Tiger Sweep Alaska

The Tigers continued their offensive roll as they swept UAA this weekend with a 5-2 victory tonight. In other news directly related to the Tigers, DU was crushed by Wisconsin 7-2 tonight as Wisconsin got it's first road victory of the season. This gives the Tigers a little more breathing room at the top of the WCHA standings (though DU has 2 more games left more that the Tigers) and could easily bump CC to #2 in the national polls. We will see how the voters respond. Either way, great weekend by the Tigers and it's great to see them continue their strong season.

Tigers win again, fans get to watch on TV

In a rare but pleasing move, those of us in the Colorado Springs region were treated to the Tigers and Badgers game on our local FSN channel. Granted, the coverage was from UW's "W sports" network but it was surprisingly good and generally unbiased. Of course the announcers were UW fans, but they seemed to genuinely appreciate college hockey and the talent and fortitude of the Tigers that is becoming more and more apparent. They were knowledgeable of the game, both teams, and the history between the teams and the WCHA in general. I was watching the Pittsburgh-Jags game and watching the Tigers during commercials (and man there were a lot of them). I missed the first period so I didn't see the "weird" goal that the Badgers got just seconds into the game, but I did see the Tigers play up-temp back and forth solidly for 1.5 periods. The Tigers completely dominated every aspect in the third period, registering a 16-3 shot advantage and relentless pressure. The go-ahead goal came on numerous own-end turnovers by UW and pressure by the Tigers. It was one of those sequences where you just sit and wait for them to score, knowing that it is coming. The Tigers took the lead and had numerous chances to extend that before the empty-netter sealed it. The Tigers took 4 faceoffs in the UW zone to the left (viewer right) of UW goalie Shane Connelly and won all four back followed by a quick shot and cover. After the third time, it was almost comical.
It was great to see the Tigers calmly come back and play a solid game on the road, a place they aren't quite comfortable with just yet. I'm sure teams will be terrified to be coming to the World Arena for the regionals, a place where the Tigers have only lost....haven't lost at this season (7-0 compared to 6-5 away). This team has flashes of greatness and will be fun to watch down the stretch. Remember, they are without Sweatt and Lampl so they can only get better when Sweatt returns (Lampl hopefully will be back within 2 seasons).
I'm excited to finally see the Tigers back at home for the first time since they stomped DU November 23rd, that's a heck of a road trip coupled with the Christmas break!

Tigers win 3-1

CC scores 3 unanswered goals and completely dominates the third period to sweep the Wisconsin Badgers once again. Read the USCHO assessment here, the Tigers and Chad Rau highlight the USCHO front page today, and the athletic department briefing below,

Rau strikes again as CC sweeps Badgers
Call it déjà vu or a recurring nightmare, but the University of Wisconsin certainly has had enough of Chad Rau this season. The junior center struck for his fourth shorthanded goal in as many games against the Badgers, igniting another third-period rally that produced a 3-1 victory for Colorado College on Saturday and a sweep of its weekend series at the Kohl Center in Madison. Rau’s tally at 5:01 of the final frame pulled the WCHA-leading and fourth-ranked Tigers even at 1-1 after UW’s Sean Dolan scored just 13 seconds into the contest. It completely shifted the momentum into CC’s favor, setting the stage for senior left wing Scott McCulloch’s game winner with 5:17 left to play and an empty netter by sophomore winger Mike Testwuide with 11.5 seconds remaining. Testwuide factored in on the goal by McCulloch, forcing a turnover at the Badger blue line before sophomore center Andreas Vlassopolous set up the tally with a nice pass from the slot. Freshman netminder Richard Bachman was solid between the pipes again, finishing with 21 saves. Rau, who leads the nation with five shorthanded tallies overall, extended his point-scoring streak to 13 games as the Tigers beat Wisconsin for the sixth consecutive time dating back to last season and widened their lead over second-place Denver to four points.

Tigers continue dominance against UW

The Tigers rolled to their 5th straight win against Wisconsin last night posting a 2-0 shutout win. Check out the full story from USCHO and the briefing from CC Athletics below

Continuing its mastery against WCHA opponents, on the road as well as at home, Colorado College roared back into first place all alone on Friday. Centers Chad Rau and Tyler Johnson struck for goals just 1:53 apart midway through the third period, powering the Tigers to a 2-0 victory over the University of Wisconsin at the Kohl Center in Madison. Freshman goaltender Richard Bachman made 22 saves to record his second shutout of the season. The triumph, CC’s 13th overall, improved its league record to 12-3, two points better than idle Denver. Rau’s tally came with teammate Brian Connelly in the penalty box, just 36 seconds after the sophomore defenseman was whistled for diving at 8:45 of the final frame. It was the fourth shorthanded goal and fifth game winner of the season for Rau, a junior who extended his point-scoring streak to 12 games. Johnson’s unassisted goal with 8:46 left to play, after a steal at the Badger blue line, was the first of his collegiate career on the freshman's 19th birthday. The Tigers now have won their last five outings against UW, including three this season, heading into Saturday's series finale.

