Offense Returns-Big Win Ensues

The Tigers regain their offensive form with a 5-2 win over Clarkson Friday night. Tigers total a ridiculous 42 shots on goal. Unofficial stats here, more to come as it's posted.

In the chase for the WCHA lead, DU lost 5-1 to Minnesota State and North Dakota beat Minnesota in OT 2-1.








Colorado College Crushes Clarkson
Testwuide, Sweatt Combine For Four Points
by Candace Horgan/Contributing Editor USCHO

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Feb. 1) — After a disappointing weekend last week at Michigan Tech, the No. 6 Colorado College Tigers looked to regroup at home. Coach Scott Owens mixed up his lines, and a new top line of Mike Testwuide, Chad Rau and Bill Sweatt lead the Tigers to a 5-2 win over the No. 10 Clarkson Golden Knights. Testwuide had two goals and 11 shots on goal, while Sweatt had two assists.
Clarkson: Team Page | Schedule
Colorado College: Team Page | Schedule

“It was nice to get back home on the big sheet, and it was very nice to score five goals,” said Owens. “It was even nicer to have the puck in their end most of the time. I think that Billy has the outside speed and can open things up, Chad’s just a solid player, and Testwuide, as long as he’s doing things like a power forward, he’ll be effective. They were able to sustain very well.”

The game started slowly, with both teams feeling each other out on the ice. The Golden Knights pounced first on a crazy bounce. Adam Bellows took a slap shot from the right point that hit a Tigers’ skate in front of the net. The puck came right to Chris D’Alvise in the slot, and D’Alvise took one stride to his left and fired it top corner stick side at 1:58.

“I thought we had a good start to the game,” said Golden Knights’ coach George Roll. “We had some real good chances in the first, but they wore us down. Offensively, we haven’t seen a team like that that cycled the puck as well as they did.”


The Tigers absorbed that blow however, and started peppering Golden Knights’ goaltender David Leggio. At 10:48 of the period, Tyrell Mason was whistled for slashing when Mike Testwuide got behind the defense on a breakaway and cut across the crease. Mason’s slash disrupted Testwuide just enough that he couldn’t get his backhand past Leggio.

As the ensuing power play ended, the Golden Knights failed on a clear and the puck came to Jimmy Kilpatrick in the left corner. Kilpatrick passed it to Eric Walsky at the bottom right of the left circle, and Walsky fed it cross-crease to Scott McCulloch alone on the far post. McCulloch fired it into the empty net at 12:49.

The Tigers built on that momentum, and spent most of the rest of the period keeping the Golden Knights bottled up in their zone with an aggressive forecheck. However, despite firing 14 shots on net in the period, twice that of the Golden Knights, they were unable to grab the lead.

The second period opened up a little more. Bryan Rufenach made a nice defensive play with his stick to break up a Tigers’ two-on-one chance early.

Clarkson regained the lead at 4:03 when Brandon DeFazio sprung David Cayer on a breakaway. Cayer skated low, cut to his backhand and lifted it top corner stick side.

“We’re just not used to playing on that ice,” said Roll. “We tried to stay inside in the dots, but I think the biggest problem with us was the transition game. We threw a lot of pucks up the middle of the ice, and against them, that’s where they burn you. We have to do a better job of keeping the game along the wall.”

The Golden Knights couldn’t build on that momentum however, as the Tigers quickly used their speed to start generating more chances.

“We used the width of the ice,” said Testwuide. “Tonight we were using both sides of the ice.”

At 8:31, Bill Sweatt came flying down the left side. As he cut to the net, he fell to the ice, but still slid the puck on net. Leggio tried to poke check it away, but it came right to Testwuide at the bottom of the left circle, and he backhanded it in along the ice.

“The bounces were there tonight,” said Testwuide. “Billy made an unbelievable rush. He has such great speed wide and he got a shot to the net, and I went five-hole on my backhand.”

Buoyed by the goal, the Tigers started flying all over the ice. Scott Thauwald had a chance from down low, but got tied up by a Clarkson defender. Leggio made two huge saves with his glove, one on a laser from Andreas Vlassopoulos from the left circle, and a highlight reel save when Sweatt came flying down the left side and fed it to Testwuide coming down the right side. Leggio somehow managed to scoop up Testwuide’s tip-in try from the slot.

“We finally got to turn it into a big sheet game, and I think that was key for us,” said Owens. “We had a lot of people chipping in.”

It seemed to be only a matter of time at that point, and the Tigers struck late. Kilpatrick picked up the puck low on the left side and banked a pass behind the net to Vlassopoulos in the right corner. Vlassopoulos one-timed a pass to McCulloch in the slot, and McCulloch lifted it top corner stick side at 17:16 to give the Tigers the lead heading into the third.

“I thought he (Leggio) kept us in the game and gave us chance to win,” said Roll. “It was a barrage against him tonight.”

The Tigers continued forechecking and got a power play opportunity at :32 of the third. Sweatt and Testwuide quickly capitalized. Sweatt skated down the right side and cut hard to the net, then threw it into the crease, where Testwuide stuffed it past Leggio at 1:49.

