C.C. vs. UW: winner to the NCAA tourney

The University of Wisconsin Badgers (21-12-7) and Colorado College (18-18-5) faceoff tonight in the championship game of the Red Baron WCHA Final Five at 7:00 pm. Central.

You can watch that game on DirecTV channel 668 FSN, if you don’t have cable.

This is an important game for both teams.

The winner goes the NCAA playoffs. The Tigers if they lose, they’re season is over. The same may happen for the Wisconsin Badgers if they don’t win tonight as well, it’s up to the Pairwise math.

Wisconsin is currently sitting at 17^th in the Pairwise so they’re definitely a bubble team.

After the win last night, Colorado College Tiger goalie Joe Howe summed it up with the quote of the weekend, “Rylan [Schwartz] put a quote on the board from Mike Babcock [Redwings head coach] you don’t have to win three games, you have to win one game three times.”

I have told people that the Tigers have one of the best lines in college hockey and the opposition has had a tuff time stopping Rylan Schwartz, Alexander Krushelnyski and the local boy Charlie Taft (Edina, Minnesota). Regardless of the record, the Tigers are a good hockey teams and are peaking at the right time. The Tigers have also won five of their last six games.

Last night, the Tigers looked as if they had watched some game film from the BSU and Minnesota series. At times, it looked like C.C. used some of the same offensive strategies. On one play, the Tigers chipped the puck up the glass and the forward from C.C. skated into the puck and got a quick shot on net that Adam Wilcox made a big save on. If Wilcox doesn’t make that save, it’s a 3-0 game.

You have to give credit, where credit is due. The Tigers beat DU (20-13-5) in games, they beat UND (21-12-7) and Minnesota (26-8-5).

Colorado College Tigers: Rylan Schwartz (19g-32a—51pts), Alexander Krushelnyski (15g-27a—42pts), William Rupuzzi (15g-20a—35pts), Scott Winkler (13g-15a—28pts), Archie Skalbeck (12g-11a—23pts)Defense: Mike Boivin (14g-14a—28pts) Eamonn McDermott (3g-20a—23pts), Peter Stoykewych (2g-9a—11pts). Goalies: Joe Howe 14-11-4, 2.97 GAA, .915 save percentage, Josh Thorimbert 4-7-1, 3.73 GAA, .873 save percentage.

Wisconsin Badgers: Forwards: Michael Mersch (23g-13a—36pts), Mark Zengerle (9g-21a—31pts), Nic Kerdiles (9g-21a—30pts), Joseph Labate (9g-13a—22pts),  Tyler Barnes (14g-15a—21pts), Defense:  Jake McCabe (3g-17a—20pts) John Ramage (8g-10a—18pts). Goalies: Landon Peterson 6-4-3, 2.01 GAA, .926 save percentage, Joel Rumpel 15-8-4, 2.21 GAA, .921 save percentage.

Cross-posted at the Hockey Writes Combine

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• Day two reflections from the WCHA Final Five (thehockeywriters.com)
• Day two reflections from the WCHA Final Five (getrealhockey.com)

Let’s not jump off the ledge just yet.

Image via WikipediaThis past week, I have been reading the various fan message boards to include fan comments. I’ve also been listening to the numerous podcasts around the college hockey world and the hockey pundits aren’t giving the Sioux much of a chance this weekend or for the rest of the season.  They are too young. There is no talent through the forward lines. The Fighting Sioux forwards are standing around watching Kristo make plays.

On one podcast, a self professed expert and fan of an unnamed team basically said the Sioux have shown him nothing this season and just aren’t very good, his blanket statement included the Fighting Sioux’s defensive unit.

When a hockey team loses 270+ points from their line up due to graduation and early defections it’s going to be noticeable on the ice in the early going of a hockey season.

I guess this self congratulatory and self professed expert missed the part where the Fighting Sioux have clamped it down on defense and have only given up nine goals in the last five games that is an average of 1.8 goals per game during that stretch; unfortunately the Sioux have gone 2-3-0.

