"Floating Tiger Head" in the basement

A recent poll of WCHA logos by The Hockey News ranked CC as having the worst logo in the league with the explanation that "True, they’re one of the oldest teams in the NCAA and their logo reflects it, but it’s not the best tiger in the world." It may not be the best out there, but their logic is retarded. Did I mention that the Gophers' upside-down W was the first? Personally I think North Dakota and Duluth are the top two and DU is last (no, not because they suck but because they are the Pioneers and their logo is a hawk, bring back Denver Boone!) CC's tiger may not be the fiercest, but one look and you know the team is the Tigers. If I get a chance this week I'll rank em myself based on style and function with no bias, so stay tuned.
However, I think that we do have the best goalie mask in the country!












Summer is nearing an end, be sure to VOTE FOR THE NEW SITE!!
Expect the new blog site to launch shortly after Labor Day weekend!

Game Day notes

• The USCHO takes a look at this week in the WCHA as well as a commentary on the suspended players from Theresa Spisak below:

While it could be argued that the conference is having a bit of a down year with the exception of a few teams, it looks like even the top teams in the conference aren’t trouble-free.

It came down recently that Colorado College will be without two of its players for the rest of the regular season and one until next year. Senior forward Derek Patrosso was suspended until March 12 and junior forward Cody Lampl until January 2009 for violations of the school’s student conduct code.

Given that the Tigers have been one of the more successful teams in the WCHA this year, what does this mean for them? According to CC coach Scott Owens, not much.

“Both [players] are going to be missed as teammates and friends,” he said. “It’s going to affect our depth at forward a little bit, but if we’re deep at any place, it’s at the forward position with 16 forwards.

“With Billy [Sweatt] in the World Juniors and a couple injuries recently, we got through probably as thin as we’re going to be all year this last weekend,” Owens elaborated, talking about his team’s second- place finish in the Lightning Classic in Tampa.

“It affects our quality depth a little bit, but we’re deep. I’m not saying it isn’t going to affect us, but I feel comfortable with what we have and adjustments that we can make that we’ll be fine.”

“Just some other people have got to pick up the slack,” he added matter-of-factly.

• And, the CC Athletics website takes a look at every single bit of Tiger information that you can dream up on their weekly assessment of the upcoming UW series.
• One last blogger note, I will be out with friends from out-of-state tonight so I won't be able to post info from the game at the time of finish. But don't worry, I will make up for it later in the weekend! Go Tigers!
• Oh and yes I did notice 2 typos in my survey at the top of the page, the poll creator is a huge pain in the butt to create and edit so just pretend you don't see em ;)
  

New USCHO Polls

The Tigers move up two places to #7 in this week's USCHO poll. Wisconsin comes in at #9 after a weekend split with now #5 North Dakota. This week, the WCHA lands 7 of the top 20 teams in the nation. Not bad eh? Complete rankings here

New Rankings and the weekend wrap-up

Not much changed this weekend in the USCHO poll this week for the Tigers as they remained number 9 (same as the USA Today poll as well). Miami Ohio remained in the top spot while North Dakota fell from 2nd to 3rd, with Michigan leap-frogging to that spot. The Tigers opponent this weekend, Minnesota Duluth, is currently ranked 15th in both polls.
The WCHA blog takes a look at the WCHA this past weekend and the importance of the Tigers gaining the split in their "marquee matchup."

New polls with a new numero uno

Previous number 1 North Dakota finds themselves dropping to number 2 in this week's USCHO/CSTV poll after falling to Teslak and Michigan Tech Saturday night. Miami of Ohio pounded UNO and jumped to number 1. I know nothing about this team (didn't really know they even had a team) so I will have to rely on the USCHO game stories to find out about them. Evil Michigan is number three (and deserves no link). After coming crashing back to reality this weekend, the Tigers find themselves at #9 behind Minnesota and DU at 8 and 7 respectively. Wisconsin rounds out the top 10 leaving the WCHA with 5 of the top 10 in this week's poll. Gotta love the WCHA, maybe we can get an all-conference Frozen Four again this year!!

