Tigers’ NCAA tourney waiting game begins after Game 3 loss to Omaha in NCHC quarterfinals

By Joe Paisley

Colorado College will be back at practice on Wednesday, hoping that their hockey season isn’t over.

With a 2-1 loss to Omaha in Game 3 of their best-of-three National Collegiate Hockey Conference quarterfinal playoff series, the 21-13-3 Tigers must wait until next weekend’s league championships to find out if they make the 16-team NCAA Tournament field.

“We’re not done yet,” Tigers coach Kris Mayotte said. “Unfortunately, it’s not in our hands. We got to believe we have the opportunity to do it again. We were hoping we could take care of business tonight, punch our ticket and control our destiny.” 

The loss before an announced sellout crowd of 3,416 at Ed Robson Arena dropped the Tigers down to 14^th in the Pairwise rankings and right at the cutoff line with the 15^th and 16^th seeds earmarked for the CCHA and Atlantic Hockey playoff champions.

“There are some scenarios out there that get us into the tournament,” Mayotte said. “We’ll take Monday and Tuesday off and come back and get ready to go, start preparing on Wednesday. That is all we can do at this point.”

With the win and according to the Pairwise Probability Matrix tool, 11^th-rated Omaha is in the NCAAs for sure while 12^th-rated Western Michigan has a 99 percent chance, 13^th Massachusetts 91 percent; 14^th Colorado College, 49 percent; with Cornell, Dartmouth and St. Cloud State all needing to win league playoff titles to get an automatic qualifier.

Cornell and Dartmouth play in one ECAC semifinal while SCSU plays Denver Friday at the NCHC Frozen Face-off. Omaha plays top-seeded North Dakota in the other semi in St. Paul. CC may move up if Massachusetts loses in the Hockey East semifinals.

Mayotte was a Providence assistant in 2015 when the Friars made the tourney as a 14^th seed and won a national championship. They made it in only after Minnesota ended Michigan’s bid for the Big Ten’s automatic qualifier in the title game, leaving a spot open for PC.

Knowing that, Mayotte spent time with the team after Sunday’s loss, making sure they know the season may not be over.

“I shared with (the team) that when we won it in Providence we were in much the same situation,” Mayotte said. “We’ll start preparing on Wednesday as if we are in and we have a week and a half to prepare. I trust if we do get a chance, this team will be ready and excited and attack the opportunity.”

On Sunday, Omaha forward Brock Bremer converted a 3-on-2 breakaway by one-timing a cross-ice pass from defenseman Griffin Ludtke, who forced a CC turnover in the neutral zone to set up the rush. 

That put the 22-11-4 Mavericks ahead 2-1 with 13:21 left in the third period. It would be enough with goalie Simon Latkoczy (31 saves) anchoring a defense that collapsed down low to keep opponents out of the slot.

“You have to find a way to get open looks and against them, that’s hard,” Mayotte said. “The way they defend they always have guys around the net. They don’t vacate very much.”

CC got the start it needed when freshman Klavs Veinbergs knocked in a rebound off a Noah Laba shot for a power-play goal and 1-0 lead with 4:26 left in the first period. It was the first lead this series for the Tigers, not counting Friday’s overtime winner, but would only last 21 minutes, 46 seconds.

Omaha would tie it up at 1-1 when Jimmy Glynn lifted the puck over CC sophomore goalie Kaidan Mbereko(20 saves) with 2:40 left in the second period. The Tigers looked to have retaken the lead but Latkoczy reached behind himself and covered the puck before it crossed the line – the on-ice officials ruled – with 1:52 left to keep it tied entering the third period. UNO had a goal disallowed about five minutes earlier on an offsides call.

“They capitalize on mistakes and we didn’t make many tonight,” he added. “(Mbereko) made some big saves. It wasn’t like they scored on their only two chances but they were fairly opportunistic. We just really couldn’t get our footing back. They started taking over in the second period. It felt like we chased it a bit after that.”

Knowing that Sunday might have been the final game for the eight Tiger seniors and one graduate student, they can take pride knowing what they accomplished.

