Colorado College Tigers Find No Room for Comfort in 3rd
Richard Bachman and the defending WCHA champion Tigers play at Denver Saturday |
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March 4, 2009
Colorado College won't be able to live up to the preseason coaches prediction of repeating as WCHA champion, but the Tigers current third-place slot would be a very comfortable alternative. If you put it to coach Scott Owens, he would gladly accept third right now and take it to the league playoffs.
"We could be third," said Owens, "or seventh."
Or, anyplace in between.
In the craziest finish in WCHA history, North Dakota and Denver will duel for the league title on the final weekend, but Colorado College - with only one game remaining, and that against arch-rival Denver - sits in third place with 30 points, but Wisconsin is only one point back, and Minnesota, St. Cloud State and Minnesota-Duluth all are three points back of CC.
"And of all of those, we're the team with only one game," said Owens. "We may know our fate before our game Saturday, but we may not. I've never seen the WCHA race this wide-open."
North Dakota is first with 36 points, but must finish with two games at Wisconsin. The Fighting Sioux need one point to assure themselves of at least a share of the title, otherwise Denver, which has 35 points, could vault past for the MacNaughton Cup with a victory over CC Saturday.
But its from third to seventh that the fun really begins. If CC beats Denver and goes to 32 points, Wisconsin could still take third if the Badgers sweep North Dakota - a tall order, since the Fighting Sioux are on a 12-1-3 finishing rampage.
How about this scenario, which is far from impossible: If CC loses to Denver, and Wisconsin sweeps or splits with North Dakota, while Minnesota sweeps at Michigan Tech, UMD sweeps Alaska Anchorage, and St. Cloud State sweeps Minnesota State, Mankato, Wisconsin would climb to either 33 or 31, while Minnesota, St. Cloud Sate, and UMD all would elevate to 31. That would put all four ahead of CC's current 30 point tally.
The Tigers went to Grand Forks last weekend, knowing a sweep by CC would have forged a three-way showdown with North Dakota and Denver. The Tigers battled the sizzling Sioux to a 4-4 overtime standoff in the first game, then fell 4-3 in overtime in the second.
"It was very good college hockey, up and down and wide open," said Owens. "I think people who saw the games enjoyed the skating and up-tempo play. We finally got everybody back from injuries, and I thought we moved the puck well. And of course, North Dakota moves the puck well too. We had a power-play in overtime but didn't score, and they got a goal.
"When you look at the rest of the league, Minnesota helped themselves by getting three points from Duluth; Duluth is in good position; Wisconsin and St. Cloud State are right there. And even if you look at Mankato, Anchorage and Michigan Tech, they're all playing good hockey.
"Not only do I have no idea where we'll finish, I don't even have an opinion on who I'd prefer to see us play in the first round. It's that tight."
Two weeks ago, CC swept two games from Minnesota, and the Minneapolis Star Tribune's stringer covering the series proclaimed that the Gophers, whose 1-6-1 slump dropped them to seventh, were destined to start the playoffs on the road. But last weekend in Minneapolis, freshman Kent Patterson was the surprise starter in goal as the Gophers struggled back twice to gain a 2-2 tie with instate rival UMD the first night. With Alex Kangas back in the nets, the Gophers blew a 2-0 lead when MacGregor Sharp's pure hat trick overlapped from the second to third periods in the second game, and put UMD up 3-2. Then, for the first time in the New Year, the Gophers simply forced their way to victory, as Tony Lucia and Nico Sacchetti scored, and it was clinched at 5-3 when Mike Hoeffel risked an icing with a 140-foot shot that found the empty net.
By taking three out of four points in the series, Minnesota caught UMD at 27 points and claimed the tie-breaker at 1-0-1 against the Bulldogs. St. Cloud State appeared the odd-team out when the Huskies lost 3-1 at Denver, but the Huskies rebounded for a 2-1 overtime reversal the next night, lifting themselves to the three-way tie with Minnesota and UMD.
The Gophers, however, also have the tie-breaker with St. Cloud State, so if Minnesota wins twice they could claim third, fourth, or fifth. Their play against UMD, Gopher players insisted, was the best the team had performed in six weeks, although coach Don Lucia claimed they played better three weeks earlier against Wisconsin. Donnie, however, is still on a weekly medication routine while recovering from a strange ailment that has bothered him for two months, otherwise he might realize the Gophers were swept 3-2 and 5-4 in that Badger series at Mariucci, and his players are right.
So while Tech has won only one game all season, the Huskies have gotten all their injured players back, too, and they've played everybody tough - including a 2-2 tie at Mariucci in November. So nothing is certain about the final weekend.
At Colorado Springs, though, having the Tigers headed the right direction for the playoffs is sufficient for now. The Tigers had gone 3-0-3 until losing Sunday.
"Getting Andreas Vlassopoulos back from an injury really helps because he's a veteran center-iceman," said Owens. "Chad Rau got three goals for the weekend, and Eric Walsky is playing well, along with Bill Sweatt. Our defense also has been solid; we've got five veteran, including Brian Connelly and Nate Prosser (both juniors), and freshman Gabe Guentzel has played very well.
"The other key is that Richard Bachman is back on his game. He started off well, then had a little slump in midseason, but he's playing well again."
Seniors Rau, who has 17 goals, and Walsky, who has 11, are joined by Sweatt, a speedy junior with 12, in pacing the offense. But sophomores Stephen Schultz and Tyler Johnson have chipped in with some key performances to support the veteran leadership.
In the league playoffs, teams play best-of-three to get to the Final Five, where it's single elimination, the teams ranked fourth and fifth at the Final Five have to play to gain a semifinal slot against the No. 1 seed, then come back and play the winner between the Nos. 2-3 in a three-day epic no team has yet conquered. That means winning the MacNaughton Cup is the prize, but finishing second or third also assures a team it won't be rendered to that play-in game.
Right now, Colorado College looks comfortable in third place. But as Owens pointed out, third place - yes; comfortable - not at all.
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