In net for the Fighting Sioux, junior goalie Aaron Dell who had a rough start to the season has been in the zone as of late and has muscled the starting goaltender job away from senior goalie Brad Eidsness.

Most knowledgeable hockey fans know that hockey starts with a strong defensive team scheme.  Smart defense in your own end, generates offensive opportunities going the other way.

I guess this same expert, some how missed the part where the Fighting Sioux’s defense and goaltending held the mighty Golden Gophers to “five” goals for a weekend series and their All-American team “barely” got out with the sweep against the hapless Fighting Sioux at Mariucci Arena. But I digress.

More specifically, if you believe the hype and prattle the Fighting Sioux have little chance of doing anything this season and you can stick a fork in them because they are done.  I am not a math expert but if my count is right there are 21 regular season games left, if the Fighting Sioux can make their annual run at about a .600-.700 clip the Fighting Sioux should be right in the mix of things.

It’s easy to coach from the stands especially after a few beers

There has been a lot of Monday morning quarterbacking of the Fighting Sioux coaching staff, some of this criticism is very petty and almost hurtful; some of the criticism is deserved and well thought out.  

If you believe some of our anonymous fans that hide behind a screen name on the Internet, it would sound like the Fighting Sioux coaching staff is made up of a bunch of bumbling hacks that can’t coach a hockey team and are basically just lucky with the success they’ve had to date.

The same rumblings surface every time the Fighting Sioux face some adversity, the weekly FightingSioux.com chat blows up with comments of how Hakstol can’t win the big game when it counts the most.

Personally, I am not ready to write the Fighting Sioux’s eulogy just yet, there is a lot of hockey left to be played. There is also a lot of pride in that Fighting Sioux locker room and I expect the leaders of that team to take the bull by the horns and play Fighting Sioux hockey.

After Sundays 1-0 loss against the BSU Beavers; you could tell that the head coach of the Fighting Sioux head coach Dave Hakstol was not pleased with his team’s effort. Hakstol talked about his team not getting to dirty areas and how some of his players let their teammates down.

One game at a time

It starts with a good shift, and then couple of good shifts, a big hit in the corner or a goal off of a turnover. I know it’s cliché but Roman wasn’t built in a day. You can’t turn the season around in one game or series. I would be willing to bet, that from this point forward you will be some urgency in the Fighting Sioux game plan.

Speaking of historical statistics

The Fighting Sioux take on the Colorado College Tigers this weekend and historically the Fighting Sioux have had a lot of success against the Tigers. According to USCHO.COM, the Fighting Sioux have an all time record 135-76-10 (.633) against the Colorado College Tigers. Also the Sioux have an impressive 80-19-6 (.790) at home against the Tigers.

The Fighting Sioux are historically a second half team since Fighting Sioux head coach Dave Hakstol took over the coaching duties in 2004-05; the Fighting Sioux have an impressive and almost mind blowing record of 111-44-16 after Jan. 1. That means that under Hakstol the Fighting Sioux have been historically very hard to beat after the first of the year.  The $64,000.00 question is how will this team fare?

Year         Before                 After

2004-05   13-7-2  (.636)   12-8-3 (.587)

2005-06   12-7-1 (.625)    17-9-0 (.654)

2006-07   7-10-1 (.417)    17-4-4 (.760)

2007-08   8-6-1 (.567)       20-5-3 (.768)

2008-09   9-8-1 (.528)      15-7-3 (.660)

2009-10   9-6-3 (.583)      16-7-2 (.680)

2010-11   13-5-2 (.700)    19-4-1 (.813)

2011-12   4-7-1 (.375)          ?

Totals 75-56-12 (.566)      116-44-16 (.705)

 

Related articles

• Series Preview: Sioux vs. Tigers (insidehockey.com)
• Beavers End Streak, Beat Sioux 1-0 (insidehockey.com)
• WCHA Power Rankings - November 21 (insidehockey.com)