	Team	(First Place Votes)	Record	Points	Last Poll
1	Miami	(39)	6-0-0	910	2
2	North Dakota	( 4)	3-1-1	833	1
3	Michigan		5-1-0	810	3
4	New Hampshire	( 3)	3-0-0	806	7
5	Boston College		3-1-2	722	5
6	Michigan State		4-1-0	682	8
7	Denver		4-2-0	591	6
8	Minnesota		4-2-0	589	10
9	Colorado College		2-2-0	522	4
10	Wisconsin		3-1-0	501	11
11	Clarkson		4-2-0	436	9
12	Maine		4-2-0	419	13
13	Michigan Tech		4-2-0	356	14
14	Notre Dame		4-3-0	344	12
15	Minnesota-Duluth		4-1-1	308	17
16	St. Lawrence		3-3-0	169	15
17	Rensselaer		5-2-0	134	NR
18	Niagara		4-1-0	83	NR
19	St. Cloud State		3-2-1	82	NR
20	Massachusetts		2-2-2	73	16
Others Receiving Votes: Dartmouth 51, Ohio State 45, Alaska-Anchorage 39, Air Force 36, Cornell 25, Mass.-Lowell 25, RIT 15, Holy Cross 10, Colgate 7, Quinnipiac 7, Vermont 7, Boston University 6, Merrimack 6, Nebraska-Omaha 3, Princeton 3, Northeastern 2, Robert Morris 2, Providence 1

Season starts in full force

Well the 2 "pre-season" exhibition games are over and now the season starts in full force with national powerhouse Minnesota charging into town for the weekend. Should be a good opportunity to see what our Tigers are made of right out of the gate. Regardless of the outcome, this can't be a disaster for the Tigers, even if they are swept. Having an opponent of this caliber the first week will start them out high and prepare them for the rest of the season. Also, being the first weekend, there is plenty of time for the Tigers to come back if disaster strikes and they don't win a game. It will be a great battle and I'm sure there will be plenty of Minnesota fans descending on the Springs this week. I have never had the opportunity to be at one of these games so it should be a blast, great atmosphere and great hockey!
The Tigers won their two warm-up games and the young kids seemed to do pretty well.
You can find the quick recap of the games at the CC hockey page.

Look for a feature this week regarding the recent history between the Tigers and the Gophers. Thanks for your support of this blog and I'm looking forward to hitting the regular season strong!

Blog Alert!

My Google Alerts pointed me toward a WCHA blog that's pretty good. The article I read was about ranking the WCHA arenas and about the World Arena at 7. It's a well written article and a well organized site, so check it out!

It will be added to the links section shortly, as well as the Gazette blog that seems to have died.

A look into some future WCHA faces

Saturday night I got the opportunity to check out the Lincoln Stars take on Sioux Falls in the 3rd game of their USHL playoff series. There were numerous players on the ice who we will be seeing in the WCHA shortly. Currently on the Stars roster are; Jason Gregoire who is listed as a 2007 recruit and will play for DU and Steve Shultz who will be joining CC in the future.
Sioux Falls also had numerous players: Nick Dineen, who will be playing for CC, Alex Kangas-a goalie who will be playing for Minnesota. There may have been more but it's hard to find an accurate and up-to-date recruiting site, thanks for the comments updating my lack-of-USHL knowledge. Also, they had a very amusing intermission show with a human slingshot and one small girl that got launched hit super hard and bounced off; fortunately I had my camera with me so take a look!

ND's Duncan wins Hobey

At least one thing went right for North Dakota and the WCHA. Ryan Duncan walked away with the Hobey Baker award for the best college hockey player in the country. By the way ESPN was talking about BC's team, one would have thought their entire team would have won it! As of Thurday night, it seemed that Notre Dame's goaltender David Brown would have had it because of their steller season, sitting at #1 for the last half of the season. Notre Dame is another team that I can't stand because of their unjustified media attention that seems to follow them everywhere (in football, when was the last time they won a bowl game?!) Air Force's Eric Ehn was also one of the final three. This suprised me because, being a Coloradan, one would think I would know who he was. Nope, never had heard of his Hobey qualities. Just a hunch but maybe the voters suffered from a similar lack of knowledge like me. The National Championship is tonight, pitting evil BC against Michigan State. I'm hoping the Spartans can pull it out because I don't think I could tolerate hearing about BC being national champs all summer long!

Game over for WCHA

It was a battle until the end but the evil east knocked off the WCHA as BC used 2 empty net goals to seal the victory over North Dakota. The end of the game was the biggest moment in this one. Down 1 goal, ND had an empty net and BC cleared the puck with what appeared to be icing. Instead, a BC player (I don't really care about their names) beat the Sioux back and put it in the empty net. Seconds later, North Dakota scored and was within 1 with 16 seconds left leaving all of us to wonder what could have happened had they not be slow on the strange play earlier. BC sealed it off with another empty-netter with 3 seconds left. This leaves the champtionship to be decided between BC and Michigan State. Personally I will be going for State since it's been forever since their last title. The WCHA streak of titles is over at 5 straight. It's too bad but the future is bright for the WCHA and we will be back in force next season to take over Pepsi Center!

