Monday's Rankings

From 3-8-08 CC vrs...

The Tigers jumped to #2 in the INCH Power Rankings

CC is tied with Michigan in the PairWise Rankings

The Let'sGoDU Top 10 Super Poll surprises the world and puts the Tigers #1

USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Poll
March 10, 2008

No.	Team (First-place votes)	Points	Last Poll
1.	Michigan (15)	483	2
2.	North Dakota (9)	457	1
3.	Colorado College (9)	451	5
4.	New Hampshire	417	3
5.	Miami (1)	385	4
6.	Michigan State	324	6
7.	Clarkson	304	8
8.	Denver	258	7
9.	Boston College	207	9
10.	St. Cloud State	196	11
11.	Minnesota State	194	10
12.	Notre Dame	126	12
13.	Boston University	86	NR
14.	Wisconsin	80	13
15.	Minnesota	45	14

Also receiving votes: Princeton 16, Minnesota Duluth 12, Harvard 6, Ferris State 5, Niagara 3, Vermont 3, Army 2

USCHO.com/CSTV Poll

March 10, 2008

No.	Team (First-place votes)	Points	Last Poll
1.	Michigan (19)	964	2
2.	North Dakota (20)	936	1
3.	Colorado College (9)	898	5
4.	Miami (2)	857	4
5.	New Hampshire	843	3
6.	Michigan State	726	6
7.	Clarkson	676	8
8.	Denver	623	7
9.	St. Cloud State	541	11
10.	Boston College	538	10
10.	Minnesota State	538	9
12.	Notre Dame	432	12
13.	Wisconsin	383	13
14.	Boston University	330	16
15.	Minnesota	299	14
16.	Princeton	257	15
17.	Harvard	164	19
18.	Minnesota Duluth	156	18
19.	Vermont	103	NR
20.	Providence	46	17

Also receiving votes: Niagara 45, Ferris State 29, Army 23, Massachusetts 17, Michigan Tech 14, Cornell 13, Northeastern 12, Quinnipiac 10, Air Force 8, Union 7, Bemidji State 4, RIT 3, Bowling Green 2, Nebraska-Omaha 2, UMass Lowell 1.

New PairWise Rankings

Rk	Team	PWR	Rk	W-L-T	Win %	Rk	RPI
1	Michigan	24	2	23-3-4	.8333	1	.6023*
2	Miami	23	1	25-4-1	.8500	2	.5996*
3	New Hampshire	22	4	18-7-1	.7115	6	.5734
4	Colorado College	21	3	21-8-1	.7167	3	.5883
5	Denver	20	5	19-8-1	.6964	4	.5808
6	North Dakota	19	7	17-8-2	.6667	5	.5793
7	Michigan State	16	8	18-8-5	.6613	8	.5522
8t	Boston College	15	9	15-6-7	.6607	7	.5561
8t	Minnesota State	15	14	15-10-4	.5862	10	.5452
8t	Minnesota-Duluth	15	20t	11-9-6	.5385	12	.5396
11t	Notre Dame	13	10	20-10-2	.6562	9	.5507
11t	Wisconsin	13	24	13-11-6	.5333	11	.5404
11t	Clarkson	13	12	16-9-3	.6250	13	.5379
14t	Quinnipiac	11	6	17-7-4	.6786	14	.5336
14t	Providence	11	15t	13-10-3	.5577	16	.5275
16	Princeton	10	13	14-9-0	.6087	15	.5307
17	Northeastern	9	15t	13-10-3	.5577	18	.5271
18	St. Cloud State	8	32t	12-13-3	.4821	17	.5273
19t	Minnesota	6	31	12-13-7	.4844	19	.5255
19t	Mass.-Lowell	6	20t	12-10-4	.5385	20	.5197
21	Massachusetts	4	27t	10-10-6	.5000	21	.5185
22	Michigan Tech	3	38	10-13-5	.4464	22	.5175
23	Cornell	2	19	11-9-3	.5435	23	.5089
24	Niagara	1	11	16-8-3	.6481	24	.5079
25	Nebraska-Omaha	0	27t	13-13-4	.5000	25	.5044

More Honors for Tigers-PairWise Out

Testwuide picked up another honor as the WCHA Offensive Player of the week and was joined by Jack Hillen as the WCHA Defensive Player of the Week.

WCHA.com
Red Baron WCHA Offensive Player of the Week
Mike Testwuide
So., F, Colorado College

MADISON, Wisc. - Colorado College right winger Mike Testwuide, who scored four goals and produced a series total of five scoring points as the Tigers' posted a two-game home-ice sweep of No. 10-ranked Clarkson last weekend, has been named Red Baron WCHA Offensive Player of the Week for Feb. 5-11.

A 6-3, 216-pound sophomore from Vail, Colo., Testwuide scored twice in each game for the No. 4-ranked Tigers against the ECACHL-leading Golden Knights, including the game-winner last Saturday (Feb. 2) evening when he also added an assist for a five-point weekend. He also fired a total of 16 shots on goal in the two wins, was the game's first star on Feb. 2 and third star on Feb. 1, and earned a +3 plus-minus rating. Skating for the first time on CC's newly-formed first line with Chad Rau and Bill Sweatt, he launched 12 shots on goal in last Friday's 5-2 victory and then had four more in last Saturday's 6-1 triumph.

