Tigers Prepare for OOC Showdown

Tommorrow night the Tigers will take on the Bemidji State Beavers in their second real non-conference series of the season. Their last, against now #2 New Hampshire, didn't go so well, with CC getting swept at home. That series sparked a four game losing streak for the Tigers, who had to travel to Minnesota the week afterwards. Bemidji State should not present as much of a challenge for the Tigers, but could still provide a tough series - especially since the Tigers will be missing star freshman Bill Sweatt, who's at the World Junior Championships in Sweden. The series could have important implications when it comes time to make NCAA tournament selections. Out-of-conference games are always important, and a loss in this series could hit the Tigers hard in the pairwise rankings. On the other hand, if Bemidji State ends the season as a TUC (team under consideration), some wins this weekend could give the Tigers a nice boost come selection time.

Speaking of the World Juniors, the US team isn't doing so great. They dropped a heartbreaker in their first game, 2-1 to Germany. In the second, the US was beaten by Canada 6-3. CC's lone representative at the tournament, Bill Sweatt, however, is doing fairly well - notching two points in the first two games. He'll have to keep playing well if the US wants to redeem their medal hopes in the following days.

I haven't updated in awhile because there hasn't really been much going on in the college hockey world. Aside from a bunch of PC crybabies at Dartmouth whining about their upcoming game against North Dakota, things have been quiet. One link of note is INCH's midway all-WCHA team, which includes our own Scott McCulloch. There's some other notes about CC in that article, including a nice mention of McCulloch's emergence with the graduation of Marty Sertich and Brett Sterling, and also a little buildup for CC's home series for Minnesota that's coming up in a month or two. Lastly, there's a nice article on USA Hockey's website about Bill Sweatt.

CC Scores '08 Recruit

Western College Hockey, one of my favorite sports sites out there, reports that CC has picked up another recruit for the class of '08. David Civitarese, currently a member of the Okotoks Oilers of the AJHL, has thus far put up 19 points in 32 games, and is considered by the NHL's scouting bureau to be a possible late round pick in this year's draft. Civitarese joins Andrew Hamburg, Ryan Lowery, and possibly Nick Dineen among the Tiger's '08 recruit class.

Speaking of Ryan Lowery, news concerning him popped up in the college hockey world earlier this week. Apparently Lowery was involved in an altercation with a teammate during practice and he seemed to get the worst of it. Lowery ended up with a separated shoulder and a broken jaw, and is expected to miss significant time. A strange story indeed.

One last piece of news - the NCAA has rejected both CC and UAA's requests to stagger their suspensions from last Saturday's brawl, so all five suspended CC players will be forced to sit on Friday night of this week. Billy Sweatt will be absent too, as he'll be playing with Team USA at the World Juniors.

Wild Weekend Ends With Brawl For The Ages

After a weekend that saw both teams come away with one overtime win, the Tigers and the Seawolves decided to settle things with a bench clearing brawl for the ages on Saturday night. The video has yet to be found, but if the pictures tell the story, it'll be an instant classic. What could lead to such an epic struggle? A great weekend of hard fought hockey, filled with late comebacks, plenty of penalties, and dramatic overtime wins. Adding to the obvious frustration that led to the brawl was the fact that both teams had their turn at dramatic third period comebacks, only to lose games in overtime. On Friday, it was the Tigers coming back from 4-0 down to tie it up before falling in overtime. On Saturday, the Seawolves rallied from a 3-1 deficit to send the game to extra time, before getting killed by penalties in the extra session.

Matt Zaba, who had been a rock in net for the past few weeks, was shaky from the start in Friday's game and was pulled after giving up four quick goals. Seawolves freshman Jon Olthuis, who was starting in goal after a terrible performance last week from regular starter Nathan Lawson, was able to finally lead Alaska-Anchorage to a long awaited victory in the World Arena. Lawson and Zaba were back in on Saturday, this time with Zaba coming out on top. Chad Rau and Scott McCulloch led the way offensively for CC, with Rau tallying a goal and two helpers on Saturday, and McCulloch putting in two. Brandon Polich set up two goals on Friday, and Andreas Vlassopoulos also netted his first career point with an assist.

All in all it wasn't a bad weekend for the Tigers, although it would have been nice to keep up the winning streak over UAA at home. The Seawolves have proven so far that they're for real this year in the WCHA, however, so the Friday night loss is not the end of the world. With St. Cloud State playing nonconference games against Colgate over the weekend, the Tigers have clawed their way into second place in the WCHA standings. They are followed in the standings by St. Cloud State, Denver, and Alaska-Anchorage.

The Tigers certainly seemed to have some early letdowns after an hard fought sweep of Denver last week. The Seawolves were able to come out on Friday and put in four goals in the first period. The Tigers seemed to settle in, however, and battle back nicely before dropping the contest in overtime. The Tigers could have sealed the win late in the third on Friday if it was not for a late goal being called back by the officials. CC players also hit a number of pipes throughout the game. On Saturday, it was CC who was able to come out on top after a late scare, with Scott McCulloch finding the back of the net in overtime to seal the win and secure a split for the Tigers.

