2007/08 Schedule

Here is this season's schedule once again to keep you fresh and ready to go for the opener October 6th (home games at Colorado Springs World Arena in yellow)

Oct. 6 University of Calgary W 4-3
Oct. 12 Under-18 US National Team W 6-3.
Oct. 19 University of Minnesota 7:37 p.m.
Oct. 20 University of Minnesota 7:07 p.m.
Oct. 26 @University of New Hampshire 5 p.m.
Oct. 27 @University of New Hampshire 5 p.m.
Nov. 2 @University of North Dakota 6:37 p.m.
Nov. 3 @University of North Dakota 6:07 p.m.
Nov. 9 University of Minnesota Duluth 7:37 p.m.
Nov. 10 University of Minnesota Duluth 7:07 p.m.
Nov. 16 University of Wisconsin 7:37 p.m.
Nov. 17 University of Wisconsin 7:07 p.m.
Nov. 23 University of Denver 7:37 p.m.
Nov. 24 @University of Denver Away 7:07 p.m.
Nov. 30 @University of Alaska Anchorage 9:07 p.m.
Dec. 1 @University of Alaska Anchorage 9:07 p.m.
Dec. 14 @St. Cloud State University 6:07 p.m.
Dec. 15 @St. Cloud State University 6:07 p.m.
Lightning College Hockey Classic (Tampa, FL)
Dec. 29 ~ Colorado College vs. RPI, 6 p.m.
Dec. 30 ~ Colorado College vs. UMass or Notre Dame, 3 or 6 pm
Jan. 4 @University of Wisconsin 6:07 p.m.
Jan. 5 @University of Wisconsin 6:07 p.m.
Jan. 11 University of Alaska Anchorage 7:37 p.m.
Jan. 12 University of Alaska Anchorage 7:07 p.m.
Jan. 18 Bemidji State University 7:37 p.m.
Jan. 19 Air Force Academy 7:07 p.m.
Jan. 25 @Michigan Tech University 5:07 p.m.
Jan. 26 @Michigan Tech University 5:07 p.m.
Feb. 1 Clarkson University 7:37 p.m.
Feb. 2 Clarkson University 7:07 p.m.
Feb. 8 St. Cloud State University 7:37 p.m.
Feb. 9 St. Cloud State University 7:07 p.m.
Feb. 22 @University of Minnesota Duluth 6:07 p.m.
Feb. 23 @University of Minnesota Duluth 6:07 p.m.
Feb. 29 Minnesota State University-Mankato 7:37 p.m.
March 1 Minnesota State University-Mankato 7:37 p.m.
March 7 @University of Denver Away 7:37 p.m.
March 8 University of Denver 7:07 p.m.

March 14-16 WCHA Playoffs (First Round-top 5 teams host)
TBA TBA
March 20-22 WCHA Final Five (St. Paul, MN)
TBA TBA

March 28-29 NCAA West Regional COLORADO SPRINGS

April 5-7 NCAA Frozen Four DENVER, CO

The season is approaching

You can tell the season is near when traffic online about the Tigers and college hockey starts to pick up. Today, the Gazette featured an article about former Tiger Brandon Straub’s battle to gain a roster spot with the Avalanche at rookie camp and some notes about the first captains practice of the season. One thing that I am surprised about is the source of the last 2 links. It appears Kate Crandall from the Gazette is starting with a solid effort for the season. I'm assuming that she has some privileges in terms of access to the team and practices that most of us non-press don't have. Fine by me, if she reports it I'll find it and post it up on here. I would definitely advise you to check out some of her older posts that have snuck by my alerts the last few weeks. Another sweet entry that I found was one that ranked the cities of the WCHA. C-Springs falls in 3rd place and has a pretty good article about our city and fans. Some things that the visitor found pleasantly surprised me so take a look! It appears I need to do some serious updating of my links section with all these new blogs popping up. I'm out of town on business this week followed by spending next weekend in Lincoln for the Huskers versus USC game. Enjoy the new articles and I will be back in full force in a week!

Anyone else get a certain sense of satisfaction watching the Michigan football team plod along and get pounded at home?!!

New Recruit for Tigers

The Tigers have landed recruit Tim Hall for the 08 or 09 recruiting class. See more at the WCHA blog

Zaba gets his wish

Matt Zaba has been waiting all summer for a chance in the NHL and got it this weekend. Originally drafted by the Kings, Zaba was informed that he would not be signed and left in limbo until the NY Rangers called and gave him the opportunity to join an organization lacking in depth at goalie. Check out the details and quotes from The Gazette.

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.

Get Ready to SEE Again!!

One of my biggest pet peeves EVER about the World Arena is finally being fixed!! The Arena installed nets inside the offensive zones a few seasons ago which is great for line-drives, except for one thing: They were thick and white and horribly blocked visibility. This coming season, we will get thinner and less obtrusive nets! Check out The Gazette article for the specifics. Thank you season ticket holders!!!


Also in case you missed it, Tom Preissing joined the LA Kings on July 3rd after leaving the SJ Sharks, his first team after leaving CC.

New blog...sorta

So it looks like the Gazette is trying to jump aboard the blogosphere with their lackluster CC hockey coverage. Go check it out and let's hear some opinions but be warned, there is a lot of white on the page, haha!! I will support and endorse other bloggers, like this one and even our evil DUh fans up north (sorry, they don't get a link!) and I consider my site to be for the fans and with the fans, not just me, but I am totally against the Gazette. I'm not sure if it's because their coverage sux, because they are a corporation, or because I root for fan content. Whatever the case, I now have incentive to get this blog converted over to a full blown website (I'm having problems with templates so it's taking longer) and stomp them! (not just the blog but the site as well) Get some discussion going in the comments section of this post about either how much our media coverage sux or things you want to see to help us fans dominate the CC Tiger web presence!!

