Can He Do it?

freshman Richard Bachman will look to carry his team to the title like Peter Manino in 2005 (photo by PCO)















Tigers will live or die by Bachman's play
Milo F. Bryant

We can talk all we want about the story lines heading this weekend's West Regional at World Arena.

There are many.

From two Hobey Baker Award finalists - who shouldn't be finalists over Colorado College goaltender Richard Bachman - to the defending national champions to teams playing at altitude and on a big sheet. We could go on and on. And over the next few days, we probably will.

But this weekend is going to boil down to the one thing it always boils down to in the college hockey playoffs - goaltending.

"You can't advance without good goaltending," CC coach Scott Owens said. "And even when you do have good goaltending, it's iffy. Like us last weekend - we had pretty good goaltending and it was still iffy. It was a big story in our league this year and it's always a big story in the postseason."

For Bachman, the story carries a little extra weight. All season the Tigers have trumped the "I.O.B." mantra - In Our Backyard. They've been about protecting the home turf.

The ability to protect it never is going to be more important than Friday when the Tigers face the defending national champion Michigan State Spartans.

As many big games as Bachman has played, the implications make this one and each after it - if there are any - biggest.

It's in Bachman's backyard now.

Remember, Bachman is a freshman. He's an incredibly talented, level-headed and smooth freshman. But he's still a freshman, and he's leading a team with a neophyte's amount of playoff experience.

As good as Bachman has been, he's going to have to be better if the home team wants to make that trip to Denver and play in the Frozen Four. Navigating the Tigers' way north is a lot of weight to put on a freshman's shoulders - even on the considerable shoulders of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association's Player of the Year.

"I try to keep everything about the same," Bachman said. "You do notice the pressure a little bit more. You know that every game could be your last game, but I think that helps. It brings the best out of you a little bit more, more of that competitiveness.

"It's not just a regular-season game. You're fighting for your playoff lives here. I love playoffs. I think it's the best time. You can really make a big difference for your team."

Bachman will be facing a Hobey Baker finalist in Jeff Lerg on Friday. Lerg played more minutes than any other goalie in the nation this year. But he wasn't as good as he was last season, and definitely not as good as he was in the 2007 NCAA Tournament when he led his team to the title.

Lerg was the epitome of a hot goalie then.

Can he repeat that type of play? Can he prove that the nation's coaches were correct in making him a Hobey Baker finalist based on this year's merits and not last year's success?

Can Bachman match that intensity?

"You want to be on those lists," Bachman said. "I've accepted it and kind of moved on. But having those other two goalies here, you want to show that you can be right up there with them.

"They've had tremendous seasons and deserve to be on that list. You want to be able to match their play and be able to exceed it. You want to step up for the hometown crowd."

Expect Bachman to match the play of the opposing goalies.

Even if he does, as Owens said, victory is still going to be iffy.

Hobey-Screwed

Milo's column last week alludes to the Tigers complete snuff by the Hobey committee. I don't care if we had a player that would have won it, but c'mon, the team had one of the best regular season's in the country and the hardest schedule of the top 5 teams. What a joke.

Hobey Baker committee’s snub of CC is pathetic
By MILO F. BRYANT

ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Colorado College hockey team left the Western Collegiate Hockey Association awards ceremony with an impressive amount of hardware — and justifiably so.

But the thing that had folks in a River Center ballroom talking afterward was the huge snub the Tigers received.

Freshman goalie Richard Bachman joined senior defenseman Jack Hillen and junior forward Chad Rau on the WCHA first team. Hillen was named the conference’s Defensive Player of the Year. Bachman earned Rookie of the Year and Player of the Year honors.

There were many congratulations — as there should have been.

Then came the snub.

The Hobey Baker committee showed a video to release the names of the top 10 finalists for the nation’s highest college hockey honor. Seconds before the announcement a betting person would’ve put down his house that the Tigers would’ve had at least two and possibly three people on that list.

After the announcement, that man would’ve been homeless.

The Tigers were shut out of the top 10 Hobey Baker finalists.

Read that sentence again. They were shut out. The Tigers had the conference’s Defensive Player of the Year and the Player of the Year and they were shut out of the top 10?

That’s pathetic.

Bachman, Rau and Hillen are three of the nation’s best players. They play on one of the nation’s best teams. They play in the nation’s best conference.

There are not 10 players in the country better than those three. If anyone can find 10 players, they’re looking in the National Hockey League.

“Shocked,” University of Denver coach George Gwozdecky said of his reaction. “Disappointed may be better. Disappointed and shocked.

“I’ll be very honest with you. We’ve got great respect for CC. As bitter as the rivalry is, we’ve got great respect for CC. . . . Richard Bachman and Chad Rau have had great years in the WCHA. And within the WCHA they were awarded accordingly. For them not to receive the national recognition of being in the top 10 — it’s just not right.”

