The Tigers moved to 13th in the USA Today poll to solidify a #13 ranking in the two major polls. Nothing glamourous about 13th BUT anything is better than being unranked. North Dakota is ranked 7th and 8th and holds the #2 spot in the WCHA.

USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Poll

Feb. 23, 2009

No.	Team (First-place votes)	Points	Last Poll
1.	Notre Dame (18)	494	2
2.	Boston University (16)	492	1
3.	Michigan	415	3
4.	Northeastern	409	5
5.	Denver	385	8
6.	Princeton	298	10
7.	North Dakota	291	9
8.	Vermont	256	6
9.	Miami	250	4
10.	New Hampshire	188	12
11.	Cornell	171	11
12.	Yale	171	7
13.	Colorado College	87	NR
14.	Minnesota Duluth	77	NR
15.	Ohio State	38	15

Also receiving votes: St. Lawrence 25, Minnesota 13, Air Force 8, RIT 2, St. Cloud State 2, Wisconsin 2.

USCHO.com/CBS College Sports Poll

Feb. 16, 2009

No.	Team (First-place votes)	Points	Last Poll
1.	Boston University (31)	981	1
2.	Notre Dame (19)	968	2
3.	Michigan	863	3
4.	Northeastern	850	4
5.	Denver	790	8
6.	Princeton	673	10
7.	Miami	666	5
8.	North Dakota	637	9
9.	Vermont	635	6
10.	Cornell	540	11
11.	Yale	532	7
12.	New Hampshire	513	12
13.	Colorado College	352	18
14.	Minnesota Duluth	336	15
15.	Ohio State	281	16
16.	Wisconsin	227	13
17.	St. Lawrence	191	20
18.	Minnesota	145	14
19.	St. Cloud State	122	19
20.	UMass Lowell	62	NR

Also receiving votes: Air Force 50, Boston College 41, Alaska 22, RIT 16, Dartmouth 7.

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

I still don't have internet so finding time to post is a little short, but I'll be up to full blast shortly. Eric Walsky must have eaten his Wheaties yesterday because he accounted for 4 of the Tigers' 7 goal explosion last night. I knew it would be a tough series, North Dakota is always big, strong and talented even if they aren't ranked. A split will probably sit just fine with CC, although all 4 points would have been nice. It's good to see how the team rebounded from their first loss of the season. If we land 7 goals every time after a loss, fans might actually want the Tigers to lose a bit, ha. On a fun Uncaged note, I landed on the SiouxSports.com blog list last night for my measily "Tigers Win" post, kinda cool. And for those of you still ticked about the messed up blue and purple links, they should be fixed soon. I've got some great advice from a co-worker and a blog follower and as soon as I find the glitch, the site will be much more readible. With my Huskers stomping KU yesterday, the Broncos off today and the win on Thursday plus the Tigers' 7 goal explosion, I may be in the mood to dig through some code today! Have a great rest of the weekend!

update
I just picked up something of extreme interest to WCHA fans from Mike Chambers' blog this play a 1/2 WCHA schedule so they wouldn't be too much of a change. Not sure about UNO, could they compete?? What are your thoughts?

Game Summary links:
USCHO
CC Athletics
CHN
SiouxSports
Gayzette
Goon's World

CC busted out of it's offensive slump tonight, blasting 37 shots and landing 7 of them in a 7-4 score fest victory Saturday night. More links to come as they are posted.
Raw live stats boxscore

CC Athletics

Colorado College will have to wait at least another day to snap out of its offensive slump.

Not even Richard Bachman could rescue punchless CC in Friday’s series opener with the University of North Dakota, as the Fighting Sioux woke up from their early-season doldrums to claim a 3-1 victory at the World Arena.

The final stats say that the No. 1-ranked Tigers finished with a 30-29 edge in shots on goal. But the real story is that 37 more of their attempts sailed harmlessly wide or were blocked by the UND defense in front of freshman goaltender Brad Eidsness, who needed to make only a handful of quality saves.

Eidsness lost his shutout with 1:27 left to play, when Tyler Johnson’s wrist shot from the high slot changed direction after glancing off the arm of Bill Sweatt as the speedy Sweatt streaked toward the net.

North Dakota, meanwhile, got goals from Brent Davidson and Brett Hextall just 14 seconds apart midway through the second period to take command in a game that never seemed in doubt for the visitors.

Darcy Zajac’s tally at 9:53 of opening period staked the Sioux to an early lead, and CC just never found the groove while suffering its first defeat of the season.