Updates

Hope everyone is having a great summer. You know fall is coming up when the Broncos start training camp! Personally, football is number 1 to me but hockey is that close second. So, the Broncos starting can only mean that the NCAA Hockey season is a mere 2 months away. The Tigers start out at home vs U of Calgary October 6th (in case you missed all the media coverage for the season, oh wait...). Since there won't be a full 3 days of ESPN hype to cover the start of the season like the football counterparts, it's our job to create our own hype here on the Web.
I'm starting to modify things on the blog to get ready for the new season. I've added my own logo for the season, a countdown timer and a fun poll to judge your feelings about the 07/08 edition of the Tigers (and I fixed the amazing typo so it got reset from 1 vote back to zero so show some pride and vote!). My logo is having some compatibility issues with Blogger and is squished so I hope get that fixed as soon as I figure out what's causing it. I removed the rotating googlevids app. due to some "inappropriate" vids that snuck into the hockey category. Don't worry, the vids from the playoffs last year can still be found in the LINKS section. That's all for now. If there are any suggestions or comments about the site please let me know!!

Colorado Avalanche Schedule

I know the blog has Colorado College in the title but I'm still going to put in a bit about the Avs from time to time. In keeping with the schedule theme, here is the Avalanche 07-08 schedule.

2007-08 AVALANCHE SCHEDULE

(all times Mountain; times subject to change)

Oct. 3 Dallas, 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 4 at Nashville, 6 p.m.
Oct. 7 San Jose, 6 p.m.
Oct. 12 at St. Louis, 6:30 p.m.
Oct. 13 Columbus, 7 p.m.
Oct. 16 Calgary, 7 p.m.
Oct. 19 at Chicago, 6:30 p.m.
Oct. 21 at Minnesota, 4 p.m.
Oct. 23 at Edmonton, 7 p.m.
Oct. 26 at Calgary, 7 p.m.
Oct. 28 Minnesota, 6 p.m.

Nov. 1 Pittsburgh, 7 p.m.
Nov. 3 Vancouver, 8 p.m.
Nov. 5 Calgary, 7 p.m.
Nov. 7 Edmonton, 7 p.m.
Nov. 9 at Vancouver, 8 p.m.
Nov. 11 Minnesota, 6 p.m.
Nov. 16 at Dallas, 6:30 p.m.
Nov. 18 at Minnesota, 4 p.m.
Nov. 20 at Calgary, 7 p.m.
Nov. 22 at Edmonton, 7 p.m.
Nov. 24 Calgary, 5 p.m.
Nov. 28 Edmonton, 7 p.m.
Nov. 30 at San Jose, 8:30 p.m.

Dec. 1 at Los Angeles, 8:30 p.m.
Dec. 3 San Jose, 7 p.m.
Dec. 5 at Columbus, 5 p.m.
Dec. 7 Philadelphia, 7 p.m.
Dec. 9 St. Louis, 6 p.m.
Dec. 12 at Columbus, 5 p.m.
Dec. 13 at Nashville, 6 p.m.
Dec. 15 Nashville, 7 p.m.
Dec. 17 at Los Angeles, 8:30 p.m.
Dec. 19 at Anaheim, 8 p.m.
Dec. 21 N.Y. Rangers, 7 p.m.
Dec. 23 Vancouver, 6 p.m.
Dec. 27 Detroit, 7 p.m.
Dec. 29 Los Angeles, 1 p.m.
Dec. 31 at Phoenix, 7:30 p.m.

Jan. 2 Phoenix, 7 p.m.
Jan. 5 N.Y. Islanders, 7 p.m.
Jan. 8 at Detroit, 5:30 p.m.
Jan. 9 at Washington, 5 p.m.
Jan. 12 at Carolina, 5 p.m.
Jan. 13 at Florida, 3 p.m.
Jan. 15 at Tampa Bay, 5:30 p.m.
Jan. 18 Chicago, 7 p.m.
Jan. 20 Columbus, 6 p.m.
Jan. 22 Nashville, 7 p.m.
Jan. 24 Minnesota, 7 p.m.
Jan. 30 Chicago, 7 p.m.

Feb. 1 at Detroit, 5:30 p.m.
Feb. 2 at St. Louis, 6:30 p.m.
Feb. 4 Phoenix, 7 p.m.
Feb. 6 at San Jose, 8:30 p.m.
Feb. 9 at Vancouver, 8 p.m.
Feb. 12 Anaheim, 7 p.m.
Feb. 14 St. Louis, 7 p.m.
Feb. 17 at Chicago, 11 a.m.
Feb. 18 Detroit, 6 p.m.
Feb. 20 at Anaheim, 8 p.m.
Feb. 22 at Phoenix, 7:30 p.m.
Feb. 24 at Edmonton, 6 p.m.
Feb. 26 at Calgary, 7 p.m.
Feb. 27 at Vancouver, 7 p.m.

Mar. 1 Los Angeles, 7 p.m.
Mar. 4 Vancouver, 7 p.m.
Mar. 6 Anaheim, 7 p.m.
Mar. 8 Dallas, 7 p.m.
Mar. 9 at Dallas, 6 p.m.
Mar. 11 at Atlanta, 5 p.m.
Mar. 13 Edmonton, 7 p.m.
Mar. 15 New Jersey, 1 p.m.
Mar. 17 at Minnesota, 5 p.m.
Mar. 20 at Calgary, 7 p.m.
Mar. 22 at Edmonton, 8 p.m.
Mar. 24 Calgary, 7 p.m.
Mar. 26 Vancouver, 7 p.m.
Mar. 28 Edmonton, 7 p.m.
Mar. 30 at Minnesota, 4 p.m.
Apr. 1 at Vancouver, 8 p.m.
Apr. 6 Minnesota, 3 p.m.