No, it’s not.

The last time the WCHA Player of the Year failed to be named as a Hobey Baker top 10 finalist was during the 1989-90 season when the University of Wisconsin’s Gary Shuchuk wasn’t named.

Bachman was twice the Hockey Commissioners’ Association National Rookie of the Month.

North Dakota’s Jean-Philippe Lamoureux is one of three goalies in the top 10 finalists list. Michigan State Jeff Lerg and New Hampshire’s Kevin Regan are the others.

In conference play, Bachman had a higher save percentage than Lamoureux. He had a higher winning percentage than Lamoureux. Had Bachman played the final regular season game he would’ve beaten Lamoureux in goals against average, too.

So Lamoureux, not even the best goalie in his own conference gets on the top 10 list, and Bachman doesn’t.

The only place where Lerg has proven to be better than Bachman is on the clock. Lerg played more minutes than any other goalie this season.

Bachman leads Regan in every major goalie statistical category.

So, what gives?

Some have said it’s because Bachman is a freshman. If that’s the case, the award shouldn’t be given. If it’s a freshman thing, then what’s the problem with Rau and Hillen?

“I’m actually surprised that none of them are up there,” CC coach Scott Owens said. “I thought we’d have a couple. I didn’t know which two they’d be but I thought we’d have a couple.

“Basically, you’ve got the top scoring defenseman in the country. You’ve got the Player of the Year and the Rookie of the Year. Yeah, I am a little surprised by that.”

I don’t know if it would’ve changed anything, but Colorado College didn’t have the best promotion of its players nationally. In this day, teams can’t rely on Internet message boards or college hockey Web sites to do their promotion for them.

Those who don’t do that, rightly or wrongly, get snubbed.

“It makes us want to get to the Frozen Four and get some more exposure because we have some unbelievable players on our team that didn’t get recognized,” Hillen said.

The Tigers, who are the second furthest team away from the Atlantic Ocean, played on the East Coast twice this season, and only once was up North. They played in Tampa the other games. Both of those trips happened before 2008. Few people remember specifics that far back.

They needed to be reminded, and CC did a poor job of doing that.

Contact Bryant at 636-0252 or milo.bryant@gazette.com. See his blog at milobryant.blogspot.com or catch him on KOAA’s Comcast Channel 9 most Wednesdays at 4 p.m.

Reviews of the Pathetic Weekend Showing

Maybe it was Kate Crandall broadcasting the infamous suspension reasons just before the games (for the sheer reason to make a name for herself and sell papers no doubt) or the Tigers were still thinking DU and decided to mimic the Pios pathetic stretch run. Either way, something happened to the Tigers this past weekend. They were sloppy, slow, and couldn't score to save (black) face. This should have been an easy sweep for the Broadmoor Trophy: DU was limping like a man just after "that surgery", Minnesota had been playing hockey for a week straight non-stop, and North Dakota had a so-so goalie and wasn't as fast as the Tigers. Instead we got CC laying an oblong egg against the Gophers, and deciding not to care about 3rd place and just go through the motions and get back to the Springs (not too mention NoDak's goalie playing lights out with his crazy name). DU decided to wake up and actually play hockey was rewarded with another B-moor Trophy (they are 5-0 in the Final Five), and also with a trip to Wisconsin for the tournament-a team that put up 7 on them last time they played. Now CC is a #2 seed at home and gets to take on the defending champs. Very do-able but still a challenge. If the Tigers play like their 18-2 home record, it's off to Denver they go. If they play like this past weekend, I'll be pretty glum in my 3rd row seat Friday night.


Tip-toeing won’t take Tigers far in playoffs
By MILO F. BRYANT

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Home is all that’s left for the Colorado College Tigers.

They spent too much time toiling around the Xcel Energy Center ice and not enough time playing what they like to call “Tigers’ Hockey” on Friday and Saturday.

Blanked at the Final Five — sounds like the title of a bad hockey book. It’s sad the Tigers would’ve starred as the incredibly humbled protagonist.

Couple Saturday’s 4-2 loss to North Dakota with Friday’s overtime loss to Minnesota and the Tigers put together a weekend that we haven’t seen since they lost twice to New Hampshire in late October.

On Friday, the Tigers ran into a hot goalie and deserve a break.

Saturday’s setback was different. The Tigers failed to put forth the same kind of effort as their opponent. For much of the game, North Dakota was the team playing as if it had something to lose or something to prove.

If a team can get dirty on the ice, North Dakota was the team getting dirty. North Dakota was more stubborn. It was everything the Tigers were throughout the regular season.

The Tigers worked their butts off all season to earn the Western Collegiate Hockey Association’s regular-season title. Then they get into the playoffs and start tip-toeing around.