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 ;)
  

Tigers bury Badgers 6-1

It was close when first puck was dropped and not much past that. CC dominated Wisconsin en route to a 6-1 blowout Saturday night. About the only thing UW had tonight was more shots. They looked sloppy with the puck and misplayed countless pucks off the boards, which of course can always be attributed to an unfamiliar arena. We were debating after the game whether CC looked that good or Wisconsin was just that bad. I think it was a little bit of both. Wisconsin's star goalie Shane Connelly only lasted 2 periods giving up 5 goals on 22 shots. CC's Richard Bachman looked sharp again making 31 saves and only allowing 1 goal on a quick rush to start the third. Once the Tigers got their 6th goal it turned ugly as Wisconsin tried hard to beat up the Tigers and start a fight after almost every whistle. It was a pathetic display of sportsmanship and after one penalty, Billy Sweatt simple laughed and pointed up at the jumbotron.
We sat behind the student section for the first time at a CC game (I sat there a loong time ago for a Gold Kings game) and I must say it was a blast. With the vertical view of the arena it was easy to see plays develop and open passes. And me being a college student only 6 months removed, it was great to get back in that atmosphere. Good times. Pics will be up shortly

Bathroom quote of the night: While we are all waiting after the second intermission (5-0) in line a Badger fan walks in and a CC fan says "hey, bend over!". Hilarious! and all in good fun, no butts or feelings were hurt.

From the stands: Some obvious new fans were behind us when the CC students chanted their first "Connelly you suck d*ck!". From behind me "what did they say?!", "sounded like "you suck d*ck". I readily confirmed what they had heard and let them know that the opposing goalie is the weekly victim of that chant. They loved it.

Box score from USCHO

In case you missed it

Here are some of the pre-series news, notes and stories for your Saturday afternoon enjoyment.

Wisconsin looks to see what they are made of in The Springs

The Wisconsin Hockey blog looks at the challenges of the Tigers #1 goaltender as well as general notes about the Badger team.

Open ice and thin air are the topics on the Badger Herald

The solid Denver Post blogger Mike Chambers takes a look at the early Hobey Baker possibilities in CC goalie Bachman and DU goalie Mannino

The Tigers go for the sweep tonight in the official BLACKOUT GAME!!!
WEAR BLACK!!!! GO TIGERS!!!!

Tigers win Friday night 4-3

The Tigers use a 2nd intermission pep-talk among players to pull out the first of two against a tough Wisconsin team. CC athletics coverage here and box score here
Official USCHO coverage from the battle Friday night and David Ramsey takes a look at Jimmy Kilpatrick's road to the game winning goal.

World Arena Followup

Last week I wrote a little bit about the old Broadmoor World Arena. This week I found out just a little bit about the current World Arena. Most of us will remember the bumper stickers that were prevalent in the area in the years leading up to construction. They had the artist rendition of the structure and read "Just Build it". Finally all the plans went through and in 1997 the arena was completed. The Tigers played host to the Wisconsin Badgers for the first game. For the actual arena and the ajacent to the Ice Hall, it cost $58.8 million. For the Tigers' home games, the capacity is 7,343 fans. One thing that is somewhat unique for this arena and the Tigers is that the ice sheet is Olympic size. This means the playing surface measures 200x100ft, compare this with the "regular" NHL size ice sheet that measures 200ft long but only 85 feet wide. AFA and DU use the NHL size ice.




Special thanks to this World Arena Page for the pic of the ticket

SWEEP

Well I was happy to see that the Tigers swept the defending national champions this past weekend. Right there is a good marketing plan for this coming week "Fresh off sweeping the defending National Champion Wisconsin Badgers, watch the Tigers take on 2002 and 2003 national champion Minnesota feb 16th and 17th". I was also very happy to see that the official records showed that the World Arena was a sellout last night! It's nice to see that all the tickets were sold, but I was not at the game so I couldn't tell if everyone that had a ticket actually went to the game, can anyone help out with that? I've seen sellouts where it was obvious not everyone showed up (the purple seats show it off too well). Speaking of that, why the heck did the arena use purple???! I understand that the Tigers aren't the only organization to use the facility but c'mon. Personally I would have chosen black because a) the Tigers have black in their uniforms and b) black goes well with any event (as opposed to yellow). Oh and one more thing, The Gazette didn't even have pics online from the game. A sellout, a win and a sweep of the defending champs and NO PICS!!!