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 It was one of those times when you heard the guy on the radio shrieking to his associate, loudly enough that you first figured he didn’t need a microphone: “How can a team as good as UMD have so much trouble with a last-place team like Colorado College?”

The answer was insufficient. The facts are simple, that the National Collegiate Hockey Conference is so strong, that the difference between the top contenders and last-place dwellers is not very much. Last-place Colorado College is good enough to take down any team in the country, and almost any other team in the country might find it difficult to climb above last place, were they in the NCHC.

CC tied UMD 2-2 at the start of January in AMSOIL, and while the Bulldogs won the shootout, the Tigers came back to beat the Bulldogs 2-1 the next night. Losing that game is what gave Denver the chance to climb above UMD in the standings, and losing the single point by going to the shootout is the margin UMD trailed Denver by going into last weekend. 

The challenge for the Bulldogs now is whether or not they can regain first place in the NCHC, which probably would also mean returning to the No. 1 rank in the country in both the college hockey polls and the Pairwise computer rating system. The Bulldogs were still No. 1 in the nation a week ago, although they trailed Denver by one slender point in the NCHC.

Last Friday, UMD squeezed past Colorado College in Colorado Springs by a 2-1 count when Adam Johnson converted a feed from Alex Iafallo and scored in the last five minutes. The next night, UMD jumped ahead 2-0 in the early going, but CC came back to cut the margin to 2-1, and sophomore defenseman Cole McCaskill tied it 2-2 with 1:58 left in regulation.

For the second time this season, the teams battled through a 5-minute overtime, then a 5-minute 3-on-3 overtime, meaning each team got a point, and they had to go to a shootout to determine which side got the extra point. Alex Iafallo scored on the first UMD try, and the Bulldogs got their second point for their effort.

But they didn’t get three points for a regulation or overtime victory. Getting two points meant they allowed Denver to pull one more point ahead in first place, by beating Miami of Ohio for a sweep. Denver stands 14-3-3 with two key points for winning shootouts; UMD is 13-4-3, with two shootout points.

Considering the four-game season series with CC, UMD and the Tigers split as evenly as it can get: UMD won once in regulation and twice in shootouts, while CC won once in regulation. The official scores were a 2-2 tie, a 2-1 victory for CC, a 2-1 victory for UMD, and a 2-2 tie. To UMD’s credit, the pair of ties wound up being UMD shootout victories, but the fact remains neither team scored as many as three goals in any of the games.

Denver is a tough, tough foe, and the Pioneers have the NCHC title within their grasp as the season boils down to its final two weeks. However, UMD could make up that deficit this weekend.

The Bulldogs have their final home series this week, taking on Miami of Ohio Thursday and Friday at AMSOIL Arena, which is booked all-day Saturday for the 7AA and 7A semifinals, requiring the change. Denver, meanwhile, stays at home to face St. Cloud State.

Now, Miami stands seventh, on spot ahead of CC in the standings, while St. Cloud State is embroiled in a three-way battle with Nebraska-Omaha and North Dakota for fourth place, with the Huskies two points up at this point. Nebraska-Omaha is at North Dakota in the next-to-last series of the season, trying to break their tie. The Huskies, meanwhile, after a horrible start to the season groping for goaltending that could rank as high as sufficient, got themselves into a deep hole. They have climbed out of it for the most part, and they might just be primed to take a run at Denver for the sake of securing fourth place and the final home-ice playoff berth.

If the Bulldogs happen to sweep Miami, and Denver splits with St. Cloud State, UMD and Denver would be exactly tied for first place, giving the Bulldogs great incentive for their season-ending series at Western Michigan next week.

At stake, aside from national ratings, is the seeding for the NCHC playoffs. If the standings ended as they are now, first-place Denver would be host to last-place Colorado College, while second-place UMD would be at AMSOIL against seventh-place Miami.

If UMD happen to overtake Denver and win the NCHC season title, the Bulldogs would get, as a prize, the right to play Colorado College. Some prize!

UMD women face Huskies

Here’s a surprise:  Lara Stalder came home after scoring eight goals and 12 points in three games for her native Switzerland, but jet-lag and the St. Cloud Huskies cooled off her sizzling pace, limiting Stalder to just one assist in a 2-1 opening UMD victory, and one more assist in the 4-1 second-game triumph for UMD.

As a reward, the Huskies get to open the WCHA women’s playoffs with a best-of-three series right back at AMSOIL Arena against the same Bulldogs. That also means Stalder gets another chance to shake off the jet-lag and get back on her Patty Kazmaier pace. The games are Thursday and Friday, both at 3 p.m., and if a third game is necessary, it would be Sunday.

The winner advances to Ridder Arena for the WCHA playoff semifinals and final. First place Wisconsin and second place Minnesota played a pair of scintillating ties last weekend, with Wisconsin capturing the shootout after Friday’s 1-1 deadlock, and Minnesota winning the second-game shootout after a scoreless 0-0 battle.