For the second time in as many weeks, the Tigers were ripped for 6 goals and lost 6-1, this time it was St. Cloud State that had their way with the stumbling Tigers. The Tigers need to get it together to keep a shot at the national tournament, a one point weekend is not going to help their cause. USCHO recap below

Huskies Maul Tigers
LeBlanc Notches Hat Trick
by Theresa Spisak/WCHA Correspondent
Finishing what they started in the third Friday night, the St. Cloud State University Huskies shot out of the gates Saturday night with a four-goal first period, helping them to a 6-1 defeat of their hosts, the Colorado College Tigers.

“We played pretty good last night, and we carried it into tonight,” said SCSU coach Bob Motzko. “I liked us in the first and second period. I thought we played very good tonight.”

“We weren’t that flat, we were skating fine, but they hit us with, boom, one goal, two goals,” said CC coach Scott Owens. “They came at us unbelievably hard, quick, confident, strong sticks and before you know it, it was 4-0. It was very surprising, very shocking and I don’t think we dealt with it very well.”

The Huskies started off the scoring with a Drew LeBlanc goal 4:49 into the first period and, ironically, stopped their opening assault with another goal by the freshman forward 4:49 minutes remaining in the frame.

“He has turned a corner,” said Motzko of the freshman. “We said he was looking over the mountaintop, he can see that there’s where the hockey was, he just didn’t know how to get over it. Maybe this is the game where he gets over that mountaintop because he’s been playing great for us and we’ve seen it coming.”

LeBlanc’s first goal, a shot from the left side of the circle that went in past Tigers’ netminder Richard Bachman (24 saves), was originally credited to teammate John Swanson, but was later changed.

St. Cloud went up 2-0 10:55 into the period when Sam Zabkowicz fired a shot from the high-slot that went in five-hole on Bachman. Just one minute and 24 seconds later on a delayed penalty call, the Huskies went up 3-0 thanks to Tony Mosey.

Then, just as a Huskies’ power play expired, LeBlanc scored his second of the night to make it 4-0 St. Cloud.

The Huskies extended their lead to five goals when LeBlanc finished off his hat trick 11 minutes into the second period by shooting a tough angle shot in past Bachman.

“I know it went off the back wall and I just tried to get it up to the top of the net, so I couldn’t tell you what happened,” said LeBlanc.

Jordy Christian then made it 6-0 with 5:53 remaining in the middle frame after he took an Aaron Marvin pass in front of the net and reached it around Bachman and in.

Though he thought about it earlier, Owens replaced Bachman with freshman Tyler O’Brien (5 saves) about five minutes into the third period.

“I might have thought of it in the middle there in the second when it got to be 5-0, 6-0, but I thought Tyler stepped in and played pretty well, so for a young kid like that without that much experience I thought he did pretty well,” said Owens.

The Tigers managed to spoil Jase Weslosky’s shutout bid, however, when Overman backhanded a shot past the St. Cloud goaltender 9:03 into the third period.

“I was seeing the puck a lot easier tonight and pucks were hitting me tonight so it’s always good when pucks are coming in and you can get a piece of them and see them through everybody,” said Weslosky (34 saves). “It’s just about staying positive and we were able to take the confidence from last night and bring it into tonight.”

The Tigers are idle until February 6th when they visit Michigan Tech while the Huskies return home next weekend for a two-game series against North Dakota.

Well, it wasn't a loss but it was frustrating none-the-less. The Tigers can't seem to close the deal on Friday's as they tied St. Cloud State 4-4. CC Athletics summary below. One other score that Tiger fans will love was DU getting blasted by North Dakota 8-3.


Another frustrating Friday for CC
St. Cloud State rallies for 4-4 tie with Tigers
Athletic Media Relations
1/23/2009 11:54:23 PM
All things considered, Friday’s 4-4 standoff with St. Cloud State at the World Arena wasn’t the worst possible result.

Colorado College remained six points ahead of the always-dangerous Huskies in the WCHA standings and even gained one on league-leading Denver, which suffered an 8-3 pounding at North Dakota.

And the Tigers did score four goals on a Friday night – a rare accomplishment – including three in less than six minutes midway through the second period.

But, after grabbing a 4-2 lead on Bill Sweatt’s unassisted tally just 28 seconds into the final frame, CC expected to win – and didn’t, for the 11th time in its last 12 weekend openers dating back to mid-October.

Garrett Roe, one of the nation’s leading scorers, was credited with a pair of tallies less than five minutes apart in the final frame, as eighth-place SCSU rallied to earn a point in the first meeting of the season between the teams. They face off again in the finale of their two-game series on Saturday.

In its school-record sixth tie of 2008-09, Colorado College got a goal and an assist apiece from junior defenseman Brian Connelly and senior right wing Eric Walsky. Junior forward Matt Overman also struck for his second red lighter in as many games, while junior defenseman Garrett Raboin had a goal and two assists for St. Cloud State.

Now 13-8-6 overall and 9-7-3 in WCHA play, the Tigers enter Saturday’s rematch tied for fourth place with Minnesota, each with 21 points in the league standings. They’re only two points behind DU and one in back of North Dakota and Wisconsin, which are tied for second with 22 apiece. All four of those upper-division teams, however, have games in hand with CC. Both Minnesota and Wisconsin are idle this weekend.

From WCHA.com

Colorado College Picked to Repeat as WCHA Champions
in 2008-09 in Annual Grand Forks Herald WCHA Coaches' Poll
by Brad Elliott Schlossman, Grand Forks Herald

Oct. 1, 2008

GRAND FORKS, N.D. - The opinions of Western Collegiate Hockey Association coaches varied greatly when it came to picking a preseason rookie of the year and a preseason player of the year. There's one thing the coaches can pretty much agree on, though: Colorado College is still the team to beat.

The defending MacNaughton Cup champion Tigers received eight first-place votes and are picked to finish first in the 38th annual Grand Forks Herald WCHA preseason Coaches' Poll. UND received two first-places and is projected to finish second, followed by Denver. Minnesota and Wisconsin are tied for fourth.

"I think a lot of it is based on last year," Colorado College coach Scott Owens said. "I think the strength for us is going to be in our quality depth at forward. We also have five of the six guys who played regularly for us on defense back and all three goalies.

"I think everyone is excited to get back at it. It's an older team with good leadership."

The bottom five projected teams, in order, are St. Cloud State, Minnesota State, Mankato, Minnesota Duluth, Michigan Tech and Alaska Anchorage.

"I think CC is an improved team from last year, and they were a great team last year," UND coach Dave Hakstol said. "I think every team in the league can say they've found ways improve. What a heck of a league we have."

What perhaps best demonstrates the league's outstanding talent level this year is the coaches' votes for player of the year and rookie of the year.

UND's Ryan Duncan has a Hobey Baker Memorial Award sitting in his attic, but he didn't receive a single vote for preseason player of the year. Denver's Joe Colborne was the Canadian Junior A Player of the Year and the highest-drafted freshman in the country (first round, 16th overall), but he didn't receive a single vote for preseason rookie of the year.

Those honors went elsewhere.

Colorado College sophomore goaltender Richard Bachman is the preseason player of the year, getting three votes. St. Cloud State forward Ryan Lasch got two, as did Minnesota Duluth goalie Alex Stalock and Denver forward Tyler Bozak. CC's Chad Rau got one vote.

North Dakota's Jason Gregoire and Minnesota Duluth's Jack Connolly are the co-preseason rookies of the year. Both players received three votes, while Minnesota rookies Aaron Ness and Jordan Schroeder each got two.