Tonight’s NCHC playoff seeding scenarios

Here are tonight’s playoff seeding scenarios, including Colorado College’s shot at finishing as high as second place and drawing Minnesota Duluth at home next weekend. Scenarios provided by the league.

Regardless of the foe, CC will host its first home playoff series as a member of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference and since the 2011-12 season. Tickets go on sale to the public at 10 a.m. Monday at cctigers.com.

Here’s a breakdown of where teams can finish, followed by tiebreaker scenarios:

• North Dakota – locked in at No. 1
• Denver – Nos. 2-4 seed
  • 2 points guarantees 2^nd place
• SCSU – Nos. 2-4 seed
  • For 2^nd place, needs a regulation win and CC win of any kind (regulation or OT/shootout)
• CC – Nos. 2-4 seed
  • For 2^nd place, needs a regulation win and SCSU to not win in regulation (get 2 points or less)
• Omaha – Nos. 5-6 seed
  • 1 point guarantees 5^th place
• WMU -Nos. 5-6 seed
  • Needs a regulation win and an Omaha regulation loss to claim 5^th place
• UMD – locked in at No. 7
• Miami – locked in at No. 8

Notes from Saturday’s historic season sweep

By Joe Paisley

Since I covered the game for the Gazette, that article is not available here, but here are some notes from Saturday’s historic win that were cut due to space.

Ice chips

CC had swept North Dakota in two-game season series during  the 1950s and 60s but not since the schedule switched to four-game series during the former men’s Western Collegiate Hockey Association days. 

CC sophomore Kaidan Mbereko’s 43 saves was the third-most by an NCHC netminder this season.

The Tigers have scored 18 goals in their last three games (2-1 record) after scoring 24 since Dec. 8 (11 games, 9-2 record).

UND owns a 173-88-12 all-time series lead against CC with 173 victories the most against any one program in North Dakota history.  CC now leads the all-time series in Colorado Springs by a 62-61-4 margin

The 18-9-1 Tigers matched their best season win total since going 18-19-5 during the 2012-13 season when CC lost in the former men’s Western Collegiate Hockey Association Final Five league championship game, falling one win shy of an automatic NCAA Tournament berth as playoff champion.

Friday’s 7-1 win was the first time since Oct. 20, 2001 when three Tigers – freshmen Klavs Veinbergs and Zaccharya Wisdom and sophomore Ryan Beck —  recorded four or more points in a single game (7-1 win over Massachusetts). Veinbergs finished with five points (four assists), Beck four points (all Friday) and Wisdom recorded seven points on the weekend with two assists Saturday. Wisdom seems a shoo-in for either NCHC forward or rookie of the week honors with Mbereko likely to garner another goalie accolade.

Noah Laba is the first Tiger to record at least 22 points in his first two seasons since Seattle Kraken winger Jaden Schwartz (2010-11, 2011-12).

CC is now 15-1 this season when scoring three or more goals including 4-3 home loss to Augustana.