Colorado College fell three spots Monday to 11th in the USCHO.com poll and the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll, coming off a home split against St. Cloud State.
Minnesota-Duluth kept the top spot in both rankings, and the 20-team USCHO.com poll has Boston University second, Boston College third and Minnesota fourth, while the 15-team USA Today poll puts Minnesota second, Boston third and Boston College fourth. Denver is 15th in both polls, and North Dakota is 17th in the USCHO.com poll.
The Tigers (13-8-1, 10-6 Western Collegiate Hockey Association) play at Minnesota (16-8-1, 12-4) this weekend, in third place in the WCHA – four points in back of the Gophers and Minnesota-Duluth. It marks their final trip to Minneapolis for the foreseeable future, as CC won’t travel to Mariucci Arena (above) next season, and there are no plans for the teams to meet in nonconference games after they both depart the WCHA for the 2013-14 season.
“It’s a tough place to play,” said CC coach Scott Owens, who staged a shortened practice Monday, with only 12 players on the ice at World Arena. “We’ve had some good games there. Two teams that like to skate. We’ve had some big games there. … There are a lot of friends and family. There are a lot of kids that play hockey that track it there.”
Contact Brian Gomez: 719-636-0256 or brian.gomez@gazette.com. Facebook: Brian Gomez. Twitter: @gazettehockey. Google+: Brian Gomez. YouTube: Colorado College Hockey, Covered by The Gazette. For the CC hockey homepage, visit www.gazette.com/sections/sports/cchockey. For the CC hockey blog, visit http://cchockey.freedomblogging.com.
[...] « Previous Post All Posts [...]
I’m disappointed that there aren’t plans to play the gophers after next season – and not just because I’m from Minneapolis. I know the mindset up there and joining a team that never plays in Mariucci is a draw back for recruiting efforts. Owens even says in the interview that there’s a lot of family and friends up there and it’s a draw for players to know they will meet old high school rivals and teamates up there. I’m a fully converted Tiger fan and I want to see us recruit MN talent as best as we can and part of that means keeping some games with the Gophers beyond the end of the WCHA. It would be interesting to ask players like Guentzel, Skalbeck and Taft if they would have considered joining the Tigers in the post 2013 world with no Gopher games.
Hey Sean, you bring up a good point about the players’ perspective on not playing Minnesota after this season. Right now, in the WCHA, you have Minnesota, Minnesota-Duluth, Minnesota State-Mankato, St. Cloud State and Bemidji State, and in CC’s new conference, you’ll just have Duluth and St. Cloud State. I’m guessing when these kids signed to play at CC, they were counting on at least three trips a year to the state to play in front of friends and family. This year, it’s four trips to Minnesota, plus the WCHA Final Five if they make it. The thinking is that in the future, the Gophers won’t need to schedule Western teams like CC and Denver since with Duluth, Mankato, St Cloud State and Bemidji State all out of their conference, they could easily hop on a bus and be there in a few hours instead of having to travel to Colorado. The NCHC could have as many as 10 nonconference games, and Scott Owens said he’s looking initially at home-and-home series with Boston College, New Hampshire and Wisconsin. That doesn’t mean CC will never play Minnesota again – I think they definitely should for recruiting purposes. There just aren’t plans for the next couple of years.
Thanks for responding Brian – I just hope the NCHC has their eye on this issue… MN kids aren’t real interested in playing for teams they don’t see coming to Mariucci year in and year out. I think that’s one reason you don’t see a lot of MN kids in Hockey East rosters (Maine, UMass, BC and BU only have 1 each). It’s more important for NCHC teams to get up to Minneapolis than for them to come here from a recruiting standpoint.
shure beta 58…
[...]Split drops Tigers 3 places to 11th in both national polls – Eye of The Tigers : Colorado Springs Gazette, CO[...]…