College Hockey will adopt 2 referee rule

But we have to wait a year. The competition committee released their new list of rule changes and the one that stands out the most will be the 2 referee system that the NHL uses. However, it won't be in effect until 08-09. Another aspect under consideration are modifying OT rules. One example would be 4 on 4 or a shootout.

NHL draft updates

Holy crapy I'm writing a new entry! I've been busy enjoying summer so I haven't really had the motivation to sit down and write an entry but I'm making myself do it in light of some recent big news over the weekend. If you haven't already heard, Mr. Quiznos himself Billy Sweatt was drafted 38th by the Chicago Blackhawks in the second round of the draft. I still find it crazy how the NHL draft works, drafting young kids and then sending them off for 2-6 years to college or the minors. ESPN put it best in their headline "There wasn't any chest hair among the NHL draftees". Anyway, there was a fun article about Sweatt in the Gazette Saturday talking about his minimum wage job for the summer. I can't find it on the website because the search function sux on gazette.com (just like most of the rest of the site). Here's the rundown of the draft as a whole.

As far as the blog goes, I'm working on an actual website for all the content so that the links and vids and such can have their own pages. I'll still keep the blog for opinions and my rantings about hockey and then use the website for more formal things about the team and links to all the news releases around the WWW. If you guys have anything specific that you would like to see added, please let me know. As I've said before, blogs and websites work best as a 2-way conversation instead of some webmaster guessing what people care about! One thing of note, I apologize in advance if my coverage of the Tigers is a little weak the beginning of the season. Football season is what I live for so I will be following that more than anything, but I will make sure to give you all something to read weekly!

The Full 07/08 Schedule

Its never too early to start looking at the match-ups for this coming season. As most of you know, CC starts out with one of the toughest schedules in the country so we will find out pretty quickly how tough our team is. The benefit of this is early learning experience, strength of schedule for the PairWise and if for some reason the struggle, it will still be early and they will have plenty of time to recover. Of course the big discussion revolves around the DU series happening over Thanksgiving. Personally, I think its a great idea: so long as its televised on a national network. People are already at their TVs watching football and could easily change over and check out the CO rivals going at it afterward.
Here it is:


Oct. 6 University of Calgary 7:07 p.m.
Oct. 12 Under-18 US National Team 7:37 p.m.
Oct. 19 University of Minnesota 7:37 p.m.
Oct. 20 University of Minnesota 7:07 p.m.
Oct. 26 @University of New Hampshire 5 p.m.
Oct. 27 @University of New Hampshire 5 p.m.
Nov. 2 @University of North Dakota 6:37 p.m.
Nov. 3 @University of North Dakota 6:07 p.m.
Nov. 9 University of Minnesota Duluth 7:37 p.m.
Nov. 10 University of Minnesota Duluth 7:07 p.m.
Nov. 16 University of Wisconsin 7:37 p.m.
Nov. 17 University of Wisconsin 7:07 p.m.
Nov. 23 University of Denver 7:37 p.m.
Nov. 24 @University of Denver Away 7:07 p.m.
Nov. 30 @University of Alaska Anchorage 9:07 p.m.
Dec. 1 @University of Alaska Anchorage 9:07 p.m.
Dec. 14 @St. Cloud State University 6:07 p.m.
Dec. 15 @St. Cloud State University 6:07 p.m.
Lightning College Hockey Classic (Tampa, FL)
Dec. 29 ~ Colorado College vs. RPI, 6 p.m.
Dec. 30 ~ Colorado College vs. UMass or Notre Dame, 3 or 6 pm
Jan. 4 @University of Wisconsin 6:07 p.m.
Jan. 5 @University of Wisconsin 6:07 p.m.
Jan. 11 University of Alaska Anchorage 7:37 p.m.
Jan. 12 University of Alaska Anchorage 7:07 p.m.
Jan. 18 Bemidji State University 7:37 p.m.
Jan. 19 Air Force Academy 7:07 p.m.
Jan. 25 @Michigan Tech University 5:07 p.m.
Jan. 26 @Michigan Tech University 5:07 p.m.
Feb. 1 Clarkson University 7:37 p.m.
Feb. 2 Clarkson University 7:07 p.m.
Feb. 8 St. Cloud State University 7:37 p.m.
Feb. 9 St. Cloud State University 7:07 p.m.
Feb. 22 @University of Minnesota Duluth 6:07 p.m.
Feb. 23 @University of Minnesota Duluth 6:07 p.m.
Feb. 29 Minnesota State University-Mankato 7:37 p.m.
March 1 Minnesota State University-Mankato 7:37 p.m.
March 7 @University of Denver Away 7:37 p.m.
March 8 University of Denver 7:07 p.m.

March 14-16 WCHA Playoffs (First Round-top 5 teams host)
TBA TBA
March 20-22 WCHA Final Five (St. Paul, MN)
TBA TBA

March 28-29 NCAA West Regional COLORADO SPRINGS

April 5-7 NCAA Frozen Four DENVER, CO

And if you're interested in the USHL

Ask and you will recieve, I was lost about the USHL and it seems I have found the perfect place for updates, a nice USHL blog. He has some great info on the league's games as well as recruiting. Why do we care? Because many of the WCHA teams (and the rest of the country as well) will draft their players and then assign them to these development leagues to mature and adjust to faster hockey. USHL is the Tier 1 league and is basically AAA for college hockey-it's a sweet deal. If you have anymore questions, I'm sure our USHL blogger will be able to help out. See his comment in my previous post about all the recruits in just this past weekends' games.

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!

No warmup games next season

The Gazette announced (parts of) the Tiger's schedule today and it's front-loaded with some tough teams. While the D-1 football teams are pounding D-II opponets, the Tigers will be opening against WCHA regular and post-season champ Minnesota, followed by trips to New Hampshire and North Dakota. It looks like we will find out really fast just how good next year's team will be. Some other highlights include a Thanksgiving home-and-home with DU and a Jan. 19th meeting with North side rival Air Force.

