Boldrey Breakdown: Expectations are high in Colorado Springs as CC returns just about everybody off a team that earned a No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament last year and spent much of the year ranked in the top five.

Coach Owens is looking for his Tigers to finish in the top three of the WCHA, make it to St. Paul and return to the NCAA tournament in March. However, this year he hopes his club will fare a little better in both postseason tournaments.

Some new faces that will be joining the veteran mix this year include freshman forwards Tim Hall and Nick Dineen as well as defenseman Gabe Guentzel.

“Combined, those three guys have seven years of junior experience between them,” Owens said. “I think that will help them hit the ground running when they get to us.”

Gabe is not the only Guentzel joining the Tigers this year as his dad, Mike Guentzel, will join Owens and fellow assistant Joe Bonnett on the bench.

Offensively: Owens expects seniors Chad Rau and Scott McCulloch to carry a great portion of the leadership load, with juniors Mike Testwuide and Bill Sweatt also contributing heavily on offense. Rau led the country last year with six shorthanded goals.

Defensively: Senior captain Jake Gannon will anchor the defense once again with the junior trio of  Kris Fredheim, Brian Connelly and Nate Prosser all pitching in considerably.

In the Net: Sophomore Richard Bachman, the 2007-08 WCHA Freshman of the year and player of the year returns to man the pipes for the Tigers once again. In order for the Tigers to build on their success of last year he will need to have another big year and not experience a sophomore slump.

“We are hoping that, as he’s another year older and a year stronger, and now he has been in a lot of the buildings now, that he can come close to duplicating that season of last year.,” Ownens said.

Last season Bachman ranked No. 3 in the NCAA with a 1.85 GA, No. 3 with a .931 save percentage and No. 4 with a .729 winning percentage.
 
Player to watch for this season: Bill Sweatt

“I think Billy is going to have a real good year for us,” Owens said. “He’s hungry. He had a great summer training wise and I think he’s somebody that could really take a step forward for us… Not that he didn’t have a good year last year, I just think he’s in position now as a junior, he’s stronger, he’s more confident and I think he could really have a breakout year for us.”

photo credit Casey Gibson