From: Rocky Mountain Newsby Pat Rooney
University of Denver hockey coach George Gwozdecky admits some of his younger Pioneers were battling nerves in the team's series- clinching win against Minnesota Duluth in the first round of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association tournament last week.
They had better get accustomed to bigger stages and playoff pressure in a hurry.
DU, along with top-seeded Colorado College, will begin play in the WCHA Final Five today for the first time since the Front Range powers collided in the league title game in 2005.
The Pioneers will face second-seeded North Dakota in today's first semifinal (1 p.m. MDT), and Colorado College plays in the second semifinal, against Minnesota (6 MDT), at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn. The Gophers won the play-in game Thursday night, beating St. Cloud State 3-2.
"All these games this weekend will be very valuable from an experience standpoint, especially for our younger players to gain that confidence that comes from playing on a big stage," Gwozdecky said. "The more you play in those situations, the better you are.
"Obviously, we want to do as well as we possibly can. We want to win the game (today) and we want to win the game Saturday night. But I think every shift will be valuable to future games we have to play."
Those future games include dates in the NCAA tournament, for which DU and CC already have secured berths regardless of their results in the Final Five.
CC, which hasn't won the WCHA tournament since it did so with Wisconsin in 1978, is hoping to lock up the No. 1 seed for the West Regional next week on its home ice at the World Arena in Colorado Springs.
The Pioneers, who enter the Final Five in a tie for sixth in the PairWise rankings, need a strong showing to solidify a No. 2 seed when the 16-team NCAA tournament field is announced Sunday morning. Despite its sweep of Minnesota Duluth last week, DU has gone only 6-8 against the other four teams that finished in the top five in the league.
That mark includes six consecutive losses against those teams, two of which occurred at North Dakota last month.
"It is going to be awesome and it's going to be a great experience," sophomore forward Rhett Rakhshani said. "We're going to use some of the experience from our older seniors and, hopefully, have a good weekend. There is going to be the great crowds, and there is going to be the top teams. You're going to have to play in that atmosphere at some point or another. I think it's most important that we really dictate the kind of team we want to be and build off this weekend going into the (NCAA) tournament."
They had better get accustomed to bigger stages and playoff pressure in a hurry.
DU, along with top-seeded Colorado College, will begin play in the WCHA Final Five today for the first time since the Front Range powers collided in the league title game in 2005.
The Pioneers will face second-seeded North Dakota in today's first semifinal (1 p.m. MDT), and Colorado College plays in the second semifinal, against Minnesota (6 MDT), at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn. The Gophers won the play-in game Thursday night, beating St. Cloud State 3-2.
"All these games this weekend will be very valuable from an experience standpoint, especially for our younger players to gain that confidence that comes from playing on a big stage," Gwozdecky said. "The more you play in those situations, the better you are.
"Obviously, we want to do as well as we possibly can. We want to win the game (today) and we want to win the game Saturday night. But I think every shift will be valuable to future games we have to play."
Those future games include dates in the NCAA tournament, for which DU and CC already have secured berths regardless of their results in the Final Five.
CC, which hasn't won the WCHA tournament since it did so with Wisconsin in 1978, is hoping to lock up the No. 1 seed for the West Regional next week on its home ice at the World Arena in Colorado Springs.
The Pioneers, who enter the Final Five in a tie for sixth in the PairWise rankings, need a strong showing to solidify a No. 2 seed when the 16-team NCAA tournament field is announced Sunday morning. Despite its sweep of Minnesota Duluth last week, DU has gone only 6-8 against the other four teams that finished in the top five in the league.
That mark includes six consecutive losses against those teams, two of which occurred at North Dakota last month.
"It is going to be awesome and it's going to be a great experience," sophomore forward Rhett Rakhshani said. "We're going to use some of the experience from our older seniors and, hopefully, have a good weekend. There is going to be the great crowds, and there is going to be the top teams. You're going to have to play in that atmosphere at some point or another. I think it's most important that we really dictate the kind of team we want to be and build off this weekend going into the (NCAA) tournament."
No comments:
Post a Comment