Off season

I apologize to everyone for not doing more updates but between the off season and my crazy client demands for an upcoming ad pitch, I just haven't had the time nor the information to post. I assume most college hockey fans are NHL fans as well so the playoffs will give us some hockey fix. However, since the Avs aren't in the playoffs for the first time EVER, I haven't really been paying too much attention past scores. Well that, and the fact that the games are on Versus (which is not on regular cable in NE, it's "premium digital" crap). So I just watch the highlights. Check out our North Dakota friend for some fun regular off-season bits about college hockey and the NHL.

Michigan State Wins Title

The Spartans were, to me, the biggest underdog in the tournament but seemed to have the most fight of anyone. I'm sitting here watching the BC players crying on the ice and looking like little cry babies (anyone notice the BC player break his stick hitting the goal when State put in the empy netter?!!). Anyway enough of that, Michigan State fought back from 1-0 to score late in the third and take the lead with 23 seconds left in a very exciting third period. The first two were fairly uneventful as both teams fought a physical battle that took 50 minutes to really get going. It's not the WCHA but I'm happy for em, good game and good tournament. One thing of big note, Michigan State was a very gracious winning team, complimenting their opponent and enjoying the win and not getting a big head. To me, that makes me happy that they won. I'll put the links up from the game as they come in later.

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!

Spartans: 4 Bears: 2

My initial instinct and prediction about this game was wrong as Michigan State pulled out a 4-2 win against the Maine Bears. I thought that MS would show some fight and keep it close and they definately did just that. Maine pulled out to a 2-0 lead before the Spartans took over the game and finished it off. Hopefully tonight ND will take a cue from MS and beat the evil team from the East; BC

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!

Game Previews

It's a little bit of a lull in the college hockey world here for a week. The Frozen Four won't get started until April 5th and with the Avalanche pretty close to dead in the NHL playoff race, hockey is officially on hold for a few days. I will just be happy to see the games on TV since college hockey gets so little exposure. I never have a chane to watch TV during the week but has anyone see any publicity on any other channels for the Frozen Four. Personally, I would make sure to have some sort of commercial on the Big 5 networks nightly to try to pull new people into hockey. It doesn't help that the basketball tourney is taking up most people's time (I personally don't follow it so I have no idea how much people get zoned in). I would love to see the day when the Frozen Four is on ABC during primetime so that everyone can see it, that would be great for the sport.
In antipication of the game, ESPN has put together some pretty good pieces regarding the matchups. BC and ND is up first

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!

NCAA Tournament Overview

WEST REGIONAL at the Pepsi Center

Semifinals | Saturday

* Minnesota vs. Air Force, 1:30 p.m.

* Michigan vs. North Dakota, 5:30 p.m.

Championship | Sunday

* Semifinal winners, 4 p.m.

NORTHEAST REGIONAL at Verizon Wireless Arena, Manchester, N.H.

Saturday

New Hampshire vs. Miami, Ohio, 11 a.m.

Boston College vs. St. Lawrence, 2:30 p.m.

REGIONAL FINAL

Sunday

Semifinal winners, 1:30 p.m.

EAST REGIONAL at Blue Cross Arena, Rochester, N.Y.

Friday

Clarkson vs. Massachusetts, 12:30 p.m.

St. Cloud St. vs. Maine, 4 p.m.

REGIONAL FINAL

Saturday

Semifinal winners, 4 p.m.

MIDWEST REGIONAL at Van Andel Arena, Grand Rapids, Mich.

Friday

Notre Dame vs. Alabama-Huntsville, 3 p.m.

Boston University vs. Michigan State, 6:30 p.m.

REGIONAL FINAL

Saturday

Semifinal winners, 6:30 p.m.

THE FROZEN FOUR at Scottrade Center, St. Louis

SEMIFINALS

Thursday, April 5

East winner vs. Midwest winner, 2 p.m.

Northeast winner vs. West winner, 6 p.m.

Championship

Saturday, April 7

Semifinal winners, 5 p.m.

Air Force Rollin' with the big dogs

The Post takes a look at AF taking on the WCHA powerhouses

Another alumn making news

Tom Preissing scored a goal for the Ottowa Senators on March 17th to mark yet another CC player making a huge contribution to his NHL team.

ESPN takes a look at the NCAA Tournament

A good look at what will be going on in the college hockey world the next few weeks

It's kind of a big deal

Air Force coach Frank Serratore is enjoying his team's historic season.

AF gets a taste of the WCHA

In a little twist of fate, Air Force has won their conference and will be heading to the NCAA Tournament up the road at Pepsi Center. The "crappy" team of the area has beaten out the two powerhouses and gets the pleasure of playing against none other than Minnesota in the first round (a team that won the Broadmoor Trophy and was knocked out in the first round last year.) AF will get a taste of our conference and it will be interesting to see what they are made of. I'm all for the power of the WCHA, but it would be fun to the the team from N. Colorado Springs take out one of the best teams in the country.

AD leaving CC

Something of note for all those fans of CC, the 3 year athletic director Julie Soriero will be leaving the school for MIT.

50 years of history

Here is a piece from the Gazette that is pretty interesting. It's written by the reporter that I always bug about the timing and relevancy of ther stories. There was a video with it when it first came out on the front page but, in true Gazette fashion, it's been simplified and turned bland when it's put on the CC page. Check it out

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!

Future looks bright for positives of the year

Eventually, I am going to write a little bit about this past season myself, but I haven't collected all my thoughts yet. This was a season that was supposed to be a ho-hum season and turned into one of dissappointment. I will be off to Vegas for the remainder of the week and then driving back to Nebraska so I probably won't write until Monday. But please keep checking in throughout the off-season, I will be doing one or two updates a week, mostly about former players so the article about Noah Clarke couldn't have been better timing.