“It was a relief to get the fourth goal,” said Owens. “Their sticks are so good; they’re very opportunistic. You’re sitting there at 3-2, and even though you’re outshooting them, you’re worried about it, so that was a big goal for us.”

Tigers’ forwards continued to buzz for chances. Thauwald had an open net from the low slot, but his shot dribbled wide when Dan Reed got him tied up. Leggio continued to come up big, robbing Rau on a one-time chance and making a big glove save on Tyler Johnson’s chance after a giveaway by Rufenach.

With just over seven minutes left, the Golden Knights got their first power play and looked to close the gap. Instead, the Tigers nabbed a shorthanded goal. When a Clarkson forward couldn’t handle a pass at the bottom of the left circle, Brian Connelly came racing up and grabbed the puck and skated down the right side. He skated low before passing the puck through the slot to Thauwald, who backhanded it into the near side at 13:31.

“I thought he (Thauwald) played well all night long,” said Owens. “Maybe a fresh look on his line, and he gets on that shorthanded situation, he’s a different player; he plays like a big skill guy out there. It’s nice to see him get rewarded.”

The two teams faceoff again Saturday night at 7:05 p.m.

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."

Tigers split series with North Dakota

Well, the Tigers went into the North Dakota series after being swept by New Hampshire in their first road series of the young season. Unfortunately, North Dakota was the team that came out flying and pounded the Tigers 6-2 and gave CC a three game losing streak. The Tigers struck back Saturday night and used a strong showing from Bachman in net to gain the split with a 4-1 victory and earned the split with number 1 North Dakota. Of course, we all would have loved to see the Tigers sweep the series, but a win is a win, especially on the road at the number one team in the nation. It's great to see that the Tigers have a stud in net now with their freshman. This was one of the biggest question marks coming into the season after losing Zaba last season. Despite being swept out east, the Tigers are still looking very good for the rest of the season and have some good momentum going into this weekend's home series against Minnesota-Duluth.
Speaking of "out east", New Hampshire was upset by Northeastern on Saturday night for the first time in 20 games. Hats off to NE as they beat the number 3 team in the nation.
Another series that might have been a shocker to some, was DU sweeping Minnesota and leaving the Gophers at 0-4 in the WCHA for the first time....ever. Either CC and DU are REALLY good, or Minnesota is REALLY BAD!

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!

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!

Gotta love rivalries

As most of you know, I'm trying to get a consistent sellout crowd to the World Arena to watch CC's games. Having a huge rival from up the road always helps with attendance figures. The World Arena lists it's actual capacity at 7,343 for college hockey games. Knowing that, it makes it really sweet to see that last night there were 7,820 fans watching the wild 5-5 tie. If I could pick one time to go to a game, this would have been it. I'll have to check into it, but this may have been the largest crowd of the season, 7809 watched the last home game vrs. Minnesota. I was unable to watch the game but I know the schedule called for the fans to wear gold. If anyone has pics of the crowd and the game please share them!!

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.

How come everything is out of date??!

As most of you know, I'm always looking around the internet for videos and updates about the Tigers and college hockey. I have noticed a sad trend in the things I've been looking for and that is that things are horrible out of date. The INCH recruiting page is over a year old, the WCHA has a recent news section with the 4th headline about CC being swept by Minnesota (two weeks ago). On YouTube, the only videos are either old or low quality about the east coast teams. Another thing about the WCHA site is that they have the Ohio State logo flashing across as one of the members of the conference. Either I'm blind and stupid or thats an error. Is OSU part of the conference or have they ever been? If anyone knows anything about that, please let me know! I would love to be able to click on a site and see highlights and pics from the game, not 10 select photos from a year ago like the Gazette. When I see how old and out of date the few college sites are, it makes me realize just how much college hockey needs to do before it will be considered a major college sports.

One suggestion that I have heard is that I could set up something called a Flickr account which would allow people to upload pics and videos to the site from their cell phones while at the game! I think this is something we should seriously consider because it would be awesome to see people's experiences at the games: both the game itself and their experience in the crowd.

The free-fall continues

CC entered this weekend with a lot on their side. They were facing a team with a less-than-impressive record, they were coming off back-to-back 3-2 losses to Minnesota and were in a perfect position to get 4 points and move into 3rd or 4th place in the conference. Instead, the Tigers let two extremely important games slip away and dropped into 5th place in the conference and only 1 point ahead of Michigan Tech with the showdown vrs. DU looming on the horizon. The Tigers are probably going to lose the chance to host a first rounder at home for the conference playoffs and may have just been swept out of NCAA tourney selection. Tonight was especially tough since things started out so well. The Tigers held Minnesota State without a shot in the first 12 minutes of the game, had a 5-3 advantage and came up 1 goal just 2 minutes into it. However, the Mavericks used a flurry in the late 2nd and 3rd periods to break it open with 5 goals and win 6-4. The Tigers have struggled of late getting goals and it's shown with an 0-5-1 record in the past 3 weeks. I just hope that this doesn't hamper recruiting because we need some top players to come in and give this team a shot of adrenaline for next season. As for next week, I'm hoping we will pull it together for the I25 Rivalry and use the rivaly aspect to get some motivation and determination for those games.