The Tigers' next series will be at home against nonconference opponent Bemidji State. While the Beavers come from the CHA and may not help the Tigers tournament resume, they have proven themselves a worthy contender, recently sweeping a home and home series with Minnesota-Duluth. In fact, Bemidji State is 4-0-0 so far this year against WCHA competition, as they also swept Minnesota State earlier this year. All things considered, this could end up being a tough series for CC - especially since five players (DeBoer, Testwuide, Straub, L. Sweatt, Gannon) were handed game disqualifications as a result of the fracas in Saturday's game.


Notes

* Minnesota continues to pace the WCHA with a weekend sweep of Michigan Tech.

* Either Wisconsin is back on track, or North Dakota is heading into a tailspin. The Badgers swept this weekend in Grand Forks.

* This has already become obvious, but if you haven't been paying attention, Notre Dame is for real this year. This weekend they swept Michigan.

* The Tigers had a recruiting visit this weekend. Wish it could have been a week earlier!

Sweep!

After a dominating win on Friday night, Colorado College was able to buckle down and steal game two on Saturday for the sweep over the hated University of Denver Pioneers. The sweep puts CC at 3rd in the WCHA with 14 points, and drops Denver to a tie for 4th, at 11 points. The Tigers overall record is now 10-5-1. And while CC is playing such great team hockey right now that it's hard to attribute their success to individuals, but here's some players who had particularly impressive weekends:

#1 Star : Matt Zaba - I always like to give props to the goalie because when they play solid but not spectacular, they rarely get attention. Well, this weekend Zaba was borderline spectacular. On Friday night, he consistently made big saves while the offense pounded away and finished off the Pioneers. On Saturday, he held the Tigers in the game with some huge saves when DU had all the momentum. Just a stellar all-around performance.

#2 Star : Lee Sweatt - Sweatt was not only laying guys out with big hits, but he also put the puck in the net on both nights. On Saturday, he opened the scoring for CC on the powerplay. On Friday, he solidified a 1-0 lead. He's looking sharp out there and playing physical - a real thrill to watch.

#3 Star : Chad Rau - Another big weekend for Rau, as he puts one in on Friday and then scores yet another huge goal in Magness.

Honorable mentions:

Mike Testwuide - Comes flying on Friday and puts in two goals against big-bro's team.

Denver's youngsters - Gotta give some love to Denver's younger players, who were more impressive than the scores of the games would indicate. Ruegsegger, Rhakshani, Trotter - these guys are all for real. Very impressive. Chris Butler (soph) accounted for DU's only goal on Friday, with Ruegsegger netting the assist. On Saturday, Trotter put up a goal and an assist, while two other freshmen (Ruegsegger and Seabrook) had assists. There could be some really good games between these two teams down the road if most of these guys stick around.

This was a huge weekend for CC for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that the Tigers have put themself in great position in the WCHA standings. I mentioned earlier that the Tigers are in 3rd behind St. Cloud State by one point; remember, though, that CC has two games in hand and could potentially move three points ahead of the Huskies with two wins. Thus, the Tigers have put themselves in great position in the WCHA, especially after what looked like a crippling sweep at the hands of Minnesota early in the season. Don't discount St. Cloud State though, they're on a roll of their own. They're currently on a six game win streak (four in the WCHA), and have their next six WCHA games against bottom-half teams, although they end their season with a fairly brutal stretch of league games.

The wins also put the Tigers in position to take back the apparently new and improved Gold Pan trophy. While not necessarily important in the big picture, it would be nice to see CC win back the trophy that DU has had a stranglehold on for the past few seasons.

All in all, a fantastic weekend for the Tigers and their fans. This was just good, solid, team hockey. Everyone looked sharp; players were finishing checks, forechecking effectively, crashing the net, and wearing down the opponent. If CC keeps up this type of play they should be able to win a lot of games down the road. Speaking of which, the Tigers are about to start a six game stretch at home, starting with two games against Alaska-Anchorage. The Seawolves come to town at 5-5 in the WCHA. Their most recent series was a split with Minnesota-Duluth. Before that, however, they managed an impressive series sweep of North Dakota. I'm confident that if the Tigers keep up the good team play, they can take some points in this series and further solidify their standing in the WCHA.

A couple more random thoughts:

* Great to see Andre Vlassopoulos playing again for CC - and looking solid.

* Best wishes to DU's Adrian Veideman, whose head hit the ice hard with no helmet on in Saturday's game, leading to a concussion. Also to teammate Ryan Helgason, who broke his hand in the same game.

* Ditto to Minnesota State goaltender Dan Tormey, whose hand was cut up pretty bad on Friday night by an opponent's skate. He suffered a severed tendon - ouch.