“If we don’t get a chance to do it again, they changed the program,” Mayotte said. “Not many teams get that opportunity to actually do it. There are a lot of places that talk about it and lot of teams told they have a chance. But to actually do the work that it takes to really do it, especially in this league where it is a battle every night, (we are) incredibly proud of this group.”

”We hope we get another chance because they have a legacy that I would like them to continue building because they have done such good work pushing this program forward,” he added.

Ice chips

Freshman Bret Link missed Sunday’s game with an upper-body injury sustained in Saturday’s loss. … CC is now 1-3in NCHC quarterfinal series Game 3s. The Tigers lost to North Dakota (2013-14) and Denver (2017-18) and won at Western Michigan in 2018-19 to secure the program’s first semifinals appearance. … The Tigers are now 65-93 all-time in postseason play. …. CC’s 21 wins are the most since the 2010-11 squad that won 23 games and made the NCAA West Regional Final in St. Louis. That was the last time CC competed in the NCAA Tournament. … The Tigers are 18-2 this season when scoring three or more goals and 20-6-3 when allowing fewer than three. … The Tigers have lost just five times in regulation in the past 22 games. … Laba has seven game-winning goals, the most by a Tiger since Brett Sterling (8) during the 2005-06 season. … Nine Tigers have recorded at least 10 assists, the most since the 2012-13 squad (9). … UNO leads the all-time series 30-15-7 with a 14-10-1 mark in Colorado Springs.

NCHC Quarterfinals 

Sunday Game 3s

No. 3 St. Cloud State 5, No. 6 Western Michigan 1, Huskies win series 2-1

No. 5 Omaha 2, No. 4 Colorado College 1, Mavericks win series 2-1

NCHC Frozen Faceoff

Excel Energy Center, St. Paul, Minn.

All games on CBS Sports Network

Friday semifinals

4 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. CT

No. 3 St. Cloud State at No. 2 Denver

No. 5 Omaha at No. 1 North Dakota

Saturday championship

Semifinal winners, 7:30 p.m. CT

‘No quit’ Tigers rally from down three goals for a 4-3 OT home win over Omaha in NCHC playoffs

By Joe Paisley

Colorado College aced its biggest test of the year and moved within one win of a return trip to the NCHC Frozen Faceoff.

The resilient Tigers scored four unanswered goals to complete a historic comeback against Omaha when sophomore Gleb Veremyev tapped in a diagonal pass from freshman Zaccharya Wisdom with 8:07 left in overtime to take Game 1, 4-3,. Game 2 of the NCHC quarterfinal series is 6 pm Saturday.

The Friday OT winner capped a rally from down 3-0 midway through the second period when Omaha seemed to pull away despite a good performance by CC (21-11-3). 

The Tigers refused to quit and overcame a superb effort by Omaha goalie Simon Latkoczy, who made 46 saves in the game, including 17 in the third period and 15 in OT.

“A lot of goals in the postseason aren’t pretty, they’re gritty,” Veremyev said. “You just want to get the puck on net and get bodies there. We know that no matter what obstacle, we got it. We have a motto: Execution Over Emotion (and another), No Quit, Be Relentless. That is what you saw tonight.”

The first playoff game ever in Ed Robson Arena lived up to expectations after Colorado College forced overtime when leading scorer Noah Laba converted a pass from Veremyev to tie the game at 3-3 with the extra attacker with just 49.1 seconds remaining.

The tying goal capped a two-goal third-period rally by the Tigers, who scored once during a pivotal five-minute major and game misconduct on Ty Mueller to get back into the contest. CC was controlling the play by that point and the momentum surge from that extended power play tilted the ice the rest of the contest.

The five-minute major came with 12:08 remaining in regulation. CC scored when Wisdom used his speed to create a power-play breakaway. He cut across the goal face for a short-range shot that left behind a rebound for Klavs Veinbergs to tap in with 10:45 left. All three goals in the third and OT were scored from within 3-5 feet of the Omaha net.

“We were playing good hockey,” CC coach Kris Mayotte said. “The (3-0) score was unfortunate, especially when they scored 21 seconds after they scored the first one.”

“Our guys took advantage of the moment,” he added. “I am really proud of our ability to handle adversity and our ability to be tough. We had 13 forwards and six D who just went to work.”

