MANKATO, Minn. — If Colorado College thought last week’s loss to North Dakota was disappointing, it wasn’t prepared for the numbness following its first road loss of the season.

After tying its previous three road games, the Tigers were hoping for a Friday night win at Minnesota State-Mankato. Instead, a combination of penalties and a punchless offense helped down No. 3 CC. Mankato came away with the victory after scoring a power-play goal in the final six minutes.

“So frustrating,” defenseman Nate Prosser said as he shook his head from side to side. “So frustrating. It’s tough to put into words how frustrating it truly is, but when you have Bachman playing so well like this and we can’t put together a few goals for him to get him a win, it’s definitely frustrating. Not even just for him, but for the rest of us.”

Goaltender Richard Bachman made 35 saves, marking the fifth time in six games he has been called upon to make 35-plus saves.

After a promising start to the game — CC scored on its first power play less than three minutes into the first and held Mankato to just 10 shots — the wheels started to come off. Mankato outshot CC 19-9 in the second period, tying the score at 7:56.

“In the first period, they had most of their shots on the power play,” Bachman said. “We were chipping pucks deep, down low in their end. In the second period, we kind of got away from that. We went to the one-on-one moves and a bit more stickwork. We did give up a few more power plays in the second, which gave them some momentum in the second. But they kind of built off our turnovers.”

Penalties also started to wear on the Tigers. Prosser said the Tigers fell into a familiar pattern, where they stop moving their feet.

“We just haven’t been able to get it done,” Bachman said. “We’ve been playing pretty good hockey for the most part, but we haven’t been playing full games. There isn’t really any rhyme or reason for it. We should be playing a lot better hockey right now than we are.”

Colorado College

21 Sweatt — 14 Rau — 22 Walsky
23 Hall — 19 Vlassopoulos — 28 Schultz
26 McCulloch — 20 Dineen — 25 Testwuide
5 DeBoer — 17 Johnson — 9 McMillin

11 Connelly — 15 Prosser
10 Guentzel — 4 Gannon
24 Lowery — 7 Fredheim

30 Bachman
31 O’Connell

(18 Overman, 27 Bidwill are healthy scratches; 3 Behrend, 16 Civitarese, 1 O’Brien, and 12 Quilico did not travel)

Minnesota State-Mankato

19 Irwin — 23 Bruess — 21 Berge
9 Mouillerat — 7 Sackrison — 11 Louwerse
18 Gaulrapp — 10 Harrison — 15 Stewart
12 Galiardi — 26 Schiller — 16 Thompson

22 Davis — 17 Friesen
5 Youds — 28 Boe
3 Cooper — 2 Canzanello

1 Zacharias
49 Tormey
31 Lee

Minnesota State-Mankato 0 1 1 2

Colorado College 1 0 0 1

First period – 1. CC, Rau (Connelly, Prosser), 2:27, pp. Penalties – Stewart, MSM (hooking), :45; Johnson, CC (hooking), 5:56; Team, CC (too many men on the ice), 10:40; McCulloch, CC (cross-checking), 11:31; Sackrison, MSM (intereference), 13:10; Fredheim, CC (interference), 15:48; Team, MSM (too many men on the ice), 18:25.

Second – 2. MSM, Berge (Irwin, Bruess), 7:56. Penalties – Dineen, CC (), 2:11; Harrison, MSM (tripping), 4:25; Connelly, CC (tripping), 15:25; Team, MSM (too many men on the ice),16:17; Gannon, CC (kneeing), 18:52.

Third – 3. MSM, Thompson (Davis, Berge), 13:59. Penalties – Gaulrapp, MSM (holding), 5:09; Stewart, MSM (holding), 7:15; DeBoer, CC (hooking), 9:53; Guentzel, CC (slashing), 12:26.

Shots on goal – MSM 10-19-8-37. CC 9-9-8-26. Power-play Opportunities – MSM 1 of 9, CC 1 of 7. Goalies – MSM, Zacharias 8-9-8 (27 shots, 26 saves), 5-2-2. CC, Bachman 10-18-7 (37 shots, 35 saves), 5-2-3. A – 4,309. T – 2:18. Referees – Todd Anderson, Brad Shepherd. Linesmen – Jonathan Morrison, Tony Czech.

I’m en route to Minnesota and thought I’d pass along some reading material for those of you looking for a brief respite from productivity.

– CC alum Trevor Frischmon was featured on ahl.com. Since graduating from CC in 2006, Frischmon has spent time in the ECHL and the American Hockey League, playing the bulk of the time with the Syracuse Crunch, where he’s developed a reputation for his relentless effort.

