madison, Wis., for a pair of crucial WCHA games against the University of Wisconsin. Faceoff at the Kohl Center is 7:07 p.m. CST Friday and 6:07 p.m. CST Saturday.

Saturday's series finale will be televised live regionally by Fox Sports Net North and aired throughout Colorado on FSN Rocky Mountain.

Wisconsin and CC are second and third, respectively, in the ever-tightening league standings and are separated by only two points.

The 11th-ranked Tigers are 12-7-5 overall and 8-6-2 in conference play. Picked earlier by the WCHA's head coaches to repeat as regular-season champions in 2008-09, they have fallen five points behind first-place University of Denver with 12 games remaining. They’re also just four ahead of St. Cloud State, which is tied for seventh with Minnesota State, and has played two fewer league outings than CC.

Colorado College, which swept all four games of their season series with UW in 2007-08, is just one point ahead of fourth-place Minnesota and North Dakota, which also have two games in hand.

Look for a new team (or 2) in the WCHA in the near future.

CHN Staff Report

MADISON, Wis. — WCHA members voted unanimously today to lift its moratorium on expansion. The vote was taken at the league's meetings, being held in Washington, D.C., in conjunction with the annual NCAA Convention.

Lifting the moratorium is the first step needed for Bemidji State to apply for membership into the league. Due to the precarious state of the CHA -- expected to disband when the season is over -- the future of programs such as BSU has had a cloud over it.

The moratoium was lifted only through March 31, 2009, giving Bemidji just enough time to apply, and take its chances.

According to the league, "The lifting of the moratorium on expansion means the WCHA can entertain membership applications from any interested institutions who meet the league’s criteria for membership. Meeting the criteria for membership does not, however, guarantee admittance into the Association."

Review of any applications for membership received by the league office by March 31 would then take place at the league’s spring meeting April 26-28 in Marco Island, Fla. A vote on membership may take place at that time or may be delayed pending receipt and review of additional pertinent information.

Membership admittance requires a 75 percent majority vote of the current membership, there is one vote per member institution and the vote is cast by the institutional Faculty Athletic Representatives.

The Tigers failed to get a sweep in the first series of the 2nd half of the season as they were stuffed by Mankato's backup goalie Dan Tormey. Links from the game below:
USCHO Box Score
CC Athletics (with old pic of course)
Gazette

The Tigers won their first Friday night game in 3 months over Minnesota State Mankato last night in a solid 5-2 win. The Tigers kept the momentum rolling on offense from last game and put up 5 goals on the Mavericks. I've posted the USCHO recap of the game below and some links to all the coverage from last night.

• The biggest thing I noticed right away was #2 was back on the ice. For those of you who don't remember, that's Cody Lampl, who has been suspended for a whopping 47 games due to a "violation of student conduct" which is both puzzling and gross. The Gazette ran a good story on him (minus the details of why he was suspended) on December 29 that I missed. So if you missed it too, check it here.
• Notes from the Gazette here, including Sweatt out last night with an upper body injury, Hobey Voting and some other small game notes.
• David Ramsey looks at the potential this season's team has for a great finish.
• CC Athletics recaps the game, complete with a picture from the second game of the season. Oops!
• Even though I wasn't at the game I still have a Uni note from the game I noticed in Missy J's pics. Why did Cody Lampl have soooooo much tape on his shin pads?

USCHO Game Recap

Three months was the last time the Colorado College Tigers had won a game on Friday until Friday night’s game against the Minnesota State University, Mankato Mavericks, a 5-2 Tigers’ win.

“It’s a strange feeling actually to win on a Friday; we don’t know with our Saturday prep out there,” quipped CC coach Scott Owens. “No, you know what, it was a good 60 minutes; it was a good team win. We did a lot of things well tonight so it just feels good to see everybody contributing and distribute the minutes well.”

The Tigers started off strong, getting the majority of the early chances. However, Mavericks’ goaltender Mike Zacharias (24 saves) stood strong, stopping a few two-on-ones, including a short-handed one 11:14 into the second period.

Instead, the Mavericks scored on that same man advantage 45 seconds later when Kael Mouillierat wristed a shot from the slot over the glove of Tigers’ netminder Richard Bachman (31 saves).

The Tigers tied it up about three-and-a-half minutes later with a power-play goal of their own however, when Andreas Vlassopoulos shot a Brian Connelly pass from the right side faceoff dot in past Zacharias.

Exactly one minute later at 16:25, CC took a 2-1 lead on another power-play goal. Eric Walsky, behind the goal line, passed the puck to Tyler Johnson, who tucked it five-hole on Zacharias. The goal was reviewed, as the puck barely trickled across the line, but it was deemed good.

The Mavericks made it a 2-2 game 5:10 into the second period when Blake Friesen blasted a slap shot from the right point past Bachman.