CC was unable to score again over the next 3:38 of the man advantage but that helped the fourth-seeded Tigers out shoot the fifth-seeded Mavericks 19-1 in the third period to force OT in the first postseason home contest for the program since March 2012.

Omaha built a 3-0 lead in the second period when Mueller scored on a wrister to complete a 2-on-1 breakaway and Jack Randl scored high glove side just 21 seconds later to stake the 20-11-4 Mavericks to a 2-0 lead with 14:09 left against Tigers sophomore goalie Kaidan Mbereko (12 saves). Eight minutes later, Jacob Slipec made it 3-0 with 6:35 left.

Mbereko would bounce back with a huge save 4:29 into OT on a Omaha breakaway by Zack Urdahl to set up Veremyev’s late heroics.

After Omaha went ahead 3-0 in the second period, the announced sellout crowd of 3,410 was pretty quiet, but the resilient Tigers gave their fans reason to hope when CC converted its first power play just 18 seconds into the man advantage. Defenseman Chase Foley’s rising shot beat Latkoczy high stick side just inside the right goalpost to cut the lead to 3-1 just 48 seconds later. The Slovakian netminder was probably screened by Veremyev and the goal energized the crowd, who was loud the rest of the game.

Ice chips

The win lifted CC into 10th in the Pairwise rankings, which are used by the NCAA Selection Committee to help determine the 16-team NCAA Tournament field. Omaha fell to 14th. The teams were tied at 11th entering Friday’s game. … Nationwide, all home teams (higher seeds) won the 10 Game 1s Friday, except Colgate, with lost 3-2 in 2OT to St. Lawrence. … The last CC overtime playoff win was last season when the Tigers knocked off Western Michigan. … The last home OT game before Friday’s thriller was a 4-3 loss to Michigan Tech that ended the Tigers’ 2011-12 season and was Jaden Schwartz’s final college game. He signed his NHL entry-level contract with the St. Louis Blues two days later. … UNO leads the all-time series 28-15-7 with a 12-10-1 mark in Colorado Springs.

National Collegiate Hockey Conference quarterfinals 

Best of three series, Game 2, 6 p.m. Saturday; Game 3, 6 p.m. Sunday (if necessary)

Friday’s scores

St. Cloud State 5, Western Michigan 2

Denver 4, Minnesota Duluth 0

North Dakota 5, Miami 1

Colorado College 4, Omaha 3 (OT)

Saturday games

No. 8 seed Miami (7-25-3) at No. 1 North Dakota (25-10-2), UND leads 1-0

No. 7 Minnesota Duluth (12-19-5) at No. 2 Denver (25-9-3), DU leads 1-0

No. 6 Western Michigan (20-14-1) at No. 3 St. Cloud State (16-14-5), SCSU leads 1-0

No. 5 Omaha (20-11-4) at No. 4 Colorado College (21-11-3), CC leads 1-0

Tigers freshman Zaccharya Wisdom scores four goals, three on power play, to lead rout of No. 2 North Dakota

By Joe Paisley

The only person happier than Tigers freshman Zaccharya Wisdom and the Colorado College fans might have been his mother, Mairri McConnell, who was at Ed Robson Arena to witness a special night for her son and the Tigers.

Wisdom scored four times, three while on the power play, to propel 15^th-ranked Colorado College to a 7-1 home rout of No. 2 North Dakota Friday night.

 “It feels good to make her proud,” said the first-year winger, who credits his mother’s example while growing up in a rough part of Toronto.

“Four goals … He is just around the net whether he was planted there or driving there, it was going for him tonight,” CC coach Kris Mayotte said. “You are not surprised. When he is getting those types of looks, he is going to score.  That is what he does.”

“To put together a performance like he did was absolutely incredible and was obviously a huge lift for us.”

The win moved CC up from No. 16 to 15 in the Pairwise rankings which help determine NCAA Tournament seeding.

Wisdom scored twice with the man advantage during a decisive three-goal second period that put CC ahead 5-1 entering the third, with his third man-advantage goal and hat trick coming with 15:25 left in Game 1 of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference series opener.