–Former Tiger defenseman and Colorado Springs native Brandon Straub was called up from the ECHL to the Quad-City Flames, the AHL affiliate of the Calgary Flames.

–Speaking of the Calgary Flames, former CC goaltender Curtis McElhinney finally got his first NHL action of the season on Monday (it wasn’t pretty). He’s playing back-up to Miika Kiprusoff.

And the flight is boarding… more later.

The early National Letter of Intent signing period opens today and lasts through next Wednesday. (The “late” signing period opens April 8, 2010 and lasts through August 1.)

The National Letter of Intent is an agreement between an athlete (a senior in high school) and the institution, where the athlete promises to attend the institution for a year and the institution promises some form of financial aid for that year. So only athletes receiving athletic scholarships sign an LOI. Also, once an athlete signs an LOI, other schools promise to stop recruiting him.

UPDATE: CC is expecting LOI’s from John Moore, Joe Howe, and Dakota Eveland (though he is expected to arrive in 2010, could come next season if CC has early departures). CC obtained letters of intent from Rylan Schwartz, Scott Winkler, and Russell Goodman in the spring. CC coaches can’t comment on recruits until they have received the LOI.

Other recruits lined up for fall 2009 include: Andrew Hamburg, who was named the NAHL South’s player of the week for his five-point weekend, and defenseman Joe Marciano, who is playing with the Omaha Lancers.

Schwartz, who just returned from a silver-medal appearance at the World Junior A Challenge, ranks second among all points-scorers (14 goals, 18 assists in 16 games) in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League.

Moore, who helped the U.S. Junior Select team capture a gold medal at the Challenge, is in his second year playing for the Chicago Steel of the United States Hockey League. Moore (Winnetka, Ill.) is fourth among Steel scorers and second in defenseman-scoring.

Winkler (Asker, Norway) as drafted in the third round (No. 89 overall) by the Dallas Stars last summer. He currently has seven points (2 goals, 5 assists) in his first season with the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders. He spent last season with Russell Stover AAA, a midget team based in Overland Park, Kan.

Goodman, who seems to have rebounded well from a pair of serious knee injuries, leads the Nanaimo Clippers of the British Columbia Hockey League with 23 points (eight goals, 15 assists) in 20 games. Goodman hails from Saskatoon, Sask., and was named captain of the Clippers this season.

In his second season playing for the Waterloo Black Hawks, Howe is 3-2-1 through six games with a 3.10 GAA and a .892 save percentage. Howe has played the most minutes of the Black Hawks’ three goalies and just returned from the Junior A Challenge.

In recent weeks, a bunch of ideas about what will become of College Hockey America’s four teams — they are: Alabama-Huntsville, Bemidji State, Niagara, and Robert Morris — at the end of this season have been circulating, but for the most part conference commissioners have been mum on the issue.

Kevin Pates, who covers Minnesota-Duluth for the Duluth News Tribune, writes that Bruce McLeod, commissioner of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, confirmed that the WCHA executive committee will decide next week whether to repeal a moratorium on expansion. If it is repealed, Bemidji State could be the only team invited to join the WCHA.

Right wing Eric Walsky earned offensive player of the week honors for his four-goal performance, the Western Collegiate Hockey Association announced Tuesday.

Walsky follows up goaltender Richard Bachman as CC’s second weekly award winner of the season. Bachman earned defensive player of the week honors last week.

From the WCHA:

WCHA Offensive Player of the Week • Eric Walsky, Sr., F, Colorado College
Colorado College right winger Eric Walsky, who scored four goals to lead his No. 2-ranked Tigers to a 7-4 conference victory over visiting league rival North Dakota last Saturday night, is the Red Baron® WCHA Offensive Player of the Week for November 11-17.
A 5-11, 195-pound senior from Anchorage, Alaska, Walsky twice brought Colorado College back from deficits in the game on Nov. 7, scoring a tying power-play goal in the first period and another tying goal in the second period. He then completed his hat trick by scoring the eventual game-winning goal at 14:04 of the second and then added an insurance goal at 8:51 of the third as the Tigers earned a 7-4 win over the Fighting Sioux.
In addition to his four-goal outburst, Walsky also fired 10 shots on goal in the series and earned a +2 plus/minus rating. On the 2008-09 season, he ranks second among his CC teammates in scoring with seven goals, five assists and 12 points in the first 10 games.

