Here's Missy's pics from the Duluth series and the last shots of our great senior class. If you look closely, you can see all the guys were sporting...uhhh....mohawks of sorts. Guess we won't ever be seeing those again!

I'm finally back and running again after my nice 10 day hiatus-it's kind of hard to post updates when you're out of the country :)
Missy J got some sweet shots of the CC-DU tie over the weekend despite the super dim lightning in that golden monstrosity up north. Everytime I watch games up there on TV it reminds me of playing football down in Canon City where there lights were so dim we could barely watch film.
My biggest surprise when I got back was that DU(d) managed to choke away the MacNaughton Cup. Way to go! Of course the fact that CC only picked up 2 points wasn't the greatest thing to hear either but hey, they get two more games at the World Arena so can't complain too much!

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

The Tigers remained 18th in the USCHO poll this week as they get ready to take on the Gophers in the Springs this weekend. Hope you enjoy the pics from Sunday night that Missy took against the U18 team-pretty sweet!

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.

Feb. 16, 2009

No.	Team (First-place votes)	Points	Last Poll
1.	Boston University (31)	507	1
2.	Notre Dame (3)	473	3
3.	Michigan	448	4
4.	Miami	391	6
5.	Northeastern	369	2
6.	Vermont	331	5
7.	Yale	296	10
8.	Denver	285	8
9.	North Dakota	235	11
10.	Princeton	205	9
11.	Cornell	151	7
12.	New Hampshire	133	12
13.	Wisconsin	109	13
14.	Minnesota	85	14
15.	Ohio State	21	NR

Also receiving votes: Minnesota Duluth 16, Colorado College 12, Boston College 7, RIT 3, St. Lawrence 3.

USCHO.com/CBS College Sports Poll

Feb. 16, 2009

No.	Team (First-place votes)	Points	Last Poll
1.	Boston University (44)	993	1
2.	Notre Dame (6)	945	2
3.	Michigan	905	4
4.	Northeastern	815	3
5.	Miami	783	7
6.	Vermont	731	5
7.	Yale	677	10
8.	Denver	659	8
9.	North Dakota	564	11
10.	Princeton	560	9
11.	Cornell	495	6
12.	New Hampshire	420	12
13.	Wisconsin	404	13
14.	Minnesota	371	14
15.	Minnesota Duluth	256	17
16.	Ohio State	211	16
17.	Boston College	177	15
18.	Colorado College	167	18
19.	St. Cloud State	101	NR
20.	St. Lawrence	92	NR

Also receiving votes: Dartmouth 91, UMass Lowell 21, RIT 18, Air Force 16, Nebraska-Omaha 12, Alaska 5, Colgate 5, Massachusetts 4, Alaska Anchorage 2.

The Tigers obviously had some disappointment from the tie last night, but got a point and got some hardware so they'll just take the point and the positives from the game and move on. Missy J sent me some amazing pics from the game (above) so enjoy those! Below are the links to the Gazette and Denver Post recaps of the game as well as the recap from the USCHO.
Gazette Recap
Denver Post Recap

DU Skates to Tie With CC
CC Holds Onto Gold Pan
by Theresa Spisak/WCHA Correspondent

Even though Denver has one more chance to tie up the season series between the two squads, they couldn't win the Gold Pan due to a rule that states the current holder of the trophy retains it if the teams tie the season series. The game was Owens' 400th behind the bench for the Tigers.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Feb. 13) — Sometimes, you get what you pay for, and the 7,696 standing-room only crowd in World Arena got just that Friday night.

Though the Colorado College Tigers and University of Denver Pioneers tied, 3-3, the game held a late tying goal for Pioneers’ fans and a Gold Pan victory for the Tigers’ faithful.

Ask each team, however, and both were glad to get a big conference point.

“[It was a] tough point to get; a tough game to play, having to come from behind in a building that historically has not been very kind for us,” said Pioneers’ coach George Gwozdecky. “In many ways, I was proud of our effort.”