Future Bright for Tigers-Gazette
Unfitting Conclusion-Gazette

Noah Clarke makes a name for himself

Remember Noah Clarke from a few years back? Well, he made a name for himself yesterday by being the first Southern Cal kid to score a goal for LA. It's a pretty sweet article except that the ESPN article fails to mention he went to CC. The obviously edited version in the print Gazette today makes sure that we know he's one of our boys. Check it out, it's pretty cool

No shots, no goals, no Final Five

The Tigers managed a measily 17 shots tonight as they saw their season come to an end with at 1-0 loss at the World Arena. The announcers put it best when he said "Michigan Tech put a wall around their goalie's net". At the beginning of the series, we were warned about the Huskies ability to keep the pucks away from their net and they came through in full force in the team's biggest game of the season. The Tigers didn't have an answer for the tough defense of the rising Michigan Tech team. The Tigers are finished with their season and will join their rival DU in watching the Final Five next weekend and the NCAA tournament in their living rooms. I'll put up links about the game later and will have plenty of followup tomorrow.




Initial Gazette Game Summary
A very uneventful box score
INCH Box Score
CC Athletics Summary

Look what I just found

I'll admit it, I'm not partial to the CC Athletics site, but I did just discover that they have a live stats page. I haven't used it yet to see just how good it is, but seems like it could be what I'm looking for. I still would like to see something more polished but heck, this is a great start!

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.

Calling all CC fans

Ok so I've been looking around for videos and pics from the games and have only really come up with my own (which I will be adding at some point later today). As I have said before, The Gazette has a section for photos but there are only a handfull and they are all out of date. Yet, the actual newpaper has a few good pics each weekend, but they don't make it onto the website. Also, the Gazette had a slowly updating article following the game last night, but they didn't update it after the middle of the 2nd period. I had my game results up just after the game ended and yet their didn't updat until long after I went to bed. Along those same lines, it's hard to find a live update of the game online. Besides the radio, there is the ESPN scoreboard but it's not live (but better than all others). Here's my proposition and I need everyone's help. I already started it last night, but let's politely (or maybe not so much if you are completely fed up) start petitioning the Gazette to better their coverage of the games. If they have photos in the paper and a section on the site, why not put the pics online??? They have them, use them!! If there is an article updating the game, why not have someone at The Gazette updating the score in a score board while the reporters are at the game??!! It's not too hard to put up a scoreboard on the website! I left a comment on the game update last night mentioning how slow they are and how much better they could be doing. Not one site really stands out in their coverage of college hockey, most take over a day to update from the night before. The Gazette has a chance to be the leader in this category. Let's email and comment them en masse and see if we can get a result!!!!!
Another possibility is a group of us could start another blog just for game nights. This would probably take quite a few people, one for pics (of both the game and fans), one to be writing the game story, one to be constantly updating a few at a computer about the score, penalties and shots. It sounds like a lot but it can be done. Something to think about over the summer!

Tigers Force Game 3

CC got 2 goals and that was enough to take it the Game 3 Sunday night. CC shutout Michigan Tech 2-0 Saturday night at the World Arena. More to come later

OT turnovers cost Tigers

I saw it unfold right in front of me. With every turn over and failed attempt to clear, I knew what was coming. Just seconds into OT with MT in the Tigers' zone I turned to my sister and said "I've got a bad feeling". Unfortunately I was right, as the puck sat on, then rolled over the goal line the game ended. After numerous failed attempts to clear their own zone, the Tigers lost on a sloppy goal a mere 39 seconds into OT. As the 3rd period came to a close it was clear that CC was out of gas, the players looked like they were skating in sand. The Tigers had a skating advantage most of the game but couldn't come through with quality shots against a tight defense. The worst thing about it was I was stuck next to the idiodic MT fans who made up the stupidest cheers for their team. That's the one thing I hate more than losing is dealing with the fans from the overmatched opponet. But they got it done and we didn't so that's how it goes. I got tons of pics and a few vids of the game that I will put up through the weekend. Let's hope the Tigers can rebound and win 2 straight.

Great bit of trivia from the CC Athletic Site

Rematch of 1994 playoff series on tap
The Tigers, still on the bubble for a potential NCAAtournament bid, open the 2006-07 post-season this weekend with a first-round, best-of-three WCHA playoff series against Michigan Tech at the World Arena. Winner advances to next week’s WCHA Final Five at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn. Colorado College last met the Huskies in the opening round in 1994, after winning its first of three consecutive regular-season titles. Underdog Tech, however, pulled off upsets in Games 1 and 3 to advance and end CC’s Cinderella season on a sour note. The series finale was the last contest ever played at the old Broadmoor World Arena. MTU, 8-3-3 in its last 14 outings of the regular season, never has fared well on the Olympic sheet at the new World Arena. In fact, the Huskies have lost all 16 previous games against Colorado College at the CSWA, where the Tigers swept them (4-1, 2-1) earlier this season.


note:this information is directly from http://www.coloradocollege.edu/Athletics/varsity_sports/Hockey/
I take no responsibility for it's creation

Everything you ever wanted to know about the series

The CC Athletic site has all kinds of good stuff about the MT series. Check it out

Some things to look for tonight

There are a few things that the local paper has been talking about regarding this weekend's series against Michigan Tech. The Tigers have recently started scoring more and came out of the funk from the previous 3 weeks. However, MT likes to line up all five skaters along the blue line to disrupt the offensive rush. CC is a speed team and could be affected by this scheme. The Tigers need to crash to the net to get shots and goals and MT will use thier system to keep the play to the outsides and out of their zone. The last time these two teams played, MT came out with a 1-0 shutout win.