At about the midway point of the period, MSU looked to have taken the lead, but the apparent goal was waved off, as forward Zach Harrison was called for interference behind the play.

From that point on, it was all CC.

The Tigers retook the lead at 12:32 of the middle frame when Brian McMillin one-timed an Addison DeBoer pass five-hole past Zacharias, their first even-strength goal against the Mavericks all year.

“We’re wide open in the middle of the slot and they end up with a three-on-two on it,” said Mavericks’ coach Troy Jutting, referencing forward Andrew Sackrison. “We’re wide open in the slot, should have a great attempt to score, we fan on the puck, they come down on a three-on-two and score. That’s a huge, huge change in the game.”

About five minutes later, the Tigers scored their third power-play goal of the game when Stephen Schultz fired a shot from the high slot past Zacharias. Overall, the Tigers went three-for-seven on the power play.

“We switched the one [power play unit] around, we opened it up a bit, and you know what, they did a pretty good job,” said Owens. “We were just as happy with the other units.”

CC finished off the scoring 4:52 into the third period on McMillin’s second of the night. DeBoer won a puck battle along the boards and dished it to McMillin, who shot a seeing-eye puck tough angle that found its way into the net just between Zacharias and the right post.

“It’s funny; we’ve had nine days of practice since we’ve come back, and it’s been our best line,” Owens said of the DeBoer-Nick Dineen-McMillin line, which combined for five points (2g, 3a). “It’s been our best line in practice. The first period, it started out a little bit shaky when Dineen got walked on the faceoff and a couple other things, but they’re solid. They have good chemistry, they work extremely hard, they’re honest and they’re doing a lot of little things right.”

MSU’s best chance for another goal probably came with 3:52 remaining in the game when the officials reviewed a Jerad Stewart shot. Stewart had a mini-breakaway, shot the puck, and had his momentum carry him into Bachman and, consequently, the net, which got knocked off its moorings.

The game had some marginal drama when MSU’s Harrison got five and a game for checking-from-behind while teammate Geoff Irwin and CC’s Kris Fredheim each got two for cross-checking with 19.4 seconds remaining, but by that point, the game was over.

“We missed on [some] breakaways; we had some chances to score [but didn’t] ,” said Jutting. “In games like this, those are huge difference-makers.”

“It was a good team win, it was what we needed, we got some secondary scoring, we got some people coming around now, chipping in, but you know what?,” asked Owens. “Tomorrow’s another night and they’re going to be desperate, playing hard and we’ve got to be able to match the intensity.”

The teams faceoff again Saturday night at World Arena. The puck drops at 7:07 Mountain time.

After a nice Christmas and New Years break I'm back at it and the site is looking better than ever thanks to the help I got with some bad code. Turns out the culprit was my "about Colorado Springs" block of text and some Microsoft Word code that was leftover from the links I made in that software. Go figure, two links copied over could override an entire webpage! But it's fixed and the site looks how it was supposed to when I re-launched it with the new name before the season started. Hope everyone had a great end of the year, I'm still getting used to seeing 10-20 foot piles of snow along the road everywhere I go, pretty strange to see so much snow!
Uncaged Notes from around the college hockey world

• The big news this week was the Pairwise Rankings made their USCHO debut on. CC starts out at 19th while Cornell (Cornell, really??!) starts at the top. Let the analyzing begin!

• There was a New Year's tournament in Denver called the Wells Fargo Cup Denver (15th annual apparently) won by BC after they stomped DU-didn't realize that Magness was capable of hosting a tournament ;). I completely missed the tournament, catch up and read about the final game here.
• CC Athletics takes a look at the Tigers after their long break, hoping a 7-0 win in their last outing helps boost momentum for the 2nd half of the season
• All the stats you could dream of for the weekend are located on the official press release PDF here.
• On that same page, be sure to check out the new video player with Steve Shultz' ridiculous goal last outing.
• My postings will be late tomorrow night since I've got my own hockey game at 10:30, we are back in action afer a long outing as well. Friday night is a great night for hockey!
  

Well at least the Tigers were shooting more. The past few weekends the Tigers have been in the 25 shot range per game, obviously limiting their chances to score. Last night they launched 42 and were stymied by a goalie at the top of his game. CC Athletics story below:

I've been pretty slacktastic with my postings on the site due to work so I decided to toss in a few links regarding the Minnesota game that will air Saturday and Sunday nights on FSN. No the Tigers don't play tonight, something I just found out myself as I was writing this. So on that note, here are some links to read while you suffer through a Friday night without hockey. As for myself, I have my first game in the Durango Adult Hockey league tonight so that should be fun. I played inline hockey in highschool and grew up on roller blades playing in our tiny driveway but never played on ice until a month ago. Should be a good time!