“It’s a big point; they’re very hard to get,” said his Tigers’ counterpart Scott Owens. “It’s very, very hard, especially considering the schedule we have left. It’s always a big point.”

Both teams had early chances to get on the board, but neither DU’s Kyle Ostrow nor CC’s Mike Testwuide could take advantage of their open net chances.

Despite being outshot 13-7 in the period, the Tigers scored first with a power-play goal 8:53 into the first period. Brian Connelly took a shot from the point that was tipped in front past DU goaltender Marc Cheverie (25 saves) by Stephen Schultz.

The Pioneers tied it up about 4:30 into the second period when Dustin Jackson skated into the Tigers’ zone, muscled his way through traffic to the front of the net and put the puck far side past CC netminder Richard Bachman (41 saves).

CC regained the lead at the 9:19 mark of the frame when Cody Lampl put an Eric Walsky rebound in the net. Just 1:36 later, the Tigers went up 3-1 on another tipped Connelly power play shot, this time with Bill Sweatt getting the goal.

The Pioneers rounded out the scoring in the frame with 4:43 to go in the period on a power-play goal of their own. Rhett Rakhshani passed the puck from behind the net to Joe Colborne in the slot, who put it under Bachman’s right shoulder.

Brian McMillin almost put the Tigers up 4-2 with about 2:40 left when he backhanded the puck out of the air towards the DU net, but it went off the crossbar behind Cheverie.

It appeared as if CC would hold their lead through the third, but Colborne tallied his second of the night to tie it up with 56.3 seconds remaining when he roofed one over Bachman’s left shoulder from the doorstep.

“I was kind of sliding back door thinking that I was going to scrum, maybe the puck would go behind the net or something and all of a sudden it was just out there on my stick,” said Colborne. “I was the lucky recipient.”

The teams battled throughout overtime, both getting several chances, but the contest ended in a tie.

“It’s a pretty weird sort of feeling,” said Colborne. “We obviously wanted two points, we had a chance for the Gold Pan, but when you look at it now, it was a huge, huge point for us in the standings, a huge character win for us that will hopefully carry us into Wisconsin.”

“We made the plays when we had to to get back in the game in time and tie it up so I was pleased with our effort and proud of our team to come back through some pretty good challenges tonight,” said Gwozdecky.

“If it wasn’t for Bachman, it would have been a loss,” said Owens. “It’s a strange deal. You get a tie, you get the Gold Pan, but it feels like a loss and they feel like a win and that’s the way it goes.”

The Tigers next play a non-conference matinee on Sunday against the United States Under-18 Team while the Pioneers are off until next weekend where they face the University of Wisconsin.

While it wasn't a good weekend for the Tigers it was a great weekend for me. My hockey team here in Durango rolled 8-1 and I notched my first hat-trick in my 4th game, can't complain about that!
As for the Tigers, they get a much needed (read: they are playing like crap) weekend off coming up to regroup and find an identity.
Going into the season there was a lot of concern regarding the defensive corps in front of Bachman and it looks to be entirely justified as the Tigers have been shelled 6-1 in back-to-back weekends.
I guess we won't have to worry about them peaking too early this season huh?
As for the polls, well, we don't have to worry about the polls this week because the Tigers have fallen into the realm of "others receiving votes". It's a big fall from #1 earlier this season but maybe it's a wake-up call....hopefully it's a wake-up call.
I'll post the full polls below. Missy J again got some freakin sweet shots from the slaughter....er...game Saturday night. There are some sweet close-ups of some of the guys too so check em out! (and a lot of Scott McCulloch too, hmmmm)

Here are the latest polls for this week. The Tigers moved up one in the USA Today Poll to #11, down to 11 in the USCHO poll. Odd, I know. The biggest rankings to keep an eye on are the PairWise Rankings, which will be out later this week.
Another big thanks to Missy J who sent me some sweet pics from the weekend once again!

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.

The series didn't play out too well but at least Missy J got some sweet pics! Check em out below, they pretty shweet!
note:the watermark is to associate the pics with the blog where they are posted, no I'm not stealing credit for Missy's pics :)