Tip-toeing isn’t what got them to the playoffs. It’s amazing they skated as if tiptoeing would somehow sustain them.

“For only a quarter of the time did we look like the true CC team that we’ve been all year,” senior captain Scott Thauwald said. “That’s not the way you want to play playoff hockey. If anything, you want to be more intense. You want to play better than you did in the regular season, and that just didn’t happen. The inconsistency was key.”

Saturday’s game should’ve been about the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament’s West Regional. Colorado College and North Dakota were No. 4 and No. 5 in the Pair-Wise rankings entering the game. The PairWise rankings are a simulation of the process used to pick the NCAA field. Conventional wisdom suggests the winner of the game would receive the fourth overall seed, and therefore a top seed in one of the four regionals.

The Tigers host the West Regional so they have to play there. Had they won Saturday, they would’ve been the top seed. Now they likely will be a No. 2 seed and have to beat a tougher opponent to reach the regional final.

We now have to ask ourselves: Which Tigers will show up next weekend at the World Arena?

North Dakota is one of the nation’s better teams. But there is no way North Dakota skates around the Tigers the way it did Saturday unless the Tigers are emotionally tapped or they’re simply giving a lackluster effort.

Look no further than North Dakota’s third goal Saturday.

Defenseman Chay Genoway took the puck near center ice and weaved his way between, around and by the Tigers’ Kris Fredheim, Brian Connelly and Thauwald.

The perplexing thing about the game is that the Tigers are built on speed. Yet they were not one or two steps slower. The Tigers were playing catch up much of the first two periods.

The Tigers skated as if they were on a perpetual penalty kill for much of the second period.

“It is surprising to me right now, at this point of the season, how inconsistent we are,” sophomore forward Bill Sweatt said. “We’ve got to figure it out and figure it out quick.”

Either teams have figured out how to keep the Tigers from scoring inside or the Tigers are not being gritty and aggressive enough to fight the puck inside and get the dirty goals. A majority of the Tigers’ shots are coming from the outside or from high in front of the goal.

That’s not working.

If the Tigers want to get to Denver and the Frozen Four, they better dig in and get some grit on their skates.

CC-AFA Regional Battle Likely?

Milo Bryant takes a look at the possibilities of the Tigers playing the Falcons at the World Arena and some of the fears that Coach Owens has playing them. I would have to agree, I don't want the Tigers to play AFA simply because I think they have the best chance of knocking us out of the tournament.

CC vs. AFA in hockey tourney would be great for almost everyone
By MILO BRYANT

The West Regional in the NCAA hockey tournament begins at the World Arena in nine days.

The arena is home to the Colorado College Tigers, and they will be playing in the arena. The 16-team field will be announced Sunday, including the three other teams playing at World Arena.

CC could be quite familiar with one, possibly two, of those teams.

As soon as the Air Force Falcons won the Atlantic Hockey Association Tournament title - in double overtime, Tigers coach Scott Owens, listening on the radio said, "I think Air Force could be here."

For a few reasons, the Falcons are one of the last teams the Tigers would want to see.

"I have mixed feelings," Owens said, smiling. "This is supposed to be our backyard. Nobody else's backyard. ... It would be great for Colorado Springs. It would be great for the Front Range. It would be great theater.

"I'm not so sure it would be great for the head coach."

Laughter ensued.

Owens does his share of worrying - even though he has one of the country's best teams, even though the Falcons have yet to beat the Tigers under Owens' watch.

"One of the reasons is they come in as one of the hottest teams in the country. I think they're 8-0-1," Owens said. "So you're dealing with that. They've found a way to skin the cat, so to speak, or found another way to get it done without Eric Ehn. So, that's a concern.

"They beat Denver. It's been 2-1 with us the last two times we've played. And they're a good team. And they've got a little postseason swagger to them. Then watch Ehn sneak out at the last second to play."

More laughter.

There's a lot of truth said in jest. An Air Force-CC matchup would not only be a good matchup for the Springs. But it would be a good game, too. The Falcons do not fear the Tigers. The Tigers have a lot of respect for the Falcons.

The Tigers have had the better team, but the gap between the two has narrowed considerably. And it's not just because of the drubbing the Falcons gave the University of Denver. One tournament appearance, which the Falcons made last year, might be fluky, two - uhh, uhh.

Remember, the Falcons finished 3-2-1 against ranked teams this season. Few schools can boast a nonconference schedule as good as Air Force's. Fewer can boast a winning record against that schedule.

Then there's the Ehn factor. Falcons coach Frank Serratore said there is a 50/50 chance that Ehn could play the tournament's opening round.

