Some good stories from our local sportswriters

CC inspired to attend party it hosts

By MILO F. BRYANT The Gazette Sports columnist

The college hockey season, at least the western portion of it, could not be shaping up to be any better.

The Colorado College Tigers and the University of Denver Pioneers are as friendly to each other as Obama and Hillary. And it looks like the rivals will be fighting for postseason positioning until the end of the season.

The Tigers entered Saturday’s game sitting atop the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. The Pioneers were second. Yet the Pioneers were ranked second to CC’s No. 4 national ranking in the USA Today/USA Hockey poll.

“I haven’t seen two teams on top of this league so clearly since I’ve been here,” CC coach Scott Owens said after the Tigers’ 5-2 victory over Alaska-Anchorage. “. . . It’s a great story because we’re big rivals. We both have half an eye on each other whether we want to admit it or not.

“And we’re plugging along because both of us have hosted regionals in the last three or four years that we didn’t get into. That is a tremendous motivating factor. It’s a sense of embarrassment.”

Since the college hockey season began, it has been about one thing for the Tigers and, to a large degree, the Pioneers — protecting home ice.

Many of the Tigers sport the letters “IOB” on shirts underneath their uniforms. IOB stands for In Our Backyard.

The NCAA West Regional is at World Arena, CC’s home ice. The Frozen Four is in Denver at the Pepsi Center, less than 5 miles from the DU campus.

The dominos, so-to-speak, are laid out for both teams, but more so for the Tigers.

Protect the backyard and a trip to the Frozen Four awaits.

Seems as simple as that.

With a 9-0 home record, the Tigers are making it look simple.

“It’s not just us,” Owens said. “It’s teams coming in to the biggest sheet in North America. I think it’s been a real subtle confidence that we have in this building. We have a team that’s built for a big sheet. This can be a pretty tough building to play in because of our quickness.”

It can be tough because the Tigers are a good team, too. And Saturday was an example of what good teams do to bad teams.

After a lackluster first period, Alaska-Anchorage increased its intensity. It played much of the early part of the second period creating havoc in front of Tigers goaltender Richard Bachman.

The Tigers, who beat the Seawolves by five goals Friday, responded by matching, then exceeding the Seawolves’ passion.

The Tigers scored three goals that period.

The Seawolves lost their bite. The checking was less forceful. They got lazy, took a couple of penalties. One led to the Tigers’ third goal. The Seawolves’ goals came after the game had been decided.

This isn’t the same Tigers team that took the ice earlier this season. That Tigers team might not have responded like this one. This team is tighter. It’s in better synch. And it looks as if a shorthanded road trip helped.

“Anytime you go on a long road trip, you’re away from everything, school’s done,” Tigers forward Jimmy Kilpatrick said. “We didn’t have anything to worry about except hockey situations. And that’s fun. You get to be a more tight knit group.

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.

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Sweep not perfection
Tigers earn comfortable wins but scoreless in 1st period

By KATE CRANDALL THE GAZETTE

Colorado College swept Alaska-Anchorage with a 5-2 win Saturday, but the Tigers were still more comfortable grumbling than grinning.

“It was kind of a sloppy weekend,” said Brian McMillin, who shifted from center to right wing this weekend for the first time since a brief high school stint.

“We had some high points, but we had some really low points. . . . If you want to keep playing come March and April, you’ve got to pick at everything so you can try playing your best at the end.”

With the victory, the No. 4 Tigers improved to 9-0 at home and pulled six points ahead of second-place Denver in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association race. Denver has played two less league games.

“Shhhhhh,” right wing Jimmy Kilpatrick said of the undefeated home record.

Anchorage had not dropped a road sweep beforehand but fell to 6-9-5 overall and 2-9-3 in the WCHA. The Tigers improved to 16-6 and 15-3 in the WCHA by outscoring the Seawolves 11-3 for the weekend.

CC was held scoreless in the first period for the fourth consecutive game, again resorting to outside shots and failing to create traffic in front of the net.

“The first four or five shifts were really strong, but we took that penalty and it kind of slowed us down,” McMillin said, referring to defenseman Ryan Lowery’s interference. “We’re ready to go, but we’re not sustaining it the whole period. We’ve got to play the whole game.”

Six minutes into the second, with the referee’s arm raised to signal a penalty, Kilpatrick sent a cross to center Chad Rau, who put a rebound top-shelf to give CC a 1-0 lead.

At 11:18 of the second, Mc-Millin one-timed a rebounded Scott McCulloch shot over goaltender Jon Olthuis’ left shoulder. Less than two minutes later, Kilpatrick added a power-play goal from the bottom of the left circle.

The Tigers went on a fiveminute power play in the third period after Anchorage’s Sean Wiles checked Kilpatrick from behind into the right post so hard that the open-face of the goal clanged against the back wall.

Just 23 seconds into the man-advantage, Bill Sweatt caught right wing Mike Testwuide by surprise with a goal-line pass but tapped in the bobbled puck to make it 4-0.

Anchorage’s Peter Cartwright and Mat Robinson turned a rebound into a twoon-one with defenseman Nate Prosser. Cartwright beat goalie Richard Bachman blockerside for only the second shorthanded goal scored on the Tigers this season.

With less than two minutes left, the Seawolves’ Brad Mc-Cabe added a goal to draw Anchorage within two. Coach Dave Shyiak pulled Olthuis with 1:04 to go, but Rau scooped up a blocked shot and sailed in for a slam dunk on the empty net.

“So we had a good weekend,” McMillin said.

“We know we’ve got to work on some things and keep going.”

CONTACT THE WRITER: 476-4803 or kate.crandall@gazette.com.