After Alabama-Huntsville goaltender Blake MacNicol made several eye-popping saves, the Tigers finally cracked him when right wing Eric Walsky passed to center Chad Rau at the bottom of the left circle. Rau’s wrist shot whizzed between MacNicol’s left ear and his glove and hit the top shelf to give CC the lead it had been fighting for. The Tigers outshot the Chargers 44 to 16.

Key points:

–As predicted, the rules changes resulted in more penalties. CC had nine power play opportunities to Huntsville’s five. Both teams were scoreless on the PP. The bulk of the penalties were hooking, but a couple interference calls were whistled on faceoffs. With the increase in offensive-zone faceoffs and the 2-and-2 referee system, there’s increased scrutiny on contact between the wings during the faceoffs. It’ll take some getting used to.

–The defense was much, much tighter tonight after a weak first period in Monday’s exhibition. I thought defenseman Brian Connelly demonstrated confidence as the de facto leader of the defensive corps (after the graduation of Jack Hillen). I think the Tigers got a great pick-up in freshman Gabe Guentzel, who is playing point on Rau’s power-play unit. Of course, Richard Bachman was a sponge in net. Will Drew O’Connell play tomorrow? That’d be my guess.

–As for the offense, there was far too little possession in the first period and far too many unnecessary backhand passes and shots. If the Tigers keep their game simple on Saturday, they should score quite a bit. I’ll be interested to see what changes are made to the lines for Saturday’s game. I thought CC missed Scott McCulloch‘s maturity on Friday; he was out with a strained hip flexor. “Nothing serious,” he said.

–The Tigers start 1-0 at World Arena, where they were 12-2 last season.

**Kurt Russell was rumored to be at Friday’s game. His son, Wyatt, with long-time partner Goldie Hawn is a sophomore goaltender for the Chargers, but was scratched for Friday’s game in favor of junior Blake MacNicol and sophomore Cameron Talbot, the starter.

**Check out this sweet photo of Jack Hillen in Newsday. As one of the earlier links stated, Hillen’s spot on the New York Islanders’ roster comes with a timestamp. He and fellow rookie Josh Bailey are expected to be demoted just as soon as veterans Chris Campoli and Andy Sutton are healthy. This will be a good chance for Hillen to gain some experience. Unfortunately, the Islanders start 0-1.

**CC named a ‘team to watch’ by the Boston Globe. But the Tigers’ situation is better than Marrapese-Burrell indicates: CC only lost 2 of 6 top scorers since McCulloch was granted an extra season of eligibility.

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