On the eve of the 'Four

Tomorrow at 2pm Mountain Time the Frozen Four will officially kick of with Maine and Michigan State then followed at 6pm by the WCHA rep. North Dakota and much hyped Boston College. As ESPN does a brief overview of the games, I would love to open it up and see what everyone thinks will happen tomorrow and then Saturday night. Personally, I will pick Maine to take out Michigan State in a close game early. The reason for this is not because I want it to happen (I don't like the east teams that have a media following) but simply because of experience. Maine is consistly in the top 10 each season and has won a National Title recently. However, State does have an experienced coach that will keep it close and I would love to see them pull it out but I think they will be slightly overmatched in this one.
Later tomorrow night I am going to pick the WCHA North Dakota Fighting ----- (they lost their appeal so who knows what they will be next year). This boils down to a hatred of all things BC on all the websites and highlights and wanting the WCHA to win it all again. Also, ND took down a rolling Minnesota team and has really come together late in the year, a team that I personally thought wouldn't even make the WCHA tournament not too long ago. BC plays a weaker schedule and I think will be worn down in a close game, but I'll take ND somewhere in the range of 5-3. I will also pick them to win it all over Maine Saturday night; they will be on a roll and Maine will be tired after beating a pesky up-and-coming Michigan State team. These are my unscientific picks, let's hear yours!

The wait until the NCAA Frozen Four is Almost Over

I know some of us are dying to watch the games this Thursday night and get some more college hockey in before summer starts. I hate how they have this large gap in the tournament but it is understandable because of the basketball madness going on. In the meantime, check out this nice article about college hockey recruiting. I follow the football side of things and thought that was nuts, but they don't sign players to contracts at 14 like the big time Canada teams do, it's crazy stuff. Let's hope the recruiting this past year helps bring CC back into the NCAA Frozen Four next year so we will be waiting the see US play and not a WCHA rival!

Busy Time for Lee Sweatt

During last week's Final Five in Minnesota, there was at least one CC player represented in the tournament. Lee Sweatt recieved the WCHA Most Outstanding Student Athlete of the Year Award riding a 3.8 GPA studying mathematical economics. He also gained All-WCHA Third Team recognition, helped out by his 24 points on the season.
Just as this award was sinking in, Sweatt was given the opportunity to tryout for the San Antonio Rampage, which plays in the American Hockey League and is the "farm team"/ affiliate for the Phoenix Coyotes. His course work is all completed and will walk at graduation in May and then be on his way hopefully for a professional hockey career.

Frozen Four Set

The 2007 Frozen Four is all set to begin Thursday night in St. Louis. The WCHA is left with one surviving team out of 3. North Dakota took out regular and postseason WCHA Champ Minnesota in OT on Sunday night to return to the Frozen Four once again. They are joined by Michigan State (who took out Notre Dame), Boston College and Maine. North Dakota is the clear powerhouse here with 7 national titles (all the rest each have 2) and coming out of a conference that was won the last 5 National Championships and 6 out of the last 7. BC and Maine won in 2001 and 1999 respectively. Michigan State is the underdog of the 4, last winning a title in 1986 but having been to the Frozen Four last in 2001. It will be a great final 3 games beginning Thursday afternoon at 2pm MST on ESPN2 followed by BC and ND at 6pm MST. Personally I am pulling for ND because of the WCHA conference and I hate the east coast teams, if you can believe that I could hate a team from the east haha. I'm excited that the games will be on ESPN2 and aren't going to be in the middle of the day like when CC and DU played a few years back. The final will be Saturday night at 5pm MST on ESPN and hopefully help give college hockey more exposure!

Gophers come back to spoil Falcons upset bid

Air Force came out in full force in their first ever NCAA Tournament appearence and almost got away with a win against the Minnesota Gophers at the Pepsi Center Saturday. It looked like it may happen when AF took a 3-1 lead 5 minutes into the 3rd period until the Gophers woke up and scored three goals to finish off the Falcons and avoid a 2nd straight 1st round loss in the NCAA Tournament, nonetheless to another AHA team. This was an interesting game for a fan of CO hockey simply because it pitted a home town team against the WCHA powerhouse from the north. Personally, I would have liked to see AF win since it was their first time ever in the tourney, but I really like to see the WCHA do well, even if Minnesota has dominated almost everyone this year. At least it's not DU right?!

In other conference news, St. Cloud State was eliminated in the first round, falling 4-1 to the Maine Black Bears on Friday night, leaving the WCHA with 2 surviving teams. When I wrote this entry, North Dakota was up on evil Michigan 7-5 early in the 3rd period.

