Others receiving votes: University of Massachusetts, 17; Harvard University, 16; University of Nebraska Omaha, 16; University of Maine, 13; University of Vermont, 13; Yale University, 13; University of Massachusetts Lowell, 6; Dartmouth College, 3; Ferris State University, 3; St. Cloud State University, 3; University of Wisconsin, 3.

USCHO.com Division I hockey poll

Others Receiving Votes: Dartmouth 79, Mass.-Lowell 66, Alaska-Anchorage 37, Ferris State 37, Clarkson 35, Yale 34, Maine 33, Michigan State 25, Wisconsin 16, Minnesota-Duluth 7, Lake Superior 6, Bemidji State 5, Colgate 5, Ohio State 5, St. Lawrence 5.

No. 3 in Inside College Hockey Power Rankings

Colorado College’s five-on-five offense continues to struggle, but its power play clicked on a season-high four man-advantage opportunities.

After falling behind 1-0 in the first 23 seconds, CC tied the score at 5:36 of the second period when center Chad Rau slung the puck so hard that it hit the back of the net and bounced out to the right face-off circle.

The Tigers took the lead just more than four minutes later when right wing Scott McCulloch’s wrist shot snuck under goaltender Mike Zacharias’ left armpit.

With less than a minute left in the second, left wing Bill Sweatt tipped defenseman Brian Connelly’s slap shot from the high slot under Zacharias.

But the Tigers would have to earn this one. Mankato scored two goals in a 1-minute, 45-second span of the third period to knot the score.

“We just didn’t panic,” Sweatt said. “We battled and we kept going relentlessly.”

But CC got some puck luck on its fifth power play of the game when Sweatt’s centering pass hit off defenseman Channing Boe’s skate and under Zacharias. Right wing Eric Walsky, credited with the goal, earns the game-winner for the second consecutive Saturday.

Said Walsky: “I got a lucky bounce there. We kind of attribute that to just working hard. When you do that, you typically get the bounces.”

[As an aside, I responded-- "Oh, so now when you say, "We didn't get the bounces," I can say, "So, you weren't working hard"? Ever the quick wit, Walsky goes: "Well, maybe I should rephrase that."]

“This one is huge, especially because it is the first one,” Sweatt said. “Going into a long, long trip next weekend against Alaska-Anchorage, it’s good to finally get a win under our belt because we were 0-1-3 on the road so far. When you go up there to Anchorage, it’s a tough place to play, especially with all that travel. So it was good to get some confidence to get it going that way.”

Colorado College

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

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

30 Bachman
31 O’Connell

(23 Hall, 27 Bidwill are scratches)

Minnesota State-Mankato

19 Irwin — 23 Bruess — 21 Berge
20 Wiley — 7 Sackrison — 11 Louwerse
18 Gaulrapp — 10 Harrison — 15 Stewart
24 Mueller — 12 Galiardi — 16 Thompson

22 Davis — 5 Youds
4 Kilburg — 17 Friesen
28 Boe — 2 Canzanello

1 Zacharias
49 Tormey
31 Lee

(Mouillerat out [shoulder injury] after he was cross-checked into the boards in the first period Friday)

Minnesota State-Mankato 1 0 2 3

Colorado College 0 3 1 4

First period – 1. MSM, Stewart (Harrison), :23. Penalties – Testwuide, CC (interference), 9:59; Connelly, CC (slashing), 16:03; Youds, MSM (interference), 17:16.

Second – 2. CC, Rau (Walsky), 5:36, pp. 3. CC, McCulloch (Vlassopoulos, Prosser), 9:39, pp. 4. CC, Sweatt (Connelly, Rau), 19:08, pp. Penalties – Wiley, MSM (tripping), 4:44; Boe, MSM (tripping), 8:48; Walsky, CC (cross-checking), 10:52; Gannon, CC (slashing), 12:20; Harrison, MSM (interference), 18:37.

Third – 5. MSM, Louwerse (Berge, Davis), 7:29, pp. 6. MSM, Galiardi (unassisted), 9:14. 7. CC, Walsky (Sweatt), 11:08, pp. Penalties – Connelly, CC (high-sticking), 5:42; Fredheim, CC (slashing), 6:16; Prosser, CC (10-minute misconduct), 7:29; Irwin, MSM (hooking), 9:57; DeBoer, CC (interference), 14:04; Boe, MSM (tripping), l7:32.

Shots on goal – MSM 8-4-9-21. CC 6-12-5-23. Power-play Opportunities – MSM 1 of 7, CC 4 of 6. Goalies – MSM, Zacharias 6-9-4 (23 shots, 19 saves), 5-3-2. CC, Bachman 7-4-7 (21 shots, 18 saves), 6-2-3. A – 4,797. T – 2:18. Referees – Todd Anderson, Brad Shepherd. Linesmen – Jonathan Morrison, Tony Czech.

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.

– 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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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