College Hockey   CC Tigers and USAFA Falcons Hockey

Although Scott Owens and the CC coaching staff have considered some lineup changes during this week off, one thing that likely won’t change is the team’s power-play units. The Tigers haven’t been good on the power play all season. They are tied for seventh in the WCHA at 14.8 percent. But Owens said he thinks he has the right mix of players. He sees some positives, even if the results aren’t there.

“We think we’re getting good puck movement but nothing is going in,” Owens said.

Owens pointed to improvement in power-play scoring as one of the keys for his team in the final weeks of the season.

Center Chad Rau, the nation’s leading scorer on Dec. 20, has one assist and no goals in CC’s last six games. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Rau is just getting over a virus that was first feared to be mononucleosis. Two weeks ago Rau was held back as the rest of the team flew to Wisconsin for a weekend series to undergo tests for mono, then joined the team the day of the series opener. Although he didn’t have mono, he has still been playing while he was sick.

I’m writing a story that will appear in the Gazette soon on Rau’s recent struggles and what he thinks of the rest of the season. To his credit he didn’t use the illness as an excuse, he simply answered questions that were presented to him about it. The fact that he didn’t want to dwell on his illness probably says something about the senior’s character.

The Tigers’ injuries aren’t limited to the players who have been out of the lineup. Senior forward Scott McCulloch came back two weeks ago from a knee injury, but didn’t look quite right. He was scratched the next night, the second game of the Wisconsin series, but showed some signs of progress over this past weekend.

“The knee felt really good on the weekend,” McCulloch said. “It didn’t give me any problems at all and I felt like I had decent legs.”

McCulloch also said he thinks this week will help him. CC doesn’t play this weekend, and didn’t reconvene for practice until Wednesday. McCulloch’s return to health will help CC’s depleted offense. He can play on one of the Tigers’ top lines.

After CC came out flat and fell behind Saturday, the coaches loaded up the top line, moving Eric Walsky up to skate with Bill Sweatt and Chad Rau. That was the top line early in the season, but CC worried it needed scoring on other lines. CC needs consistent offense and the trio played well in the third period of Saturday’s loss, so the Tigers might continue with the Walsky-Rau-Sweatt combination on the top line going forward.

“It’s something we’ll consider,” CC coach Scott Owens said.

The main problems with loading up the top line with the team’s top three scorers is the other lines won’t be as strong, and opponents can concentrate on using their best defensive lineup against that line. That’s especially true in road games, when home teams get the last change.

USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine
Men’s College Hockey Poll – #16
(first-place votes in parentheses)

Others receiving votes: Colorado College, 26; University of Wisconsin, 20; Yale University, 4; U.S. Air Force Academy, 3; Rochester Institute of Technology, 1.

The Tigers will have to take a long look at themselves during their upcoming week off. They were destroyed on their home ice 6-1 by St. Cloud in Saturday’s series finale and now stand at a very pedestrian 9-8-3 in the WCHA. The Tigers also need some time off to heal. Center Nick Dineen was the latest Tiger to get injured, suffering an upper-body injury Saturday.

The Tigers’ chances of making the NCAA tournament appear to rest now on making a run at the WCHA Final Five in March. Given how inconsistent the offense has been – and that the team can’t depend on goaltender Richard Bachman to win games by himself this season – CC will have to make some significant improvements to make that kind of run during the league playoffs. Without a doubt, it has been a disappointing season for a team that ranked No. 1 in the nation at one point.

The only real drama in the third period was whether CC would get shut out, but Tigers center Matt Overman scored 9:03 into the final period. CC coach Scott Owens also finally pulled goaltender Richard Bachman 4:27 into the third period, replacing him with Tyler O’Brien.

Tonight’s game will go down as the low point for CC this season. St. Cloud’s Drew LeBlanc, a freshman who had two career goals before Saturday, got his third of the game 11 minutes into the second period. Jordy Christian added another one for St. Cloud. The Huskies will begin the third period on the power play.

World Arena is deathly silent, and for good reason. The Huskies are blowing out the Tigers. St. Cloud got on the board first. CC couldn’t clear the puck out of its zone, and eventually Huskies left wing John Swanson scored to give St. Cloud a 1-0 lead. St. Cloud scored its second goal on its third shot. Defenseman Sam Zabkowicz jumped up in the play and knocked a shot through CC goaltender Richard Bachman’s legs to give the Huskies a 2-0 lead. Huskies forward Tony Mosey scored on a rebounded shot 36 seconds later. The shot popped up in the air, Mosey knocked it down with his hand and put it in the net to give the Huskies a 3-0 lead. Drew LeBlanc scored the fourth goal of the period for St. Cloud with 4:49 left in the period. Bachman is still in the game, but part of the reason might be that normal backup Drew O’Connell is not active tonight. He has been dealing with a shoulder injury.

EDIT: St. Cloud’s first goal has been changed to credit LeBlanc, not Swanson.

The lineup tonight is exactly the same as last night, when CC skated to a 4-4 tie with St. Cloud State. For the second straight night, Tyler O’Brien is listed as the backup goaltender. Normal backup Drew O’Connell has a shoulder injury. The Tigers need a positive finish to the series in a tightly packed WCHA race. Here are tonight’s lines:

- Bill Sweatt, Chad Rau, Mike Testwuide

- Cody Lampl, Tyler Johnson, Eric Walsky

- Addison DeBoer, Nick Dineen, Brian McMillin

- Scott McCulloch, Matt Overman, Stephen Schultz

And the defensive pairings:

- Brian Connelly, Nate Prosser

- Gabe Guentzel, Jake Gannon

- Ryan Lowery, Arthur Bidwill