The Tigers took out their frustrations on the Sacred Heart Pioneers Saturday night in a 7-0 thrashing of the visitors. I can't think of a better way to enter your December break then unleashing 7 goals by 7 different players. The Tigers are out of action until January 9th when they take on Minnesota State. Links from the game are below, followed by Missy J's pics from the game and then the quick recap from CC Athletics.
Gazette: New Lines Contribute to Win
USCHO: Homepage, Tigers Blow Out Pioneers

All its trials and tribulations aside, Colorado College can celebrate the holidays with some genuine joy and positive vibes.

CC, which doesn’t play again until Jan. 9, ushered out the 2008 portion of its schedule in style on Saturday, clicking on all cylinders in a 7-0 victory over Sacred Heart University at the World Arena.

Unlike their 2-2 tie with the same team a night earlier, the Tigers established their dominance early and never looked back.

Led by junior defenseman Kris Fredheim, who scored the game-winning goal and added a pair of assists, they erupted for three tallies in the first period and four more in the second while peppering two SHU net minders with a season-high 47 shots.

Senior Drew O’Connell and sophomore Tyler O’Brien combined for 24 saves to record the shared shutout, O’Connell making 18 stops before giving way to O’Brien early in the final frame.

Fourteen different players, including 11 of 12 forwards in the lineup, collected at least one point. Chad Rau and Andreas Vlassopoulos finished with a goal and an assist apiece while freshman Tim Hall struck for the first red lighter of his collegiate career. Freshman Nick Dineen had two assists.

Bill Sweatt, Stephen Schultz and Brian McMillin also scored in the rout, as CC snapped a three-game winless skid at home and improved to 11-6-5 overall for the campaign.

The two points by Rau gave him a nation leading 27 (11g,16a) for the season.

The Tigers, who are tied for third place in the WCHA with a 7-5-2 mark in 14 league outings to date, wrapped up non-conference play with a 4-1-3 record. Excluding an exhibition contest against the United States Under-18 Team on Feb. 15, all 14 remaining regular-season games after the break will be against WCHA opponents.

Well it wasn't always pretty and it certainly was not as easy as expected, but the Tigers came out of their opening weekend against a non-conference foe unscathed. I'm sure there will be rumors and hate spewing across the 'net from opposing teams and media wondering if CC is actually any good after struggling by a team from Alabama. After watching both games up close, I can assure you the Tigers will be fine and that UAH is much better than advertised, they will handily win more than 6 games like they did last season. Their defense and goaltending was solid; they always had three players near the defensive net which made shooting lanes almost non-existent and it was hard to get in close for a quality shot, hence the lower-than-expected offensive output (scoring, not shots). The Tigers did manage a couple powerplay goals Saturday night and 4 goals during "regular" play (Rau added an empty-netter) so they will be fine. The power play suffered from too much passing (aka indecisiveness) and the aformentioned tight defensive play. The Tigers went 0-for-8 on Friday and 2-for-6 on Saturday, a game in which EVERY hook or grab was called in the offensive zone. CC was 5-for-5 killing penalties Friday and 9-for-9 Saturday. As good as UAH may have been defensively, they certainly didn't have the elite offensive scoring of a WCHA foe, so penalties need to be kept low. Look for the obstruction calls to continue to remain high this season with the new rules changes.

Uncaged notes:

• Both teams went with their 2nd goalies Saturday night and both played well. Drew O'Connell played the entire game and wants to get more playing time in his senior season. He was hung out to dry by the D on 2 of the goals he let in
• UAH played with a lot of energy and came out hot and it looked like it caught CC off-guard, they were a little out of sync for the first 10 minutes
• A fan threw a broom on the ice after the game, funny but not really necessary
• The crowd was better Saturday night but still pretty weak by my standards, I guess live hockey with a great team and great venue isn't appealing to more than 3,000 people in a city of over a half-million, shouldn't matter who the opponent is
  

I'm going to try to do grades for the weekend series' for as many weekends as I can. Definately will for the games I attend, we'll see about away games...

Offense: C
The Tigers passed too much and waited too long to take shots and need to develope more scoring past Chad Rau to survive the WCHA

Defense: B
O'Connell was hung out to dry twice Saturday, once on a 3-on-1 shorthanded, but those were the only real glaring errors

Goaltending: A-
Richard Bachman didn't face many shots Friday but the long gaps between shots tested his game focus. O'Connell let in 1 he shoulda saved and 2 that only Patrick Roy could have gotten. UAH didn't manage more than 20 shots either night

Skating/Team Speed: A+
The Tigers can flat out fly

Puck Control/Passing: A-
The Tigers were sloppy during a few points Saturday night but are still very skilled and well-coached

Crowd/Atmosphere: B
When the Tigers' scored it felt like the arena was full. The rest of the time it was pretty quiet and people arrived late. I realize Alabama isn't a huge draw so I'll give credit to those who were actually there. I will say though, I'm impressed with the apparel in the crowd: most people had yellow and black on or one of the various jerseys so we have a very strong following of regulars

Intangibles: C
(note: this is a generality, CC has no control over how they play out)
The altitude seemed to get UAH a little bit Friday, not Saturday. The home crowd wasn't big enough to cause any problems and UAH played tough.

Opponent Representation: F
I saw 1 UAH fan, though I honestly didn't expect any

Up next is Michigan Tech, who went 1-1 in the Superior Cup opening weekend. Preview of them Wed. or Thursday.