#10 PC Hockey Hosts #8 Colorado College in Twin Bill this Weekend

#10 PC Hockey Hosts #8 Colorado College in Twin Bill this Weekend

The Friars hockey team will play their last home games in 2024 this Friday and Saturday at Schneider Arena against the Colorado College Tigers. Puck drop is 7 PM Friday and 6 PM Saturday. 

Then, the Friars have a major home gap.

The next home game for the Friars after the Colorado series is not until January 16, 2025, when the Friars have a re-match with Hockey East rival Boston College.

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Not to be confused with the University of Colorado or Colorado State, Colorado College is a small school (2,200 enrollment) in Colorado Springs whose sole athletic claim to fame is its hockey program.  The Tigers are members of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC), which includes schools like Denver and North Dakota.  The Tigers won two national championships in the 1950s and have had dominant stretches, such as the seasons from 1994-2008 when they had 11 seasons with 25 or more wins/season, including three Frozen Four appearances.

Colorado College fell on hard times after 2013 and finally hired Kris Mayotte for the 2021-22 season.  Now in his fourth season at CC, Mayotte turned the Tigers around last season winning 21 games, and this year Mayotte has them #8 in the country with a 9-2-1 record so far.  If Mayotte sounds like a familiar name, that’s because he was an assistant coach for the PC Friars in the 2015-2019 seasons before leaving for a similar position at Michigan.

Mayotte was a goalie at Union and played for Nate Leaman there.  Mayotte was instrumental in coaching Friar goalies, defensemen, and penalty kill units while at PC.  His current Colorado College team reflects those strengths.

The Tigers only score about 3.0 goals/game; PC is also a low scoring team at 3.1 goals/game.  Their respective power play success rate is also comparable with Colorado at 20.0% and PC at 19.6%.  The Tigers, however, only allow 1.6 goals/game compared to PC’s 2.5 goal/games.

Colorado has one of the best goalies in Division One hockey in Kaidan Mbereko, Jr.  The junior netminder allows only 1.56 goals/game and has a ridiculous .940 save percentage.  He’ll be in the running for All-American consideration at the end of the season, if he continues to achieve those numbers. Colorado last played at PC in January 2015.  PC’s NCAA championship team that year swept the Tigers 5-3 and 5-4.

Since the Friars lost at home in overtime 3-2 on November 16th to Boston College, they have squeezed out 3 wins to improve their overall record to 10-3-2.  None of the wins have been dominant:  4-3 in OT over Long Island, 3-2 in OT vs. Clarkson, and 2-1 against St. Lawrence (the #62 ranked team in Division One out of 65 teams).

Sophomore Tanner Adams leads the Friars in goals with 8; Freshman John Mustard leads in total shots with 59; and Freshman Trevor leads with points/game with 1.00.

 

Some Final Slap Shots

- The Friars will be on Christmas break after the Colorado series this weekend.  Their next games will be in Hanover, NH, for the “Ledyard Bank Classic” on December 28 and 29.  The other teams in that tournament are Northeastern, Alaska-Anchorage, and the host team Dartmouth.

- Boston College continues to have a penalty kill rate of 100% through 13 games—the only team in the country that has not allowed a power play goal.

- Jeremy Swayman, the Boston Bruins #1 goalie, starred at Maine in his college career.  The Friars had his number, however, in a game at Schneider Arena on October 5, 2019 when they scored 7 goals against him in a 7-0 shutout.