He scored his fourth goal about eight minutes later, knocking in his own rebound for one more joyous salute from the home fans. Wisdom scored the final three goals of the game.

The Toronto native, who had six goals entering Friday’s contest, also set up the eventual game-winner by sophomore Gleb Veremyev, who scored with 1:58 left in the first period. A forechecking Wisdom forced a UND turnover in the far corner and found the sophomore power forward alone in front of the Fighting Hawks net for a 2-1 lead.

“The confidence went up, getting a turnover like that and a scoring chance like that feels good and I felt good the rest of the game,” Wisdom said.

“He is a worker,” Mayotte said. “That line in general was really good for us tonight.”

The win secured the season series for CC (17-9-1, 11-6-0-5-2-0, 30 points) after a historic road sweep in December in Grand Forks, and moved the Tigers into third place past idle No. 13 Western Michigan. Fifth-ranked Denver downed Minnesota-Duluth 5-4 in overtime Friday to stay in fifth (28 points) behind the fourth-place Broncos (29 points).

The win assured the Tigers of their first winning regular season record since the 2011-12 campaign.

The four power-play goals by the Tigers, which entered the game among the worst of the 64 Division 1 teams while on the man advantage, were the most since recording four in an 8-0 home win over Air Force on Oct. 28, 2022.

“We kind of got sick and tired of not putting anything in the back of the net,” Wisdom said. “We were like at what 10 percent at one point? The guys got sick and tired and we are just that much more motivated.”

Wisdom played a large role in the power play’s success. While not the biggest, the 175-pounder made room for himself to work down low.

“He is so good on the goal line on the power play,” Mayotte said. “He is very comfortable there. He wins retrievals. He breaks pressure and again he is really good around the net.”

CC freshman Klavs Veinbergs scored the opening goal while on the power play about eight minutes into the game, in which the Tigers never trailed against league-leading North Dakota (20-7-2, 11-5-1-1-4-0, 37 points)

UND would answer just 1:28 later when Riese Gaber scored his 15th to make it 1-1 and set up a strong of two more UND power plays. A quick whistle negated another power-play goal for UND that kept it tied until Wisdom forced that turnover.

After that North Dakota spurt, CC dominated play. CC sophomore Ryan Beck recorded a career-high four assists while Veinbergs added a career-best four points, including three assists.

“It was a big-time effort,” Mayotte said. “He wasn’t the only guy who had a big-time night. Becker had a big-time night. Klavs had a big-time night. We had a lot of guys have a big-time night.” 

“We were moving our feet tonight,” Mayotte said. “We got a little bit away from that when they made their push in the first. We were reaching a little bit but when (Wisdom) is going, he is electric.”

Tyler Coffey scored during the three-goal second period for CC off an assist by Noah Laba.

Ice chips

Wisdom’s four goals is the most by a Tiger against North Dakota since Eric Walsky on Nov. 8, 2008 (7-4 CC victory). That was the last time CC scored seven against UND. … Wisdom’s four goals in league play were the only the seventh time in NCHC history and first time this season. … Wisdom is the first Tiger with four goals in a game since Feb. 23, 2019 (Ben Copeland vs. Western Michigan) and his five points were the most since Noah Serdachny on Dec. 30, 2022 vs. Princeton. … The six-goal margin was the largest against UND since the Tigers won 8-2 and 6-0 Oct. 29-30, 1994. … It is only the fourth time in program history that CC has won three-straight games against North Dakota since Thanksgiving weekend 1995. … It was UND’s first regulation loss in league play this season and ended a 21-game streak dating back to Nov. 3. … The Tigers won three in a row against UND in 1991, 1993 and 1995. … UND owns a 173-87-12 all-time series lead against CC with 173 victories the most against any one program in North Dakota history.  … UND is now 61-61-4 all-time in Colorado Springs. … The Tigers matched their best season win total since going 17-20-4 during the 2018-19 campaign . 

CC defenseman Max Burkholder’s career-best three points propels No. 18 Tigers to series and season sweep of Miami RedHawks

By Joe Paisley

Colorado College freshman defenseman Max Burkholder ended a four-game pointless streak with a career-high three points to help the 18th-ranked Tigers pull away for a 4-2 win over Miami.

