Friday, November 9, 2007

Game day: No. 9 CC 5, No. 15 Minnesota-Duluth 3 (final)

Second period

Goals:
3. Colorado College 2, Minnesota-Duluth 1: Steve Schultz 1 (Jack Hillen 6, Andreas Vlassopoulos 4), 5:28, pp.
After turning over the puck and allowing some shorthanded shots, the Tigers regained possession in their offensive zone. Center Andreas Vlassopoulos passed to Jack Hillen, who was in the high slot, not more than five feet in front of the blue line. In his first stint on the power play this season, freshman Steve Schultz tipped Hillen's wrist shot past goaltender Alex Stalock for his first career goal. Hillen went to retrieve the puck for Schultz after the play, which was reviewed for a possible high-sticking call on Schultz. The goal was upheld (clearly).

4. Colorado College 3, Minnesota-Duluth 1: Derek Patrosso 1 (Andreas Vlassopoulos 5, Bill Sweatt 5), 8:52.
Vlassopoulos took a pass from Bill Sweatt off the back wall and fed Derek Patrosso, who was trailing in the slot. The trio nearly scored a minute later, but Sweatt's pass was just behind Patrosso.

5. Colorado College 3, Minnesota-Duluth 2: Jordan Fulton (unassisted), 9:57.
Fulton got an isolated moment with goaltender Richard Bachman who was protecting the left post. Fulton stuffed the puck five-hole just as the announcer listed off CC's scorers.

6. Colorado College 4, Minnesota-Duluth 2: Chad Rau 3 (Jack Hillen 6, Richard Bachman 2), 10:19.
After Bachman made a save, Hillen retrieved the rebound and sent a long pass up the middle of the ice to Chad Rau, who had snuck behind Duluth's defense and was idling at center ice. Rau converted the one-on-Stalock by first pulling the puck to his left foot -- prompting Stalock to shift -- and then with one flick of the stick, finishing inside the right post.

7. Colorado College 5, Minnesota-Duluth 2: Brian McMillin 1 (unassisted), 19:06, sh.
Another great play by center Brian McMillin on the penalty kill... McMillin, who had an assist on Scott Thauwald's shorthanded goal against North Dakota last Saturday, created yet another penalty-kill turnover. McMillin's shot sailed wide of the left post and banged off the boards. Not deterred, McMillin hammered his own rebound past Stalock for the score.
  • CC's highest one-period output of the season
  • Responded promptly to a quick goal by Duluth
  • Second line has seven points (two goals and five assists) and both goals are even-strength
  • Two shorthanded goals in two games...the penalty kill is back
Third period

Goals:
8. Colorado College 5, Minnesota-Duluth 3: Justin Fontaine (Jordan Fulton, Matt McKnight), 2:14.
  • Patrosso took a checking from behind/game misconduct five-minute major penalty at 3:35, but the Tigers got quality penalty killing with saves from Bachman and blocked shots by Scott McCulloch. Thanks to a high-sticking penalty by Trent Palm, CC went back to even strength (4v4) with 1:12 to go in the five-minute major.
  • With 1:02 left in Palm's penalty, Duluth's Josh Meyers picked up a checking from behind/game misconduct five-minute major at 8:21 for checking McCulloch into the boards. But CC had just two quality scoring chances despite the 5-on-3 (1:02) and 5-on-4 (3:58).
  • CC killed all four of Duluth's power plays.
Quick Quips:

Coach Scott Owens on the time-out before the five-minute power play:
We were trying to set up what we were going to do on the 5-on-3 and hopefully, (the play) was going to go into the 5-on-4. But we never really got it set up. That was probably one of the things that disappointed me the most tonight was the fact that it was a little bit scrambled in the beginning and we never really settled down and had composure. We were turning the puck over and making behind-the-back blind passes and it was a situation where we could have put the game away and we didn't. ...We're still waiting on that a little bit.

Asked if the back-and-forth, wide-open game might cause him to juggle lines tomorrow, Owens said:
Part of it was our defensive mindset. It wasn’t just all of the forwards. I would guess that Prosser will play tomorrow and maybe that will help a little bit getting an older guy in there. We tightened it up a little in the third. We didn't run and gun so much. We're in a pretty good rhythm with our forward lines, so I think we'll just make some minimal changes.

Center Andreas Vlassopoulos on his line's momentum:
We've just got to concentrate on keeping it simple and working hard and things will fall for us.

Vlassopoulos on the power play:
We have it, we're going to create chances, it just seemed like -- whether somebody fell or the puck went off somebody's heel -- I think we just need to bear down a little bit more and things will happen for us.

Right wing Derek Patrosso on his line:
I think our line talks pretty well on the ice and that helps us out a lot. We were just having fun. That's the main thing.

Patrosso on keeping things relaxed, even when the line wasn't scoring goals (the trio combined for one goal against Minnesota on Oct. 19):
I think when you're getting those chances, it's when you shouldn't be gripping your stick. When you don't get those chances, that's when you start gripping your stick a little tight. We've been happy with the way we've been playing as a whole. I think the last three teams we've played have prepared us pretty well and we're developing chemistry as we go along.

Left wing Bill Sweatt on the line:
We've been sticking with our line for almost a month now. I think like Dre said, we're just feeding off of each other and we have a lot of chemistry going right now. Say if Dre chips the puck, Derek and I know that we've got to bust a seam and go get the puck and one of us is going to the net. We just sort of feel each other out there.

Sweatt on developing consistent five-on-five scoring:
It was good that our power play was clicking so we could survive in (the first six) games, but maybe tonight will take momentum into the rest of the season for getting five-on-five goals. We can't just be a one-sided team, where we just score on the power play. We've got to be very diverse and score on the power-play and five-on-five. Hopefully, we took a good step toward that tonight.

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