Quick Overview for this Weekend's Games

The Tigers head up to Minnesota State Friday and Saturday to take on the Mavericks. This game is important for the Tigers in both the Pairwise and the final WCHA standings as this is the second-to-last weekend of the season. CC swept the Mavericks earlier in November and will hopefully do the same and get all 4 points this weekend. Minnesota State (you may also know them as Mankato) is currently 11-17-6 which translates into a winning percentage of .412 and they are 5-8-3 at their home arena. MS plays on an Olympic size ice sheet just like the Tigers so lack of skating room shouldn't be a problem for CC. MS is one of three teams in the WCHA that is eliminated from contention for home ice advantage in the conference playoffs. They are tied with Michigan Tech for the #7 position in the conference with 21 points.

CC is currently 16-13-3 overall and sits in a 4th place tie with North Dakota with 26 points. The Tigers have a less-than-impressive road record of 4-6-2. This game is extremely important because CC could, theoretically, jump into second place behind leader Minnesota but that is highly unlikely. More likely is that they could pass DU who only holds 3rd place by 1 more point than the Tigers and Sioux. The Tigers take on DU next weekend so these points are vital to a 3rd place finish in the conference.

Here is a look at the standings with points, WCHA record and Overall record. GO TIGERS

		WCHA						Overall
	Team	GP	W-L-T	Pts.	GF-GA			GP	W-L-T	GF-GA
1	Minnesota	24	17-4-3	37	80-51			33	25-5-3	127-70
2	St. Cloud State	24	12-6-6	30	74-56			30	18-6-6	99-64
3	Denver	24	12-9-3	27	64-59			34	20-11-3	95-76
4	Colorado College	24	12-10-2	26	65-60			32	16-13-3	94-81
	North Dakota	24	11-9-4	26	77-66			32	17-11-4	107-86
6	Wisconsin	24	11-11-2	24	54-46			32	14-15-3	73-66
7	Michigan Tech	24	8-11-5	21	57-55			32	13-14-5	75-71
	Minnesota State	26	8-13-5	21	72-93			34	11-17-6	94-119
9	Alaska-Anchorage	26	8-17-1	17	60-93			32	12-17-3	83-106
10	Minnesota-Duluth	24	6-15-3	15	55-79			32	10-18-4	87-109
Switch to Winning Percentage order

Followup to PairWise rankings

I would love to try to explain all the rankings and the details that go into the selection for the national tournament but I found a great explanation of how it all works and where everything is headed. As of today, CC is a No. 3 seed playing in Rochester for the first games. This weekend's games against Minnesota are extremely crucial as CC is in a prime position to move up in the rankings...of course, they can move way down just as easy.

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

Sunday quickie

Probably the worst way to tie a game is to blow a "safe" leaf in the third period, which is what happened to the Tigers Saturday night. At least they got one point out of the weekend but it would have been great to pass DU in the conference standings, but I suppose it will be sweeter to beat them at the end of the season to gain the next spot up. I don't have much of an update today but I have an entire class tomorrow devoted to working on this project so I will probably have numerous updates tomorrow afternoon. I'm going to work on looking for video for iTunes. I did notice that the Minnesota game Friday is on FSN so that will be fun, I hope it's national and not just FSNRM. As always, if there are any topics or questions you all want me to address, let me know!

Promote the games and opponent

While I was reading about the Tigers' OT win against Wisconsin last night, I came up with a few ideas to help the team out and gain more fans. This may sound like I'm rooting against the home team but I'm not, but what about promoting the opponet? Not saying that people should come just to watch, say, Wisconsin, but what about the fact that UW, DU, Minnesota and North Dakota have all won the national title in recent years and they are top tier teams. We could say, come see the #15 nationally ranked Tigers take on 2 time DU Pioneers this weekend in the I25 rivalry. Something that lets people know that a) we are good and b) the opposition in our conference is the toughest and best in the entire country. Another idea is regarding DU, what if we came up with a marketable name for the game, such as The I25 Rivalry? Actually having a name for it, like many rivalries in college football, may increase people's interest and help those games have more of a long standing tradition feel. Any ideas and comments about this (and all) ideas are greatly appreciated!

Help from others

Because college hockey is not exactly well covered (even ESPN.com doesn't have a direct link), I think it would be awesome to bring in other thoughts from teams across the country. I would love to turn on the TV friday and saturday nights and watch a college hockey game regularly and NOT on the premium ESPNU that only has them on occasion. Although my focus is just on CC, I ultimately would want all of the ideas to be used everywhere so that we can get college hockey to at least a fraction of what football has in terms of national exposure. If other schools (ie the strong Minnesota schools) have certain aspects that work well, I want to hear em so that we can get this thing going in the right direction. The NHL is working to correct it's image and create a strong brand from essentially scratch. Why can't the NCAA bring it's strong product out into the mainstream?!