“Our team is going on all cylinders and I was just lucky enough to be a part of those chances,” Burkholder said.

He played a larger role than that.

“When he is playing well and he is dynamic offensively he is playing with a lot of poise,” Tigers coach Kris Mayotte said. “We saw a lot of that early in the year on the nonconference stuff. I think he got his feet moving again with pucks instead of being just a distributor, he attacked and was smart about it.”

“It was part of our game plan on how we wanted to build our line rushes and build our entries and I thought he was a big-time contributor to our execution,” he added.

The two home wins this weekend secured the four-game season sweep of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference foe and extended the Tigers’ streak against the last-place RedHawks to 11-0-2 since January 2020.

The Tigers scored the eventual game-winner with 5:29 left in the second period, pulling ahead 3-1 on a goal by senior defenseman Jack Millar. The Tigers kept up the pressure which led to a scrum behind the Miami net and a slashing call on CC’s Zaccharya Wisdom, much to the dismay of the announced sellout crowd of 3,454 at Ed Robson Arena.

The boos for a referee were loud, frequent and energized the Tigers, who shut down Miami then and during another power play that started just 15 seconds after the first man advantage ended.

“They were super loud and that is so nice to have,” Burkholder said. “That brings energy right to our bench. It was super big for us and it showed on the ice.”

“It was a huge moment and you had to execute,” Mayotte said. 

That second MU power play extended into the third, which CC dominated, much as the fifth-place Tigers (13-8-1, 7-5-0-3-1-0 NCHC) did in Friday’s 2-1 victory. The Tigers out shot the RedHawks 17-6 in the third and controlled play for the rest of the game.

The Tigers clinched the win when Wisdom knocked in a rebound after a Burkholder power-play drive and shot to the Miami net, making it 4-1 with 8:49 left. Burkholder’s drive was set up by senior captain Logan Will. The freshman from Toronto made his presence felt throughout the evening with his skill, speed and physical play.

“To win hockey games you have to be a team that can finish,” Mayotte said. “On back-to-back nights, we had two really good third periods but we have to find a way to get 60 (minutes). We are still not quite there.”

It was a breakout game for CC freshman Klavs Veinbergs as well. The big Latvian recorded two assists for his first points as a Tiger. 

The second assist — the primary on Millar’s goal that put CC ahead for good at 3-1 – showed why Tiger fans should be excited to watch him develop in 2024. 

The 2022 Tampa Bay draft pick showed good vision, making a pass from his knees from below the goal line out to Millar, who fired a low shot past Miami goalie Bruno Bruveris (28 saves) for a two-goal lead with 5:29 left in the second and the eventual game-winner.

Veinbergs flirted with his first college goal, missing out on three opportunities Saturday. You have a sense that college first may come soon.

“He has such a good shot that our entire bench is begging him to shoot the puck,” Mayotte said. 

Just as they did on Friday, the last-place RedHawks (7-13-2, 1-10-1-0-0-0 NCHC) jumped out to a 1-0 lead when PJ Fletcher knocked in a power-play rebound after a shot by Ryan Sullivan. Miami led just 2:13 into the game but CC was quick to respond.

In the first period, Tigers leading scorer Noah Laba (19 points, 11 goals) scored 4 1/2 minutes later, jamming in a rebound on the second try to tie the game at 1-1. Six seconds earlier, Laba had ripped a shot off the crossbar that bounced away harmlessly, but the Tigers won the faceoff in the Miami zone, setting up his tying tally.

Burkholder made a highlight-reel play of his own, skating behind the Miami net and around before firing a shot high glove side that beat Bruveris midway through the first for a 2-1 CC lead. He later assisted Laba’s goal and Wisdom’s tally to account for his three points.

Ice chips

Will now has 11 assists (17 points) to move into a tie for the team lead with sophomore Ryan Beck (14 points). … CC is now 12-1 when scoring three or more goals with the lone defeat a 4-3 home loss to Augustana, which recorded its first win over a ranked team Friday (5-4 at No. 16 Arizona State). … The Tigers are 12-3-1 when allowing three goals or less. … CC’s 13-8-1 record after 22 games is the best since the 2011-12 team started 13-8-1. … CC now leads the all-time series versus the RedHawks 21-11-4. … The CC underclassmen have recorded 44 of the Tigers’ 68 goals this season.