Tigers are No. 3 in every poll, including INCH’s power rankings.

USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine
Men’s College Hockey Poll
(first-place votes in parentheses)

Others receiving votes: Clarkson University, 37; Michigan State University, 31; University of Nebraska Omaha, 25; St. Lawrence University, 11; University of North Dakota, 7; University of Massachusetts, 4; Ferris State University, 1.

USCHO.com Division I hockey poll

Others receiving votes: Nebraska-Omaha 75, Colgate 32, Ferris State 26, Minnesota-Duluth 26, Harvard 25, Alaska-Anchorage 14, Wisconsin 14, Ohio State 11, St. Cloud State 10, Yale 10, Alaska 8, Union 8, Dartmouth 7, Lake Superior 6, Bemidji State 5, Mass.-Lowell 3, Maine 1.

With the Dallas Stars sporting the worst goals-against average (GAA) in the NHL — their 3.83 team GAA is more than two-tenths worse than the Atlanta Thrashers’ GAA — it’s not surprising that fans and beat writers alike are analyzing the future.

The Dallas Morning News’ Mike Heika, who covers the Stars, threw out the idea of bringing in goaltender Richard Bachman next season and handing him the reins.

Bachman, a fourth-round pick by the Stars in 2006, is ranked higher in the Stars’ system than current backup goaltender Tobias Stephan. (Take it with a grain of salt: amid more salient analysis, the writer says Bachman “needs to avoid psyching himself out when the spotlight is on him.” I don’t recall a time when I have seen that happen.)

Anyway, this is a developing story, but I wanted to give you a heads-up on the latest Bachs-buzz.

Future CC defenseman John Moore, who could join the Tigers next season, and goaltender Joe Howe (2009) helped the U.S. Junior Select Team to a 7-1 win over Canada West for the gold medal. CC recruit Rylan Schwartz scored the lone goal for Canada West, which had captured the title last season. Check out the results here.

As a bright spot for the Canada West team, Rylan’s younger brother, Jayden Schwartz, who is expected to join the Tigers in 2010, was named to the tournament’s All-Star team with a host of WCHA recruits:

F — Craig Smith, Wisconsin recruit (USA)
F — Mike Cichy, UND recruit (USA)
F — Jayden Schwartz, Colorado College recruit (CW)
D — Andrew MacWilliam, UND recruit (CW)
D — Matt Donovan, Denver recruit (USA)
G — Mike Lee, St. Cloud State recruit (USA)

MVP — Cichy

…takes place this Sunday (November 9) at Sertich Ice Center from 11:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. Admission is free, but skate rental is $2. Fans can get players’ autographs and take pictures with the Tigers and Prowler, the CC mascot.

Colorado College right wing Eric Walsky‘s phenomenal four-goal night will be discussed plenty in Sunday’s Gazette. (See game story here; see notes, including an update on Cody Lampl here.)

I think the bigger story is that the Tigers finally exhibited the grit they’d been searching for this season. Saturday’s game wasn’t pretty, but CC found a way to win.

This is key because the Tigers are about to head out on the road for five games, their longest stretch away from World Arena this season. It starts next week at Minnesota State-Mankato, then CC heads to Alaska-Anchorage (which has started the season well) and rounds up with a Thanksgiving Friday showdown at No. 14 Air Force at Cadet Ice Arena.

“It’s really big,” captain Jake Gannon said between sips of an energy shake. “Not only is it huge for momentum, but having momentum going on the road is really big. Playing a road game is tough as it is, but coming off of getting swept is an uphill battle almost. When you come out with a split and you win that Saturday game, it’s a successful weekend.”

The Tigers scored the final four goals of the game, three of them from Walsky, who looked a bit dazed after personally shellacking the Fighting Sioux.

On his third goal, a beauty of a shot from the blue line: “I saw everyone else and everyone else was completely surprised and holding their hands up. It was kind of a funny goal.”

Tied 2-2 at the first intermission, the first period was way more exciting than all 60 minutes of Friday’s game and it just sort of escalated from there.

Defenseman Nate Prosser‘s shot from the point slithered underneath goaltender Brad Eidsness just before the midway point. It came on the tail end of what looked to be CC’s best power play in ages. Left wing Bill Sweatt was creating all sorts of confusion by moving the puck in and out of the slot and moving off the puck as well. The Tigers maintained a good 90-second cycle, as well. Much, much better.