"Oh, what an emotional scene it would be to see Ehn skate back on the same ice that he was carried off on a stretcher," Serratore said. "To have it all come around, I think that would be very special and emotional for everybody in that building."

Owens' emotions would be mixed - again. Still, it's all a long shot that any of it will happen.

If the Tigers are seeded No.4 overall, Air Force will surely be sent elsewhere for the sake of bracket integrity. It would be unusual for the No. 1 seed to play any team but the No. 15 or No. 16 seed.

If CC is beaten Friday and/or Saturday in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association playoffs and other top teams win this week, the Tigers could be seeded fifth through eighth overall, and therefore seeded second at the West Regional. In that hypothetical situation, a team such as Michigan could come to the Springs as the top seed.

If that happened, Air Force could be in the region as the fourth-seeded team.

Were that to happen, don't think that Owens would fail to see a bit of poetic justice playing out. In the 2003 NCAA Tournament, the Tigers were the No. 1 seed in the Midwest Regional. Michigan was the No. 3 seed, but at home in Yost Ice Arena, where it knocked off second-seeded Maine and then the Tigers.

Maybe crazier than that would be to see the three Front Range teams playing in the West Regional. Serratore, a former tournament committee member, sees it happening only if CC is the No. 1 overall seed and DU is the No. 8 overall seed.

"It would be wild," Owens said. "It would be absolutely wild if we played Air Force in the first game and Denver played Michigan State in the other game, all here. It would be unbelievable.

"It would be stressful as hell."

Nope, it would be great.

Contact Bryant at 636-0252 or milo.bryant@gazette.com. See his blog at milobryant.blogspot.com or catch him on KOAA's Comcast Channel 9 most Wednesdays at 4 p.m.

Milo Bryant Takes a Look at the Win

Anchorage Pushes CC to Limit
Milo Bryant

The Colorado College Tigers hadn't been to St. Paul and the Final Five since a loss to Denver in the finals of the 2005 tournament.

Only this team's seniors and its coaches have tasted that atmosphere.

With a diving shot 2 minutes 58 seconds into overtime, a sophomore, Mike Testwuide, made sure this season's Tigers got their trip.

Testwuide, who scored the game-tying goal against Alaska-Anchorage, got the 3-2 overtime game winner on a shot that zinged over Jon Olthuis' left side and into the net.

"You know, I blacked out to be honest with you," Testwuide said, attempting to describe how he scored the goal. "Bill (Sweatt) made a good play up the boards. I made a nice little play through a guy's legs. And I kind of held the puck. Waited a little bit. A guy dove I think. And I don't really know what happened after that.

"Seriously, I kind of blacked out."

Many sitting in the World Arena had to be wondering what was happening to the Tigers through the first 35 minutes of the game.

The Seawolves appeared to be bent on inflicting punishment. The hits were legal. But there were times it looked as if the Seawolves gave up the smarter play to get the big hit.

Then again, it looked like the big hits were an equally big part of the game plan. And it was working.

Too often during the first period and parts of the second period, the Tigers actually skated as if they were leery of those hits.

"They rattled us a little bit," Testwuide said. "They slowed our game down. Our game is pretty much all speed, and they figured out a way to slow us down."

Saturday's Tigers' team isn't the team the World Arena is used to seeing. Like Friday's game, the Seawolves outworked and outhustled the Tigers.

There have been several teams who have come to World Arena with a passion to hit, to take the fight to the Tigers. Each time though, the Tigers did what good teams are supposed to do. They got punched, took it and punched back with more ferocity.

Down 2-1 in the third period, the crowd waited for the same to happen Saturday.

The fans knew as well as the players what was at stake. Nobody wants to play a Game 3 in a best-of-three series against a cellar dwellers.

The Seawolves had nothing to lose. After all, the Tigers had beaten the Seawolves four consecutive times - by a score of 16-4. Add Friday's victory, and that total increases to 20-5.

Maybe it was the ease of the victories that elicited Saturday's lethargic play.

"There was a lot of continuation," Tigers coach Scott Owens said. "But part of it was them. They were difficult to play against. We didn't step it up and play with the grit that we need in playoff hockey."

The Tigers know they're good. They have no problem playing against teams they think are stellar opponents. It's the cellar dwellers that give the Tigers trouble.

Saturday, it took an Anchorage turnover, or fortunate stick work by the Tigers, to get CC back into the game mentally and physically.

Testwuide took a third-period pass from Chad Rau, back-skated in front of the goal near the right faceoff circle. Biding his time, Testwuide beat Olthuis stick side.

Success must beget success. Either that or it makes a team work harder.

Testwuide's goal infused the Tigers. Had the Tigers skated the first two periods the way they skated the last 15 minutes of the third period, the final score wouldn't have been close.

It wouldn't have been as difficult to get to the next step on this journey.