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Quick recap of the night then I'm off to bed.
Tigers 3, Colgate 2
The Tigers looked absolutely awful in the first period tonight, landing only 3 shots on goal, by far the fewest ever for a period that I've ever watched in person. They rebounded nicely in the 2nd and played pretty decent in the third. Bachman was hung out on the 2 goals but made an unbelievable arm save on a semi-breakaway, wish I had the video of it because it was SportsCenter worthy X10! Met a couple from Nebraska sporting their Husker gear which was pretty cool. Speaking of that, I have a review about Tigers on Tejon coming this week, I was finally able to make a trip in while I was back for Thanksgiving. How does that relate to NU? Read the article and see! I'll have a more detailed wrap-up of the weekend either late Sunday night or early in the week. And for the record, the Tigers don't look like a top 10 team right now. They are out of synch and grasping for plays (but they are still skating well). I wouldn't be suprised to see them take a tumble to 8, 9 or 10 in this Monday's polls.
I'm driving back to Durango tomorrow so it will be an early night before heading to work by 7AM Monday. Couple of links below for some reading in the meantime. Oh, and in case you're wondering, Air Force lost 4-1 to DU tonight, ending the unbeaten streak.
CC Athletics recap
USCHO scoreboard
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 fell 4-1 to the undefeated Falcons tonight, ending their winning streak that dates back to the early 80s. The Tigers continue to struggle on Friday nights. More to come as the links are posted, for now, here's the USCHO scoreboard.
The Tigers and their bi-polar personalities remained at #3 this week and north-side rival Air Force crept up to #11 setting up a heck of a cross-town game Friday night. More about that later in the week. I was planning on going up to Clune for the game while I'm back on the Front Range but apparently the game is sold out as of last week, if anyone has the 411 on some tickets let me know! Either way, it's a monster game from the perspective of CS bragging rights and the long losing streak AFA has endured against the dominate area team. Should be intense!
As promised, the rankings:
INCH Power Rankings (for what they're worth...)
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. 24, 2008
| No. | Team (First-place votes) | Points | Last Poll |
| 1. | Minnesota (30) | 498 | 1 |
| 2. | Notre Dame | 446 | 6 |
| 3. | Colorado College (1) | 404 | 3 |
| 4. | Northeastern | 395 | 5 |
| 5. | Miami (1) | 374 | 7 |
| 6. | Boston College | 332 | 4 |
| 7. | Princeton (1) | 328 | 8 |
| 8. | Boston University | 273 | 2 |
| 9. | Minnesota State | 218 | 11 |
| 10. | Denver | 200 | 10 |
| 11. | Air Force (1) | 160 | 12 |
| 12. | Cornell | 154 | 14 |
| 13. | Vermont | 116 | NR |
| 14. | Nebraska-Omaha | 58 | NR |
| 15. | Michigan | 57 | 9 |
Also receiving votes: New Hampshire 53, Massachusetts 8, Alaska Anchorage 3, Harvard 1, St. Cloud State 1, Yale 1.
USCHO.com/CBS College Sports Poll
Nov. 24, 2008
| No. | Team (First-place votes) | Points | Last Poll |
| 1. | Minnesota (41) | 984 | 1 |
| 2. | Notre Dame (2) | 867 | 5 |
| 3. | Colorado College (1) | 825 | 3 |
| 4. | Northeastern | 815 | 6 |
| 5. | Boston College | 778 | 4 |
| 6. | Miami (1) | 759 | 7 |
| 7. | Princeton (3) | 710 | 8 |
| 8. | Boston University (1) | 692 | 2 |
| 9. | Denver | 555 | 10 |
| 10. | Minnesota State | 538 | 11 |
| 11. | Air Force (1) | 515 | 12 |
| 12. | Cornell | 455 | 14 |
| 13. | Vermont | 430 | 15 |
| 14. | Michigan | 350 | 9 |
| 15. | New Hampshire | 286 | 13 |
| 16. | Nebraska-Omaha | 254 | 19 |
| 17. | Massachusetts | 239 | 16 |
| 18. | St. Cloud State | 179 | 17 |
| 19. | Alaska Anchorage | 58 | NR |
| 20. | Dartmouth | 46 | NR |
Also receiving votes: Harvard 41, UMass Lowell 39, Maine 30, North Dakota 17, Alaska 14, Minnesota Duluth 10, Yale 6, Quinnipiac 5, Niagara 2, Ohio State 1.
Some interesting news is brewing in the NCAA Tournament offices today as a potential reconfiguring of placement could take place for this next tournament. The reasoning? Travel expenses. The argument is that teams should be placed in geographic proximity instead of for bracket integrity. One scenario INCH published found that the West Regional last season would have had CC, DU, AFA and NoDak at World Arena instead of UNH, Notre Dame and Michigan State. It might make travel sense but it isolates fan bases and could be a disaster for ratings and provide even more conference canniblization. INCH has the full rundown.
The WCHA quickly issued a response and will meet about a counter-plan tonight.
“At first blush, it doesn’t sound good for our sport,” said Denver coach George Gwozdecky. “If the WCHA has six teams in the tournament and only two emerge from the west, you might not have the best four teams in the nation at the Frozen Four.”
The article also mentions a possibility that the tournament could move back to campus sites instead of regionals for the first rounds. I actually like that idea, and the more I think about it, the more I REALLY like that idea. It gives you an even greater incentive to play well in the regular season so you can continue on "true" home ice (not like CC last season when the World Arena was transformed into one giant NCAA advertisment and hardly felt like home). It would be similar to the NFL playoffs. The article also mentions a good point: with the regionals, the already niche fan-base is fractured even more and empty, quiet arenas ensue. Not good for the sport. You can read the full WCHA response in the INCH WCHA Notebook.
The University of Alberta rides into southern Colorado Springs tonight to face the Tigers in an exhibition contest. Alberta has been on a three night trip down the Front Range and has yet to win against the strong Colorado teams. They had their best chance Saturday night against DU until the Pios scored the winning goal with 1.8 seconds left to win 5-4. Sunday night, Alberta was on the north side and was taken down by AFA 3-1. The Tigers hope to send them back to Edmonton 0-for-3 and get tuned up for the regular season. It will be interesting to see how CC plays, whether they will treat it like a WCHA game or go easy and just work the bugs out. I would be suprised to see Bachman play the entire game, though it certaintly doesn't hurt getting game-speed practice in.
Also, Bachman and Hobey-snubbed Chad Rau were named first team on the Preseason All CHN Team.
Bachman gets some ink in the Denver Post with regard to DU's new goalie Marc Cheverie and what may have been and what will be.
J.P. Testwuide is one of 4 Pios who were suspended for their game Saturday.
Couple fun facts about hockey there;
The Golden Bears have won a record 13 CIS University Cup Championships.
The women's hockey team it the Alberta Pandas.
Read a little about the downtown Edmonton school here.