NCAA Tournament Selection

With the NCAA Tournament ready to start in full force, it's always fun to look at the selection process and drama that some teams had to endure. There are a few things that I have found to be a little off about this tourney. Granted, I'm not a selection process expert and will never try to be, but I have to wonder why the WCHA was only give 3 spots since it is widely considered to be THE top conference in the country and had 5 teams finish the season strong. Based on late season play, Wisconsin should have gotten a bid and even Denver could have been given serious consideration. I know I've seen numerous articles talking about this topic. Hockey East has 5 teams from a conference that is almost universally considered a weaker conference than the WCHA. It just proves the point I have been mentioning since I started this thing; the media are fixated on the teams out east and pass over the stronger WCHA, just because it's not on the E-coast. Another thing that urked me was that two of the best teams in the tourney (North Dakota and Minnesota) are in the same bracket. Yes Denver's Pepsi Center is "WCHA Home Turf", but this bracket also ensures that at least 1 WCHA team will not make the Frozen Four. I can't help but think that is has something to do with the all WCHA Frozen Four a few years back. Seems to me we are getting the short end on this one!

Back to the grind

I am back in cold Nebraska after 10 days enjoying the sunshine and blue skies of Colorado Springs and Las Vegas. There have been numerous things of note that have happened in the WCHA and CC world over the past week that are of note and that most of you know. Minnesota won the Broadmoor trophy with a cray OT winning goal. The Gazette had a sweet piece about the National Champion CC team from 50 years ago and another former CC player made some news in the NHL. I hope everyone is enjoying the vids and the pics and will continue to the rest of the summer until next season. If anyone has a any media they would like to add, don't hesitate to let me know!

Iron Man Zaba

As most of you are aware, Mat Zaba will be playing his 3rd consecutive game tonight. He has been solid in the first two, allowing really only one goal (the OT goal was sloppy and he was hung out to dry). Let's hope that he can keep it up for another week, I'm worried about him wearing down though, it will be interesting to see. If I were MT, I would want to get as many shots as possibly on him to keep him active and try to play on the fatigue. If I were CC, I would keep the puck to the outside and try to get as many shots on the other end. If I'm correct, this will be Zaba's 16th consecutive start, which is insane for a goalie. Let's hope he can hold on for at least another full week and get us to the WCHA Finals!
On a side-ish note. I must be anti-Gazette because I thought the article about honking at Zaba's apartment was really lame. I like the bit about him getting his rest and his pregame ritual, but the whole introduction " If you’re driving along San Miguel Street around noon today, please don’t honk your horn. ". As if I do every other day when I'm on that street??!! That could have been a pretty cool story about his pregame rituals; goalies are known for having all kinds of quirky things about them that are always fun to hear about. But instead we get a PSA, lamo! I just wish we could have better coverage of this team, but of course I'm a little biased b/c I'm used to Husker Football coverage, and that's an animal in itself.

WCHA Playoffs

Here is a quick look at the first round of the WCHA Tournament that begins Friday. CC landed in 5th place and will take on 6th Place Michigan Tech at the World Arena Friday, Saturday and potentially Sunday if they split games 1 and 2. It's a best-of-three format for the first round before heading to Minnesota for the Final Five. The winner gets the Broadmoor Trophy named after (of course) The Broadmoor Hotel.

Friday, March 9:
No. 10 Alaska Anchorage (12-19-3) @ No. 1 Minnesota (26-8-3), 7:07 pm CT

No. 9 Minnesota Duluth (12-19-5) @ No. 2 St. Cloud State (20-7-7) 7:07 pm CT

No. 8 Minnesota State (13-17-6) @ No. 3 North Dakota (19-12-5) 7:37 pm CT

No. 7 Wisconsin (15-17-4) @ No. 4 Denver (21-13-4) 7:37 pm MT

No. 6 Michigan Tech (16-15-5) @ No. 5 Colorado College (17-15-4) 7:37 pm MT


Saturday, March 10:
No. 10 Alaska Anchorage @ No. 1 Minnesota, 7:07 pm CT
No. 9 Minnesota Duluth @ No. 2 St. Cloud State, 7:07 pm CT
No. 8 Minnesota State @ No. 3 North Dakota, 7:07 pm CT
No. 7 Wisconsin @ No. 4 Denver, 7:07 pm MT
No. 6 Michigan Tech @ No. 5 Colorado College, 7:07 pm MT


Sunday, March 11 (if necessary):
No. 10 Alaska Anchorage @ No. 1 Minnesota, 7:07 pm CT
No. 9 Minnesota Duluth @ No. 2 St. Cloud State, 7:07 pm CT
No. 8 Minnesota State @ No. 3 North Dakota, 7:07 pm CT
No. 7 Wisconsin @ No. 4 Denver, 7:07 pm MT
No. 6 Michigan Tech @ No. 5 Colorado College, 7:07 pm MT

Following the first round of the WCHA Playoffs, the five winning teams will then be re-seeded No. 1 thru
No. 5, according to their regular season finish, and advance to the 2007 Red Baron™ WCHA Final Five, set for
March 15-17 at Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minn.