On the 2007-08 season, Testwuide has now scored six goals and assisted on five others for 11 points in 20 games played.

Also nominated for the award this week were: Geoff Irwin, F, MSU.

Red Baron WCHA Defensive Player of the Week
Jack Hillen
Sr., D, Colorado College

Jack Hillen, a senior defenseman at Colorado College, has earned Red Baron WCHA Defensive Player of the Week honors for Feb. 5-11 as a result of his outstanding efforts in a two-game non-conference 5-2, 6-1 sweep over visiting and No. 10-ranked Clarkson last weekend. Hillen also earned the weekly honor on Dec. 18.

A 5-10, 192-pound senior from Minnetonka, Minn., Hillen collected two assists in each game for four points, was 4-of-4 on his penalty-killing shifts, was credited with three hits and one blocked shot, earned a +2 plus-minus rating, and fired six shots on goal. One of his four assists came on teammate Mike Testwuide's eventual game-winning goal last Saturday (Feb. 2) night in the Tigers' 6-1 victory over the Golden Knights.

Hillen's four-point weekend vaulted him into first place in overall scoring among WCHA defensemen this season with three goals, 20 assists and 23 points while playing in all 28 games. He has at least one point in 17 games overall, including the last four straight, and has also logged eight assists in Colorado College's last six games.

Also nominated for the award this week were: Jon Olthuis, G, UAA; Alex Stalock, G, UMD; R.J. Linder, D, MSU; and Shane Connelly, G, UW.

Also of note are the newest PairWise Rankings from UCHO. CC moved back up to 3rd, tied with New Hampshire. Think that early season sweep is looming large?
Complete list here

USCO Unveils PairWise Rankings. Guess Who's Number 1?!

The USCHO unveiled their own Pairwise rankings today along with the RPI for each team. When all is factored in the theoretical number one team for the NCAA Tournament is...the Colorado College Tigers, in a tie with Michigan. Check out the full rankings and explanations here
And the RPI (Rating Percentage Index) here, where the Tigers also rank numero uno.

Weekend swept away

The only positive that can come out of this weekend was that Minnesota is probably the best team in the country, however, being swept at home is never ever a positive thing. The Tigers held it to 0-0 until near the end of the 2nd period when they let in 2 goals in under 5 minutes. However, the Tigers scored 2 quick goals in the first 8 minutes of the 3rd period to tie it but Minnesota got the win with a goal 22 seconds later that proved to be the game winner. It's too bad that CC missed a chance to gain points this weekend. A win against Minnesota would have given them a quality win and better placement in the PairWise rankings but instead they are now facing the strong possibility of not making the NCAA tournament. We are going to need nothing less than a sweep this next weekend against Minnesota State or we can kidd the post season goodbye. The Tigers are now (16-13-3).

As far as attendance and my goal of creating fan interest: the Arena had 7809 fans tonight which is a good jump over the 7790 the night before (both were sellouts so it's nice to see it over capacity). I need to do some digging into season tickets since it looks like Saturdays are consistently higher in number which alludes to Sat. only packages. The one thing I'm worried about is how many of these fans were Gopher fans. I've been to games against those teams from the North and have often felt outnumbered. If anyone has any stories from the game I would love to hear em! (either side)

In Case you haven't seen: current PairWise rankings

CC is currently sitting the the 11th spot in the rankings and, if the season ended today, would probably, be in the national tournament. However, there are bonus points for beating quality teams that have not been factored in. These could help CC because of a 2-game sweep of Michigan State, but the Spartans currently sit at 12th. Because of automatic bids recieved by the winners of each conference, it is important for the Tigers to remain above number 11 to be considered "safe" when selection time comes. However, nothing is for sure but two wins this weekend against Minnesota (#2polls, #2PairWise) will certainly boost the Tigers in the polls.
http://www.uscho.com/rankings/pwr.php

A quick look at the next games

As most of you know, the Tigers are taking on the rival Minnesota Golden Gophers this coming Friday and Saturday nights. Of course coaching is the underlying theme of this series since Minnesota's Don Lucia was the Tigers coach from 1993-1999. In that time the Tigers won the regular season WCHA title 3 times (his first three seasons). After Don's first season, the Tigers made the NCAA tournament every year for the rest of his tenure, they finished 2nd in 95/96 and 3rd in 96/97. The second place finish was the heartbreaking loss to Michigan. He has had even better success at the helm in Minnesota as the Gophers won the national title in 00/01 and again in 01/02. They have reached the NCAA tournament in all but his first season as head coach and have also won the WCHA tournament 02/03 and 03/04. Only this past season has he won the regular season title with the Gophers. Currently, the Gophers are riding a 2-game win streak after sweeping Alaska Anchorage 8-2 and 2-1. According to the USCHO poll, Minnesota is currently #2 in the nation with a record of 23-5-3. The Tigers dropped to 14th after coming off a 1 point weekend but do have the leagues best home record on their side. As far as conference standings, Minnesota is #1 with 33 points, followed by St. Cloud with 29, Denver with 27 and CC with 26. This weekend's games are extremely important in both the Pairwise rankings as well as the conference race for the MacNaughton Cup.