The Fighting Sioux tied it up three minutes later with a power-play goal of their own. Defenseman Brad Miller centered the puck to right wing Brett Hextall, who beat goaltender Richard Bachman inside the left post with a one-timer from the slot. (Oh, by the way, goaltender Bachman finished with 43 saves.)

North Dakota scored again five minutes later when center Chris VandeVelde left the puck for trailing left wing Ryan Duncan, who scored through traffic.

On the same play, Hextall took a checking from behind penalty and a game misconduct, meaning he was thrown out of the game and will serve a one-game suspension next weekend. (A photo showed Hextall checking center Nick Dineen from behind, so that Dineen’s head nearly missed the post, his left shoulder hitting the post instead.) That’s huge because Hextall was one of the best players on the ice on Friday and again in the first period Saturday. At the time of his penalty, Hextall was leading the Sioux with two goals and an assist in the series.

North Dakota coach Dave Hakstol said as much after the game: “It’s tough to lose anybody early, but he may have been the best player in the first period. … Absolutely it’s tough to lose a player in the first period, but that’s something that we have to learn from.”

CC, which got another power-play goal from Walsky during the five-minute power play, scored three power-play goals for the first time this season.

A final thought from Gannon: “We were really physical all weekend, probably the most we’ve been all year and it felt good to finally play with some passion. We looked liked we were actually fighting for something tonight. It’s early in the year and we’ll take it with a grain of salt, but it was good.”

–

Colorado College
21 Sweatt — 14 Rau — 22 Walsky
23 Hall — 19 Vlassopoulos — 28 Schultz
26 McCulloch — 20 Dineen — 25 Testwuide
5 DeBoer — 9 McMillin — 16 Civitarese

11 Connelly — 15 Prosser
10 Guentzel — 4 Gannon
24 Lowery — 27 Bidwill

30 Bachman
31 O’Connell
1 O’Brien

North Dakota
16 Duncan — 29 VandeVelde — 26 Hextall
10 Kozek — 11 Zajac — 20 Watkins
17 Gregoire — 19 Trupp — 21 Frattin
15 Davidson — 8 Martens — 18 Toews

6 Jones — 25 Marto
3 LaPoint — 4 Fienhage
24 Blood — 14 Miller

31 Eidsness
30 Walski

–

North Dakota 2 2 0 4

Colorado College 2 3 2 7

First period – 1. CC, Prosser (Sweatt, Connelly), 9:34, pp. 2. ND, Hextall (Miller), 12:36, pp. 3. ND, Duncan (VandeVelde, Hextall), 17:49. 4. CC, Walsky (Sweatt, Rau), 19:00, pp. Penalties – Vlassopoulos, CC (hooking), 4:41; VandeVelde, CC (hooking), 8:03; Prosser, CC (holding the stick), 11:00; Gregoire, ND (roughing), 12:14; Connelly, CC (roughing), 12:14; Dineen, CC (checking from behind), 14:27; Hextall, ND (checking from behind), 17:49; Hextall, ND (game misconduct), 17:49.

Second – 5. CC, McCulloch (Connelly, Vlassopoulos), 1:36, pp. 6. ND, VandeVelde (Duncan, Frattin), 3:23. 7. ND, Gregoire (Toews, Miller),10:46, pp. 8. CC, Walsky (McCulloch, Dineen), 13:36. 9. CC, Walsky (unassisted), 14:04. Penalties – Vlassopoulos, CC (hooking), 7:22; Sweatt, CC (tripping), 9:20; Lowery, CC (too many men on the ice), 9:20; Bidwill, CC (high-sticking), 16:33; VandeVelde (hooking), 18:13.

Third – 10. CC, Walsky (Rau), 8:51. 11. CC, Schultz (unassisted), 14:57, en. Penalties – Connelly, CC (hooking) :32; Frattin, ND (holding), 3:25; Guentzel, CC (tripping), 14:57; Toews, ND (tripping), 19:18.

Shots on goal – ND 23-17-7-47. CC 15-12-10-37. Power-play Opportunities – ND 2 of 10, CC 3 of 7. Goalies – ND, Eidsness 13-9-8 (37 shots, 30 saves), 3-3. CC, Bachman 21-15-7 (47 shots, 43 saves), 5-1-3. A – 7,327. T – 2:21. Referees – Don Adam, Pete Friesma. Linesmen – Stephen Stankevich, Scott Staudte.

–

Left wing Tim Hall takes on North Dakota defenseman Corey Fienhage, who was flown in for Saturday night’s game in a move cleared by WCHA officials. Photo by Gazette photographer Justin Edmonds.