Colorado College freshman Klavs Veinbergs starts off well in return from injury, takes on three countrymen against Miami this weekend

There will be a lot of familiar faces for Colorado College freshman Klavs Veinbergs during this weekend’s home series against Miami with three countrymen among eight European players on the RedHawks.

The three Latvians are goalie Bruno Bruveris, defenseman Rihards Simanovics and center Raimonds Vitolins. They are joined by four Swedes (Axel Kimlin, William Hallen, Hampus Rydqvist and Albin Nilsson), and one Slovakian (Artur Turansky) on the RedHawks roster.

Miami’s Latvians played on the Baltic state’s 2022 world juniors team alongside Veinbergs, a 2022 Tampa Bay seventh-round draft pick. The 6-foot-3, 198-pounder returned to action last weekend after preseason surgery and played in both games at Minnesota-Duluth.

“He got better each shift,” CC coach Kris Mayotte said. “You see the physical tools, but it is just getting up to speed. The first night he showed a lot of poise. We played him a decent amount at center in the second game. It is still the midseason details that have to come along. He is a good student of the game.”

Veinbergs, 20, who competed for his home country in 2021 at age 18 in both the junior and men’s world championships, could develop into an important contributor over the second half of the season assuming he continues progressing.

“Right now, the requirement for him is lower than everyone else in terms of the details and the structure because we understand where he is and that he hasn’t played hockey in a long time,” Mayotte said. “It will get to the point where it is up to him. It is just like freshmen turning into sophomores. Yeah, we let you get away with stuff as freshmen, but you don’t get away with that as a sophomore.”

If anything, he adds depth to an already solid group of young forwards.

“We have a great competition right now,” Mayotte said. “It is a good problem to have.”

No. 20 Tigers enter break on upswing after up-and-down-and-up first half; injury update

By Joe Paisley

It was a rollercoaster first half for No. 20 Colorado College with the Tigers entering the holiday break on the rise after last weekend’s historic road sweep of then-No. 1 North Dakota.

The two wins were the first road sweep of UND in Grand Forks by the Tigers (9-6-1) in 30 years (Thanksgiving weekend 1993 under then-coach Don Lucia). The sweep surprised many in the college hockey world and propelled CC to its first ranking in one national poll in about 11 years (Dec. 2012) and in both rankings (Nov. 2012).

The result has energized the Tigers fan base and those around the program. Consider the week prior when a 0-1-1 home weekend against ranked Arizona State had CC down to 29^th on the receiving votes list with a downward trajectory due to a moribund power play (then 61^st) and slowed 5-on-5 scoring.

“We are who we are whether the rankings say we are that good or we are not,” coach Kris Mayotte said. “But we have to start winning those games. We have talked about the team we think we can become and the type of program we want to be. Until you actually start proving it, you can say whatever you want. It just doesn’t mean much.”

What matters is playing good hockey featuring timely scoring and superior goaltending from Kaidan Mbereko (2.52 goals against, .912 save percentage), who garnered weekly National Collegiate Hockey Conference honors.

“This team is excited to be one of those (ranked) teams,” Mayotte said. “This is our third year here and for the first two years our teams were tasked with building a foundation, an identity and a culture. This year’s task is to start turning in results. This is one of those boxes we had to check.

“Our potential is that we are a potential (NCAA) tournament team which means you have to get top 14, top 13?” Mayotte added. “We have work to do but you cannot fast forward the process. We took a step and have to make sure we take the next one and find that consistency in doing so.”

The Thanksgiving bye week came at an important time for the Tigers, who needed extra practice to right the ship after starting 5-0 and then slipping with a 2-5 record due to uneven play. That extra work started a 2-1-1 run to close out the first half. The team focused on special teams and the Tigers scored their first power play goal in 30 opportunities in Friday’s win.

“We wish we were playing again this weekend because our guys have that confidence and that belief in what we are building, “Mayotte said.