Something else to watch tonight will be goaltender stud Matt Zaba who is facing the possibility of playing every game this weekend and the possibility of playing 6 games in 9 days. After his slump at the end of last season, the fatigue could be a factor in his play. Hopefully, the team wins in two games and the problem of a worn out goalie won't need to be solved. CC has two other goaltenders in sophomore Drew O’Connel and senior Chris Kawano, neither of which have seen significant playing time.


The season series between these two teams is in CC's favor. CC won the series at the World Arena in November with scores of 4-1 and 2-1. At the end of January, the teams tied 2-2 and MT won the second and most recent game 1-0, largely on their defensive scheme. Hopefully the Tigers and rely on their goal scoring frenzy last weekend and come out and dominate a tough opponet. When the weekend is over, CC should be heading to The Excel Center

WCHA playoffs from a non-conference POV

Chicago blogger checks out the WCHA

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.

USCHO Summary

Miracle Comeback: DU Scores Twice In Final Minute To Earn Draw With CC
This would truly classify as sister kissing, we lose 4th place because of the 1 point tie and last minute collapse

Quick game summary from CC Athletics site

CC lets Denver off hook, settles for tie
The University of Denver scored twice in the final minute of regulation after pulling goalie Peter Mannino on Saturday, earning the Pioneers a 5-5 tie in their regular-season finale with Colorado College at the World Arena. For CC, which squandered leads of 3-0, 4-1 and 5-2, the single point meant the difference between fourth and fifth place in the final WCHA standings. The Tigers enter next weekend’s opening round of the league playoffs as a No. 5 seed and will begin the post-season by hosting sixth-place Michigan Tech in a best-of-three series. DU’s Ryan Dingle knotted Saturday’s contest on a deflection at 19:56 of the third period, 32 seconds after Keith Seabrook pulled the visitors to within 5-4. All five of Colorado College’s goals, including two by sophomore center Chad Rau, came on the power play. Rau also helped set up a red lighter by senior defenseman Lee Sweatt, while freshman forwards Bill Sweatt and Andreas Vlassopoulos collected three assists apiece. Freshman right wing Mike Testwuide and junior defenseman Jack Hillen scored CC’s other goals.

Scores from Saturday night

Take a look at the other scores from the night, one big one of note is North Dakota stomping St. Cloud 7-2

Kissin your sister-CC DU tie 5-5 in season finale

At least they got a point and the Pan. The Tigers and Pioneers battled it out in the last game of the season and ended up with one of the most loathsome results: tying the arch rival. Granted, we will take the points but feeling equal to a rival isn't good. However, CC did win the season series 3-0-1 and didn't lose to the Pioneers, something that has haunted them for the past few seasons. CC will open at home ice next Friday (march 9th) and may still have a shot at the NCAA Tourney. For now, it's time to enjoy the Gold Pan and get ready for at least 2 more home games!

CC going for the sweep! WEAR GOLD!

The Tiger's play their final regular season home game tonight against DU and have a chance to get the 3rd place seed in the WCHA playoffs that start next weekend. The Tigers clinched home ice for next weekend and tonight will decided the final seed. The Tigers can also sweep the season series against DU and potentially knock DU out of contention for the NCAA tournament. After beating tying us for the MacNaughton Cup, beating us in the WCHA final and in the NCAA tournament 2 years ago, I think this would be a great chance to get some revenge. For everyone going to the game, be sure to wear GOLD! The game is on ESPNU so let's make sure to show support for the Tigers with the chance for the whole country to see us on national TV (well, premium channel national TV, haha). The puck is scheduled to drop at 8:07pm Mountain Time. I'm hoping to head to a bar and watch the game and represent the Tigers and The Springs here in Lincoln!

USCHO summary

CC Blanks DU!

Gazette Game coverage

CC brings Gold Pan home

Denver Post game summary

DenverPost.com - Tigers take Gold Pan from DU

Tigers get Gold Pan with 3-0 Friday win over DU!

Weekend winnings

There are numerous things at stake in this weekend's series against DU. For starters, the often forgotten Gold Pan is on the line for the winner of the regular season series. DU has won in the past 3 years but CC has the edge this season by virtue of their 2 game sweep earlier this season. CC needs to simply get one point (TIE) over the weekend to win the pan. Of course we would all prefer that the Tigers do better and get the 4-0 season sweep!

Another important aspect of this game, and probably much more important that a mining pan, is the seeding for the WCHA playoffs that start next weekend. DU has already clinched home ice but CC can clinch home ice with at least a win. Michigan Tech trails the Tigers by 2 points and could still take the final home ice spot if the Tigers get swept (let's hope the Tigers can turn it around, back-to-back sweeps are never a good motivator for the WCHA tourney). Other fun facts about the game are listen on the CC website and look over all the records and history between the two teams. One fun thing to note is that 12 members of the Tigers' 1957 National Championship team will be at the game Saturday to celebrate the 50yr anniversary. It's too bad there aren't any more between then and now because certain DU fans mark this date as "50 years without a title"...I won't mention any names...

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.

Power Rankings

The Tigers recent slide is reflected in the current INCH Power Rankings. The Tigers fell out of the top 20 this week but still remain "bubble-licious" and can get back into the rankings with a strong (read:winning) effort this weekend. On the opposite bench for this weekend, DU is sitting comfortably at the number 7 position, one ahead of their past opponent North Dakota. DU also clinched a home spot in the first round of the WCHA playoffs, CC is still up in the air and can get that spot if they can get the wins this weekend. CC really needs to get their confidence up for the run at the WCHA title and hopefully the I25 Rivalry will give them a chance to bring it all. Last home game of the year, we want to make sure the arena is full of gold for the game!

On a related note, here is a fun quote from INCH about our upcoming opponet...