The Tigers went 0-for-8 on the power play, including four straight chances early in the third period. They even had a 5-on-3 advantage for 1:24 when Zajac and Hextall were whistled for infractions within 36 seconds of each other.

A bright spot? Colorado College, now 5-1-3 overall and 3-1-1 in WCHA play, continued its shorthanded success by killing all four UND power plays in the game.

North Dakota, 3-4 overall, improved to 3-2 in league play heading into Saturday’s rematch.

I just realized I forgot to post the new polls this week, must have had something to do with that stupid event that took place Tuesday night. Anyway, the Tigers remained at numero uno again across the board, thanks to Bachman's NHL level performances. (polls will follow post) The biggest annoyance I have right now is that USCHO and INCH don't have current photos of the Tigers' players and it drives me freaking insane! The INCH Player of the week pic (oh yea, did I mention Bachman got that?!) is him in the early parts of last season with the gold pads (sent him the wrong color) and the basic black helmet. GET A CURRENT PHOTO!! I think that takes away a huge chunk of credibility to a site if they aren't willing to take the time to get a current pic.

An interesting traffic note: I compared my traffic from this site to the old one and the supportcctigers.blogspot.com site is still generating a ginormous amount of traffic and it's old! Nothing is current and no one seems to be clicking through, it's odd. So anyway, this site IS what was formerly supportcctigers.blogspot.com. I just wanted a new domain so I jumped over. So please bookmark this address and let your friends know.

I'm still working on the ugly blug links, it's a glitch somewhere hidden in my code that I can't seem to find. If anyone knows how to fix it please let me know. (it's all configured in the color and font settings to be yellow and grey so it's a hidden problem).

The Tigers' opponent this week is the once mighty North Dakota Fighting Sioux. The Sioux are currently 2-4 (2-2WCHA) and are coming off a 5-2 loss to Wisconsin. Judging from the lack of posts on Goon's Sioux site, it's been a bad year already. I can't remember the last time the Sioux weren't in the top 10, let alone unranked! Doesn't mean it won't be a tough series, but the Tigers need to sweep North Dakota for points and because, at least in terms of current records, the Sioux are apparently a "should win" series. The biggest key is to get some points and avoid injuries...oh yea and score!

Speaking of scoring, am I the only one who is getting annoyed with the Tigers' perimeter power play attack? They pass on the outside too much and don't generate good chances. Opposing teams crash the net and make fans hold their breath as Bachman plays superman while getting pummeled with shots. The Tigers have the talent to score more but aren't, and I have a feeling a shift in stragety may help. That's my 2 cents.

Polls:
INCH Power Rankings

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.

Nov. 3, 2008

No.	Team (First-place votes)	Points	Last Poll
1.	Colorado College (28)	501	1
2.	Boston College (5)	469	2
3.	Boston University (1)	442	3
4.	Minnesota	394	5
5.	New Hampshire	361	7
6.	Denver	354	4
7.	Michigan	304	8
8.	Miami	242	6
9.	Princeton	205	10
10.	Northeastern	193	9
11.	Michigan State	162	12
12.	Notre Dame	141	13
13.	Minnesota State	73	11
14.	Air Force	72	NR
15.	Clarkson	50	14

Also receiving votes: Massachusetts 27, Vermont 23, Cornell 15, Minnesota Duluth 13, North Dakota 9, St. Lawrence 8, Union 8, Harvard 5, Alaska Anchorage 3, Yale 3, UMass Lowell 1, Nebraska-Omaha 1, St. Cloud State 1.

USCHO.com/CBS College Sports Poll

Nov. 3, 2008

No.	Team (First-place votes)	Points	Last Poll
1.	Colorado College (41)	986	1
2.	Boston College (5)	932	2
3.	Boston University (1)	908	3
4.	Minnesota	829	5
5.	New Hampshire	772	6
6.	Denver	755	4
7.	Michigan	676	8
8.	Miami	599	7
9.	Princeton	548	10
10.	Northeastern	529	9
11.	Michigan State	468	11
12.	Notre Dame	457	13
13.	Minnesota State	316	12
14.	Air Force	291	17
15.	Clarkson	249	15
16.	Vermont	216	14
17.	Cornell	187	16
18.	Harvard	156	20
19.	Massachusetts	146	NR
20.	Minnesota Duluth	104	NR

Also receiving votes: North Dakota 89, St. Lawrence 59, Alaska Anchorage 53, Nebraska-Omaha 30, St. Cloud State 28, Colgate 25, Union 20, Dartmouth 16, UMass Lowell 15, Northern Michigan 11, Yale 11, Wisconsin 7, Ferris State 6, Alaska 4, Bemidji State 1, RIT 1.