Tigers Take Care of Business, Earn Sweep of Mankato

After a lackluster few weeks that included a four game losing streak for CC, the Tigers seem to have found their stride once more, and are now riding a four game winning streak. I had the great misfortune of missing the two games this weekend, so I'll have to write this entry based only on box scores, recaps, and fan's impressions of the games.

It sounds to me like CC recovered after playing a horrendous first period on Friday night, and eventually went through a progression that had the boys playing great hockey by the end of the game on Saturday. The Saturday night game sounds like it was a doozy for CC - great defense, abundance of scoring, solid play in net - just good hockey all around.

Some notes:

Billy Sweatt Boy is it nice to have this guy back. Two goals and an assist on Satuday and all of a sudden "The Billy" is scoring at a point per game this season.

Matt Zaba and Drew O'Connell Matt Zaba seems to have stepped up his game to a whole new level in the last few weeks. I heard from some that he didn't have his best game on Friday, but he's still playing great. Drew played nicely in game two, as well.

Scott McCulloch and Jimmy Kilpatrick These guys are doing everything that we knew they would have to going into the season. The two both have 13 points so far this year and seem to have successfully stepped into their new offensive roles.

Cody Lampl Cody has been all over the ice recently, and in my opinion his play has vastly improved since last season. He's playing aggressive: skating hard and finishing his checks, and now looks like one of CC's top forwards.

Cody Lampl and Mike Testwuide Congrats to both on their first goals in the NCAA on Saturday.

The wins this weekend put CC in a three-way tie for fourth in the WCHA along with Alaska and Michigan Tech. The three squads are all one point behind North Dakota for third, with CC having two games in hand. One of the biggest surprises in this young season is the disapointing play of defending champ Wisconsin. Wisconsin has already played 10 WCHA games, and sits in 7th place with a 3-6-1 record. A few weeks ago they were swept at home by DU, and this weekend they were swept on the road by Minnesota. North Dakota, who the Tigers will take on next weekend, suffered a surprising sweep of their own, at the hands of Alaska. In the WCHA thus far, it seems like there is Minnesota, and then there's everyone else. North Dakota and Wisconsin were both supposed to be very good and both seem to have stumbled out of the gate.

Out East, things have been interesting as well. Maine finally lost, getting destroyed by New Hampshire at Alfond. Then, last night, they lost another home game, this time in overtime to Boston College, who is quickly being reduced to "pretender" status after an embarrassing loss to Harvard and a tie against Northeastern. The story of the season so far has come not from Hockey East but from the CCHA, where traditional bottom dweller Notre Dame seems to have improved by leaps and bounds. They sit at 5th in the USCHO poll and are coming off a split against Michigan State. The problem is the Fighting Irish haven't really played any good teams yet, and they did drop an early game to Minnesota State, so let's not declare them a Frozen Four team just yet.