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.

USCHO didn't seem to think the game was close with their "Minnesota Romps over CC" headline. I watched the 2nd and 3rd periods and I don't think "romp" is quite the term, but the Tigers were a step behind and again struggled to score. Of course, you can't give up 3 PP goals and expect to beat anyone in the WCHA, let alone the upside-down "W" so that was a problem. Minnesota definitely has got some snipers, CC is still trying to find an identity. Hopefully they will bounce back tonight, though they sure looked flat. Good news is there is still a whole 'nother half of the season left after the Christmas break so hopefully they will be refreshed for the final run. Game two is this afternoon at 3PM, links from last night are below.

USCHO

Gazette (complete with a picture of the Tigers playing Mankato...)

CHN Tale of the Tape

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
CC Athletics
College Hockey News

The Tigers' won a "character building" game tonight, posting another win after a loss. Story below from USCHO:

Apparently I wasn't the only one who thought the scores were a little odd last night, USCHO's headline article addresses all the odd outcomes last night (posted below). As for the Tigers, they get another chance to bounce back after a loss just like last week, should be good to see. Check out all the links below.

USCHO

CHN

Gazette (with a typical uber-negative headline)

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.

The Tigers have just beaten rival DU 3-2 at the World Arena, taking a 1-win lead in the Gold Pan Series. More to come as it's posted
Raw boxscore
USCHO Recap followed by CC Athletics recap below.

Allowing more than 40 shots on goal for the third consecutive game, Colorado College again placed its fate in the hands and pads of Richard Bachman on Sunday.

This time, however, the No. 1-ranked Tigers generated enough offense to reward their sophomore netminder with a victory while improving to 5-0-3 for the season.

Scott McCulloch, Andreas Vlassopoulos and Ryan Lowery each scored a goal, while Bachman finished with 40 saves, leading CC to a 3-2 triumph over the University of Denver at a sold-out World Arena.

Bachman’s best and biggest stop came in the closing minutes, when he made a spectacular glove save to rob DU defenseman Patrick Wiercioch from point-blank range in the low slot.

Lowery’s tally, a wrist shot from the left faceoff circle after the sophomore defenseman took a nice feed from freshman winger Nick Dineen, gave the Tigers a 3-1 lead at 13:53 of the second period and proved to be the game winner.

Vlassopoulos set up a power-play goal by McCulloch at 6:40 of the opening period, then struck for a red lighter of his own with 41.6 seconds left in the frame to put CC up 2-0 after 20 minutes.

The fourth-ranked Pioneers, who finished with a 42-20 shots-on-goal advantage for the night, finally broke through Bachman’s armor seven minutes into the middle stanza when Tyler Bozak pounced on a rebound just to the left of the crease and found a small opening on the goalie’s stick side.

Lowery restored Colorado College’s two-goal lead a little less than seven minutes later, with fourth-line winger Matt Overman also earning an assist.

That’s the way it stayed until the 14:44 mark of the third period. After failing to cash in on its first nine power plays of the contest, DU capitalized on its final chance of the night as Tyler Ruegsegger pulled the visitors back to within a goal. Wiercioch and Patrick Mullen combined to set up Ruegsegger. The assist was Mullen’s second of the game and 10th of the season.

The Tigers, now 3-0-1 in league play, moved ahead of Denver and into second place all alone in the WCHA standings heading into next week’s two-game series at home against the University of North Dakota. The Pioneers, 4-2-1 overall and 2-1-1 in WCHA play, dropped into a tie for third place with the University of Alaska Anchorage.

So I was traveling for the first part of the weekend and couldn't post anything from the tie Friday night, but I did watch most of it. It was pretty obvious after five minutes that both teams are very very good, which should provide us with a great rivalry this season. Bachman made 44 freaking saves, he's still got it. I caught a couple of mistakes in the telecast and the paper Saturday. FSN's wanna-be rinkside reporter asked one of our players (I forgot who now) how the series is different this season because of the change to home and home....ummm as long as I can remember that's the way it's been. The only difference this season is they don't play consecutive nights. Second error, the Gayzette tabbed tonight's game as the series' finale. Ummmm, we play DU twice more this season, not how I would define "series' finale", I know they were trying to sound dramatic, but that's stupid.
So tonight the Tigers take on DU(D) at the World Arena on ESPNU with a (hopefully) big national audience. Although I really want the Tigers to win, what I want more is an intense, high-speed, high-skill game to showcase our teams and the WCHA to the rest of the country who never gets a chance to watch us!
Speaking of rivalries, the reason why I want it to be a great game is because when one team has a down cycle, it's not so much a rivalry. For example, my Huskers got stomped by Oklahoma last night because OU is amazing and Callahan ruined our program so we are still rebuilding. Getting blown out 62-28 isn't fun, but when OU was in their down time, NU stomped 'em 69-7 in 1997 and 73-21 the year before. That's just how it goes. But anything is better than being a cu fan, what a joke!!
Here's the links from Friday's 1-1 tie
CHN Live Blog
USCHO, BOX
CC ATHLETICS

The Tigers' 4-0 start, combined with some slip ups in the top 3, has vaulted them into the #1 spot in the nation in the USA Today, USCHO and INCH Power Rankings (sorry DU Super Poll, you're bias just like the liberal press haha). Hopefully coach Owens can keep the team focused for...the ENTIRE season with the number 1 ranking. Great to be number one, but it's only October.
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.