"For nearly 20 years, we’ve had to correct people and say, “It’s the University of Denver, not ‘Denver University,’ even though that’s what their initials would have you believe.” Frankly, we’re tired of it. So to the folks at Magness Arena, we say this: “If you want people to get your name right, stop calling yourselves 'DU.'"

Work ahead

CC seems to have lost it's scoring identity lately as the Tigers have struggled to score. This past weekend dropped them into 5th place in the WCHA. This coming weekend is extremely important for several reasons, all of which revolve around the opponet. CC will play a home-and-home with DU in the I25 Rivalry and it could be a battle for 3rd place in the conference. CC currently has 26 points and DU with 29. If the Tigers sweep the series (which of course we would love!), they have a chance to pass the Pioneers. However, if North Dakota wins just one of their games, then it would be a tie at 30 points. They take on 2nd place St. Cloud State. CC and ND split both series' this season and, therefore, split the season series 2-2. As the week goes on, I will try to have different things surrounding the upcoming I25 Rivalry.

WCHA
		WCHA						Overall
	Team	GP	W-L-T	Pts.	GF-GA			GP	W-L-T	GF-GA
1	Minnesota	26	17-6-3	37	84-61			35	25-7-3	131-80
2	St. Cloud State	26	14-6-6	34	84-60			32	20-6-6	109-68
3	Denver	26	13-10-3	29	68-65			36	21-12-3	99-82
4	North Dakota	26	12-10-4	28	83-70			34	18-12-4	113-90
5	Colorado College	26	12-12-2	26	71-69			34	16-15-3	100-90
6	Michigan Tech	26	10-11-5	25	63-57			34	15-14-5	81-73
	Minnesota State	28	10-13-5	25	81-99			36	13-17-6	103-125
8	Wisconsin	26	11-13-2	24	56-52			34	14-17-3	75-72
9	Minnesota-Duluth	26	8-15-3	19	63-81			34	12-18-4	95-111
10	Alaska-Anchorage	28	8-19-1	17	62-101			34	12-19-3	85-114
Switch to Winning Percentage order

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.

A few interesting links from the Gazette before the game

Yea I know they are just links and I would much rather write my own story but oh well. Here's is an interesting piece on Billy Sweatt and the upcoming NHL Draft, an update on recruit Mike Connolly (he bailed on us), and a few other notes from the week.

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

Tigers Fall in Polls

Post-season possibilities update
The Tiger Den at Gazette.com

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

2 fun stories from the weekend

The Tiger Den at Gazette.com
A little bit about Don Lucia and Kellen Briggs, the Gophers goalie from CS

The Clock is Ticking

The Tiger Den at Gazette.com
Here is an article from the Gazette about the end of the season by David Ramsey

Radio Link

So after some complaining and searching I finally found something to help me with the games. I found out that the team website does actually have a link for listening to the games live, and it works with all major audio players. I guess I didn't give the athletics site enough credit because it's been there all along. It's basically a link for 103.9 The Eagle which carries the games and coaces show, but it's a start. Now that I have found this, I want to see if I can get those broadcasts to be put onto itunes in a podcast format. There are a few schools that have their own channel so we could create one ourselves, it's free and simple. I also found out this weekend that ESPN does have a live-updating scoreboard of the games, you just have to hunt for it. Again, if anyone knows where to find video of the games (either highlights or the full game), let me know!

Weekend swept away

The only positive that can come out of this weekend was that Minnesota is probably the best team in the country, however, being swept at home is never ever a positive thing. The Tigers held it to 0-0 until near the end of the 2nd period when they let in 2 goals in under 5 minutes. However, the Tigers scored 2 quick goals in the first 8 minutes of the 3rd period to tie it but Minnesota got the win with a goal 22 seconds later that proved to be the game winner. It's too bad that CC missed a chance to gain points this weekend. A win against Minnesota would have given them a quality win and better placement in the PairWise rankings but instead they are now facing the strong possibility of not making the NCAA tournament. We are going to need nothing less than a sweep this next weekend against Minnesota State or we can kidd the post season goodbye. The Tigers are now (16-13-3).

As far as attendance and my goal of creating fan interest: the Arena had 7809 fans tonight which is a good jump over the 7790 the night before (both were sellouts so it's nice to see it over capacity). I need to do some digging into season tickets since it looks like Saturdays are consistently higher in number which alludes to Sat. only packages. The one thing I'm worried about is how many of these fans were Gopher fans. I've been to games against those teams from the North and have often felt outnumbered. If anyone has any stories from the game I would love to hear em! (either side)

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.

Something fun to think about

Here is an interesting story about the college hockey rivalries in Colorado. With the conclusion of the BeanPot tournament and all it's exposure, I figured this was appropriate. It also goes along with my idea of the I25 rivalry, this time with 3 teams!
Let's Go DU - Denver Hockey (ignore the title and just read the article!)

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

A quick look at the next games

As most of you know, the Tigers are taking on the rival Minnesota Golden Gophers this coming Friday and Saturday nights. Of course coaching is the underlying theme of this series since Minnesota's Don Lucia was the Tigers coach from 1993-1999. In that time the Tigers won the regular season WCHA title 3 times (his first three seasons). After Don's first season, the Tigers made the NCAA tournament every year for the rest of his tenure, they finished 2nd in 95/96 and 3rd in 96/97. The second place finish was the heartbreaking loss to Michigan. He has had even better success at the helm in Minnesota as the Gophers won the national title in 00/01 and again in 01/02. They have reached the NCAA tournament in all but his first season as head coach and have also won the WCHA tournament 02/03 and 03/04. Only this past season has he won the regular season title with the Gophers. Currently, the Gophers are riding a 2-game win streak after sweeping Alaska Anchorage 8-2 and 2-1. According to the USCHO poll, Minnesota is currently #2 in the nation with a record of 23-5-3. The Tigers dropped to 14th after coming off a 1 point weekend but do have the leagues best home record on their side. As far as conference standings, Minnesota is #1 with 33 points, followed by St. Cloud with 29, Denver with 27 and CC with 26. This weekend's games are extremely important in both the Pairwise rankings as well as the conference race for the MacNaughton Cup.