The Tigers practice through Dec. 16 and return after Christmas for a couple practices and a Dec. 29 home exhibition against second-ranked club program Minot State (17-4).

“We know it’s back to work when we get here,” said New York Rangers draft pick Noah Laba (12 points, seven goals). “We proved to ourselves we can beat anybody. We set (expectations) high. We know the second half will be that much more challenging.”

Sophomore Gleb Veremyev’s overtime winner Saturday ended a six-game goalless streak and put him atop the Tigers stats sheet with 13 points (seven goals) followed by Laba, who recorded Friday’s OT winner. Senior captain Logan Will (11, five goals) scored twice Saturday while sophomore Ryan Beck (10, team-high eight assists) is the last of four players in double figures through 16 games. Those sophomores and a strong freshmen class are why the underclassmen have recorded 33 of the team’s 49 goals and 76 of 126 points.

A good finish to the first half will be soon forgotten if the Tigers do not keep getting better as the second half continues in 2024.

“We told our guys, ‘Remember the work,’” Mayotte said. “That is always the goal. The first and second half are almost like two completely different seasons. But, you have to remember the work that led to the weekend that you can enjoy for a couple weeks. If you forget the work, it will be a rude awakening when we get back here.”

Injury update

Injured freshman forward Klavs Veinbergs (offseason surgery) may play sometime in late January/early February.

The 6-foot-3, 198-pounder from Latvia is a 2022 seventh-round draft pick by Tampa Bay. He played for the Latvian men’s team at the 2022 world championships and for the last two world juniors tournaments.

“We are looking forward to it,” Mayotte said. “He can just flat-out score. But it will be about getting him up to speed. There are the systems and the reads inside the systems that guys have been doing for four months that he hasn’t.”

“He is here for a reason. We should have him and (injured winger Zaccharya) Wisdom (six points, three goals in 12 games) back in our lineup.”

The fifth-place Tigers (4-4-0-2-0, 10 points) open 2024 with a nonconference road series at No. 9 Minnesota Jan. 7-8, followed by the resumption of league play at sixth-place Minnesota Duluth (5-8-4, 2-5-1-0-1-1, nine points) on Jan. 12-13.

Notes: Development camps ahead for CC draft picks, recognizing future Tigers’ USHL seasons; USA Hockey tryouts underway

The NHL development camps are in July with New York Rangers draft pick and CC forward Noah Laba (2021, 111th overall) presumably attending along with future Tigers Klavs Veinbergs (Latvia, committed May 18) with Tampa Bay (224^th overall, 2022) and Tomas Machu (Czechia) with the NY Islanders (221^st overall, 2021).

Veinbergs, 20, has played twice for the Latvia U20 teams at the world juniors (three points in 10 games) and three games (no points) for the men’s national team.  Machu has an assist in five appearances for Czechia at the world juniors. 

Any future Tigers selected in the upcoming draft would likely attend their new organization’s camp as well. Dates and locations vary. Will update with any CC college free agent invites as that info trickles in.

In the final pro game of the 2022-23 season, Gustav Olofsson’s Coachella Valley (Kraken affiliate) Firebirds lost Game 7 in overtime to fall short in the AHL Calder Cup Finals. The Hershey Bears (Capitals) won their record 12th league championship. The NCHC provided this Instagram reels update on Goose.

Future Tiger defenseman Antonio Fernandez was cited as a major reason the Lincoln Stars enjoyed a strong 2022-23 season.

Not surprisingly, Dubuque standout defenseman Max Burkholder was also recognized.

Cedar Rapids winger Zaccharya Wisdom’s significant second-season improvement makes coach Mark Carlson think Wisdom could be “playing in the NHL someday.”

“(Zaccharya) took a big step forward in his second season and was a real leader for us,” Carlson said.

No future Tigers were selected for USA Hockey’s 2023 world juniors summer showcase tournament next month. It determines which players play for Team USA at this December’s world juniors. Denver coach David Carle is leading the Americans.

USA Hockey’s player development camps started Thursday with the Boys 17 festival, which helps determine Team USA for the Gretzky Hlinka Cup tournament (held last summer at Robson Arena).

The Rink Live breaks down that festival with rosters and list of known college commitments (no future Tigers at this point).