Chad Rau and his ancient stock photo made the front of USCHO today and the WCHA column gives the Tigers a C- for their report card at this point and addresses the fact that we all are wondering how the Tigers have remained so high in the polls.

CHN now allows you to check scores from your cell phone, a great feature for those of us who love college hockey and can't find a score update anywhere!

And CC Athletics previews the weekend below, full press release here (PDF)
by CC Athletics

A pair of former No. 1-ranked teams square off this Saturday and Sunday when Colorado College and the University of Minnesota meet in a regional televised two-game series at Mariucci Arena on the UM campus in Minneapolis.

Only one point separates the second-place Gophers and fourth-place Tigers in the unusually tight WCHA standings. While league-leading Wisconsin takes the weekend off, CC and Minnesota are among five teams with a shot at catching or surpassing the Badgers in the WCHA standings.

This is the last weekend of conference play until January.

Still in the thick of the upper division despite winning just two of their last six league outings, the Tigers are 9-5-4 overall and 6-4-2 in WCHA play after tying (1-1) and losing (7-4) to Minnesota Duluth at the World Arena last weekend. Only two points out of first place, they currently are ranked No. 9 and 10 in the two national polls. Minnesota is No. 2 in both.

This weekend's series in Minneapolis will feature four of the WCHA’s top 11 point producers. Colorado College’s Chad Rau (10g,14a) and Eric Walsky (9g,13a) rank second and in a tie for third, respectively, with 24 and 22 points overall, while Gopher standouts Ryan Stoa (11g,9a) and Jordan Schroeder (7g,12a) are eighth and tied for 10th with 20 and 19.

After four consecutive Friday-night defeats, maybe this was a baby step in the right direction for Colorado College.

The Tigers got 32 saves from Richard Bachman along with a goal by Matt Overman just 1:04 into their series opener with the University of Minnesota Duluth, but had to settle for a 1-1 tie at the World Arena that extended their winless streak on Fridays to seven weeks.

They came out like gangbusters, seizing the early lead when junior winger Overman beat Bulldogs goaltender Alex Stalock with a backhand from the slot before most of the crowd had settled into their seats. Sophomore defenseman Ryan Lowery and junior center Andreas Vlassopoulos assisted on the tally.

But, after that, Stalock was unbeatable. He made seven of his 28 saves in overtime, including a pair on Vlassopoulos from point-blank range in the final 15 seconds. Bachman may have made the stop of the game with 40.4 seconds left, however, keeping the contest even with some slick glove work on a quick wrister by UMD’s Drew Akins.

Bachman, who blanked Duluth in three of four meetings last season, saw his shutout streak against the Bulldogs end at 233 minutes and 47 seconds when Josh Meyers scored during a power play at 16:01 of the second period.

With the point, CC pulled to within one of idle Minnesota and first place in the WCHA standings. The Tigers, 9-4-4 overall and 6-3-2 in league play, head into Saturday’s rematch tied with Wisconsin for second place. Minnesota Duluth, 6-4-5 overall and 3-4-4 in the WCHA, is tied for sixth.

Yesterday wasn't a total loss, my Huskers won a ridiculous game over that team from Boulder that no one in this state seems to care about. I'll give em credit though, our guys were dumb talking trash all week and CU played pretty dang well for a beat-up and crappy team. Enough of that, this is hockey so on to the REAL black and gold...

The Tigers' long winning streak against the north-siders came crashing to an end last night and based on the articles and my friends who were lucky enough to get tickets, it wasn't even close. The Tigers again played sloppy and couldn't score on Friday night, a bizarre trend that will hopefully get corrected soon. The Tigers are in a slump, but it might not be a bad thing to get that slump out of the way early and still have most of the season to continue to grow up. We all know what happens when a team goes full throttle the entire season and hits the slump in the post season (see 07-08 Tigers). If you need an inspiration, look at our rivals in Denver. The Pios stunk it up most of last season and ended up winning the Broadmoor Trophy. North Dakota has traditionally been anemic the first half of the season and goes on a tear once the calendar year switches over. So no need for the panic button yet, this should be a great wake up call for our Tigers and hopefully we will see a team with more urgency the second half of the season. Tonight, the Tigers get Colgate who was blasted 6-1 by DU last night. Hopefully the Tigers will bust out full speed looking to rebound in a hurry, and Colgate will still be in it's high altitude daze. The Falcons head up to Denver tonight and will look to keep their undefeated record intact. Remember, last season the Pios were waxed 5-2 by the Falcons, should be an intense game.
Game links follow below. The Gayzette has a stupid headline like usual and David Ramsey goes into drama mode in his article blasting the Tigers crappy play. At least the paper is consistent in sucking huh?

Gazette: 1, 2, 3
USCHO: 1, 2
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