Monday work

As you can see I've given the site a bit of a cosmetic makeover. I was hoping that the left justified links would help with readibility since my entries are ragged on the right. I went hunting for CC videos on both google video and youtube and didn't find a thing. Even the cstv site didn't have anything CC, their college hockey highlight video had Air Force but no CC, what the heck?! As you know, I'm on a mission to find video of the Tigers so I'm still hunting. I did find a cool video about Marty Sertich from a few years ago hidden in the video highlights from USCHO, but the highlights are all over the place, no real nightly recaps. I did, however, find a fun video of a cheap goal by ND against the Gophers. Granted, it's not CC in the video, but hey, maybe it could happen this weekend!

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!

World Arena History

Well, the weekend series against #4 St. Cloud State didn't start off as well as hoped. It's funny how mental lapses can ruin a game. Fortunately, CC didn't lose any ground in the standings and hopefully can rebound tonight. I just remembered today that my first CC games was a loss against St. Cloud up at Clune arena. I remember clearly because I was wondering why the opposing team was wearing Montreal Canadiens jerseys, haha. I was just looking over some of the history of CC and came across some nice pics of the old Broadmoor World Arena/ Broadmoor Ice Palace. I remember walking there in elementary school for field trips. I never did see a CC game there but my parents always talked about the traffic in the Broadmoor neighborhood after the games. This place was one of the premier centers in the country with Cheyenne Canyon in the background. It hosted the NCAA championship 11 times between 1948 and 1969. I really wish The Springs still had something like that, something nationally known, especially for the hockey team. It seems like college hockey is seen (on a national scale anyway) and an east coast sport. Teams like Boston, Maine and UMass seem to get all of the national attention. Even when the WCHA had all final 4 teams, there was not too much in the way of national attention. It's too bad people have so many preconcieved notions about certain things. For example, people here in Nebraska (for the most part) think that it always snows in Colorado and we all go skiing all the time, even though those of us in the Springs know that its usually 50 degrees in the winter. This is probably off the hockey topic but its something that makes me mad. National exposure=top tier recruits and money and fans. If only College hockey could be more known as a national sport, rather than a sport with good east coast teams. That just seems like the way it is. Anyway as for tonight, GO TIGERS!

Wednesday update

Hey I just wanted to say thanks to all who have written comments and posted links, I'm glad I can finally get this thing going and we can make a difference. My goal this week is to write a bit about the games coming up this weekend, hopefully I can get some time tomorrow afternoon. It's pretty exciting to see that people are actually reading this and I hope you all can start giving me input and we can start a local "grassroots" style campaign to help out CC. (nothing like the Boston/cartoon network fiasco though, haha). I was not aware of the season ticket total so that is good to know, but I'm not sure it's good or bad . It's good because the Arena holds 7532 so 6000 is pretty darn close but it's bad because, well, there were not anywhere close to 6000 at the two games I went to (the ND fans were louder than us!!...and notice the purple in the darkness). Maybe an online ticket exchange would make things easier for people to get their tickets used and not have the hassle of trying to sell them out front before the games. Also, I am really, really interested in the podcast/vodcast idea for the games, especially now that I see at least one other commenting fan is away from the Springs. Anyone with connections let me know, I would love to be able to watch this weekend's games at St. Cloud (I had a professor that was from there).
On a random note, here in Lincoln they have a team called the Stars which plays in the USHL. I never really knew much about it or the team but it's a big deal here. Turns out they are younger players (16-20 years old) who then get recruited out of these teams for college. I have always known that hockey has some "non traditional" means of development but I confess I never knew about a local team full of hs kids. Anyway, the cool thing about this was that two of the players are slated to play for CC and one for DU (yea boo but "it's" our conference...). I read the article in the paper and saw it mentioned the powerhouse teams with CC right in the mix!

New Direction

Up until now, I have been throwing out ideas and letting people read them and give feedback. My goal is to get input from others and someday put together a way to promote CC Tiger hockey. While sitting in class tonight, I realized that I need to start doing some of the idea I've been throwing out. I haven't gotten any comments so that's not helping, but I'm going to start working (hopefully daily) to have an update about the team. I still want to stay away from analyzing the games themselves simply because I am looking to get people to go to them. However, I am not opposed to adding a summary of the games Friday and Saturday nights, but I feel the sports outlets do a better job. My posts will now include CC history, information about the upcoming opponents and highlights from over the season and past seasons. I really want people to start giving input so that I can make this something that people want to read and can have an influence over the content. My biggest goal is to get video of th games put up as Vodcasts in iTunes, so if anyone has access to those, that would be awesome!

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!!!

Where are the pics?

Another thing that I just noticed this morning reading over the game was the quality of game pics. The Gazette coverage has a link for pics from the games so I clicked on it so I could see some shots from the game last night. Instead what I got was 14 mid-quality pics and none of which are less than 3 months old. What's the deal with that? Then I went to the CC Tiger Athletics site to see if there's was any better and I was disgusted to see that the December 2nd game against DU was the last time they added pics. This is RIDICULOUS! I personally love game pics because you get to see a freeze-frame of the high speed action and actually see things that you miss in real-time. If I could regularly attend the games, I would love to put up pics from each game but I can't so I'm asking all fans that can go what they think. It would be awesome to start a fansite where we could post fan pics from each game, both pics of the players, the arena and just fans in general. I started a yet unused google group that would be perfect for sharing amongst fans. Let's make CC Tiger hockey the greatest experience in the country, for both those at the games and those who can't make it!

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!