Sometimes a Good Spanking is All You Need

CC needed bad weekend
By DAVID RAMSEY

Sometimes, a smack upside the head is just what a team requires.

Colorado College's Tigers tumbled to consecutive defeats at the Final Five in St. Paul, Minn. They were, during one lost weekend, blindsided by all their faults.

Good for them.

This two-loss debacle is exactly what the team needs to fuel a run to the Frozen Four in Denver.

Everything is in place for the short journey to Pepsi Center. The Tigers are blessed with experience, talent and home-ice advantage. To top it off, they enjoy the blessing of a wicked yet wonderful jolt of reality.

No. 2 regional seed CC plays No. 3 seed Michigan State, the defending national champion, at World Arena at 8 p.m. Friday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

The Tigers delivered one of the grandest regular seasons in school history. They beat archrival University of Denver, the evil empire, in three of four games, claimed the Western Collegiate Hockey Association regular-season title by four points and roared into the Final Five with the expectation of glorious triumph.

What a difference a weekend makes.

In the hallway outside CC's locker room, forward Scott McCulloch talked softly about the losses. He was, he said, "embarrassed."

On March 8, the Tigers danced at World Arena with the MacNaughton Cup, symbol of their WCHA supremacy. Two weeks later, they stumbled off the ice in St. Paul, losers of two straight.

"It's always good to be brought back to earth for everybody," McCulloch said. "When you're winning, as much as you try not to, you start thinking you're unbeatable."

Despite recent bad times, the Tigers retain every reason to believe. They're 18-2 at World Arena.

Belief is the message offered by coach Scott Owens. He walks to a steady hockey beat, declining to soar too high or sink too low.

He's sticking to his beat, even after the losses. He's offended by the suggestion his Tigers were "jolted" at the Final Five.

"I'm probably not quite the alarmist that you are," he said. "We did not have success last weekend - there's no doubt - but we didn't play that poorly."

Don't think Owens is oblivious to his team's faults. He was bothered by his team's casual approach at the Final Five.

The Tigers, Owens said, weren't scrappy enough. They declined to swarm the net. They didn't play with the focused rage that carried them to a WCHA regular-season title.

Still, Owens hasn't transformed this week into an angry, middle-aged man. He's veering as far away as he can from, borrowing his words, "a negative over-reaction." He swears he's not worried.

"You know what," Owens said, leaning forward in his office chair. "I'm optimistic. When you look at the sum of our work, I'm optimistic that we will play well at home."

While the MacNaughton Cup rested behind him, Owens leaned back and asked himself two questions.
Is he depressed?

No.

Is he berating his players?

No.

Owens will not be moved. He's sticking, as always, to the hopeful approach.

He knows he lives in perilous times. One loss and World Arena will change from a happy hockey destination to a big, cold, sad room. One loss and a season of promise crashes to a halt.

Owens smiled.

"We're back in familiar surroundings," he said. "And I feel pretty good."

We'll soon see if he has grounds for all this radical calm.