October 20, 2008

No.	Team (First-place votes)	Points	Last Poll
1.	Colorado College (31)	504	3
2.	Denver (1)	469	4
3.	New Hampshire (1)	427	6
4.	Boston College (1)	415	1
5.	Michigan	374	2
6.	Minnesota	326	9
7.	Boston University	319	5
8.	Notre Dame	277	8
9.	Princeton	193	12
10.	Miami	191	7
11.	Northeastern	139	NR
12.	Vermont	125	NR
13.	Minnesota State	94	15
14.	Michigan State	87	11
15.	North Dakota	28	13

Also receiving votes: St. Cloud State 25, Cornell 19, Air Force 17, Clarkson 15, Minnesota Duluth 15, Northern Michigan 13, Harvard 4, UMass Lowell 4.

USCHO.com/CBS College Sports Poll

October 20, 2008

No.	Team (First-place votes)	Points	Last Poll
1.	Colorado College (39)	976	3
2.	Denver (5)	928	4
3.	Boston College (3)	868	1
4.	New Hampshire (2)	840	6
5.	Michigan (1)	810	2
6.	Boston University	726	5
7.	Minnesota	694	9
8.	Notre Dame	693	8
9.	Princeton	480	10
10.	Miami	472	7
11.	Vermont	388	17
12.	Michigan State	369	11
13.	Minnesota State	365	15
14.	Northeastern	312	NR
15.	St. Cloud State	246	12
16.	North Dakota	232	13
17.	Cornell	197	16
18.	Northern Michigan	196	19
19.	Clarkson	184	14
20.	Harvard	114	18

Also receiving votes: Minnesota Duluth 109, Air Force 107, Colgate 29, Nebraska-Omaha 28, UMass Lowell 26, Wisconsin 25, St. Lawrence 24, Massachusetts 19, Alaska Anchorage 18, Maine 7, Niagara 7, Alaska 6, Dartmouth 3, Providence 1, Union 1.

CC Sweeps Michigan Tech
Walsky Scores Two in Victory
by Theresa Spisak/WCHA Correspondent

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Oct. 18) — It took a third-period rally, but the Colorado College Tigers completed their weekend sweep over the Michigan Tech Huskies with a 4-2 victory at World Arena Saturday night.

“I thought we did a pretty good job,” said Tiger coach Scott Owens. “It’s a team that’s pretty calm and it’s a team that’s got a lot of veteran presence and I thought we did okay.”

The Tigers started off the scoring three and a half minutes into the game with a power-play goal. Eric Walsky skated the puck through the slot and wristed it past MTU netminder Rob Nolan to give CC a 1-0 lead.

After that initial goal, both teams exchanged chances for the rest of the period with CC getting the best opportunity with seven and a half minutes left when the puck went behind Nolan, but never fully crossed the goal line.

“He played great,” said Huskies coach Jamie Russell of Nolan. “He played extremely well. He kept us in the game last night especially in the second and third period. [We got a] real solid 120 minutes from him this weekend.

“He stepped up. A lot of people were questioning him and I think he certainly answered that emphatically this weekend.”

The Huskies got on the board 2:34 into the middle frame two seconds after an early five-on-three advantage ended when Jordan Baker scored in the midst of a goalmouth scrum.

“That’s the thing. It was an unbelievable five-on-three kill — by [Scott] McCulloch in particular — and then all of a sudden, it’s you let down a little bit, Billy [Sweatt] ‘s just getting out of the box and they get a goalmouth scramble goal,” said Owens.

“It’s a little frustrating because we worked so hard at that.”

However, the Tigers regained the lead just 2:45 into the third period when Sweatt sniped a shot top-corner over Nolan’s left shoulder.

Then, at the halfway point of the period, Stephen Schultz extended the Tigers’ lead to two on a power-play goal with a shot from the bottom of the far faceoff circle.

“I saw the space; [Nolan’s a] small goaltender and [Andreas Vlassopoulos] gave me enough time … to step out, square myself and shoot him short-side,” said Schultz.

Russell called a timeout with 2:31 left in the frame to pull Nolan for the extra attacker. The move paid off when Brett Olson fired a shot through traffic past Tiger goaltender Richard Bachman with 21.2 seconds remaining. However, CC sealed the victory on Walsky’s second tally of the game — an empty-net goal with 1.8 seconds remaining.

“You’re down two goals and we had the faceoff in zone and we did a very good job and got a goal to pull within one. and for 21 seconds we did a very good job going forward with the faceoff with the puck deep in their end,” said Russell. “And [then] they flip the puck probably 195 feet and it goes in our net.

“But we did a good job. We scrapped and fought right to the end … I thought our effort was there for 60 minutes.”

“I thought the period break came at the right time for us to regroup,” said Owens. “Then I thought we came out from the first shift on and established ourselves. I thought we played hard. We played our hardest in the sixth period of the weekend.”

The Tigers next travel to Potsdam, N.Y., for a two game series against Clarkson while the Huskies host the U.S. Under-18 Team.