From: Colorado Springs Gazette by David Ramsey
(left) Scott Owens poses at a DU fundraiser this past season
Scott Owens wanted sizzle in the Colorado College-University of Denver rivalry.
When Owens returned to his alma mater to coach the hockey team in 1999, the arena-shaking fire had been drained from the CC-DU rivalry. Owens masterfully stoked the flames.
For five of the past six years, CC and DU ended the regular season with a homeand-home, rock-’em, sock-’em weekend bash that featured packed houses and wicked hitting.
The CC-DU rivalry is at full blaze, full of intensity and great hockey. Owens, no doubt, grabbed what he wanted.
He grabbed a little too much, as it turns out.
The Tigers have lost three straight NCAA Tournament games, which inspired Owens to take a fresh look at the DU series.
Next season, the Tigers and Pioneers again will meet four times, but the schools will stretch out the regular-season finale. CC and DU will play Oct. 31-Nov. 1 before splitting the final series between Feb. 13 and March 7, Owens said.
It’s a minor tweak to the schedule, but Owens hopes the change will deliver big results.
He wonders if placing two emotionally packed games at the end of the season drained his team in the postseason.
“I don’t think it’s a copout,” Owens said. “I don’t think it’s anything like that. We’re just trying to do something that will strengthen us in the postseason.”
The rivalry will return to two home-and-home weekends in 2009-2010 because of scheduling restraints, Owens said, but will feature the stretched-out version again in 2010-11.
It’s strange to say this, but the season-ending duel with DU was too overwhelming, too packed with thrills and history. It was just too much.
How could the Tigers top all this furious fun?
The answer is the problem. Owens has failed to revive his team after the matches with DU.
“There was an automatic, built-in letdown,” Owens said. “It’s just natural. It’s because the buildings were sold out and the excitement and the passion and the trying to one-up your archrival.”
This season, CC stomped DU in the final weekend. On March 8, the Tigers celebrated along with their fans, and they had plenty to celebrate.
The Tigers had won the MacNaughton Cup, symbol of supremacy in the Western Athletic Hockey Association, and the Gold Pan, symbol of college hockey supremacy in the state of Colorado.
At the time, no one could see disaster lurking in the near distance. Even as the Tigers celebrated their reign over a small hockey universe, they faced devastation in the battle for a larger, more important universe.
Three weeks after the Tigers’ hockey party, they were finished. They lost, on home ice, to Michigan State in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.
“There’s been so much at stake,” Owens said of the DU series. “It’s been very taxing mentally and physically as we head into the playoffs.”
Next season, he hopes, the taxes will be a little more reasonable.
When Owens returned to his alma mater to coach the hockey team in 1999, the arena-shaking fire had been drained from the CC-DU rivalry. Owens masterfully stoked the flames.
For five of the past six years, CC and DU ended the regular season with a homeand-home, rock-’em, sock-’em weekend bash that featured packed houses and wicked hitting.
The CC-DU rivalry is at full blaze, full of intensity and great hockey. Owens, no doubt, grabbed what he wanted.
He grabbed a little too much, as it turns out.
The Tigers have lost three straight NCAA Tournament games, which inspired Owens to take a fresh look at the DU series.
Next season, the Tigers and Pioneers again will meet four times, but the schools will stretch out the regular-season finale. CC and DU will play Oct. 31-Nov. 1 before splitting the final series between Feb. 13 and March 7, Owens said.
It’s a minor tweak to the schedule, but Owens hopes the change will deliver big results.
He wonders if placing two emotionally packed games at the end of the season drained his team in the postseason.
“I don’t think it’s a copout,” Owens said. “I don’t think it’s anything like that. We’re just trying to do something that will strengthen us in the postseason.”
The rivalry will return to two home-and-home weekends in 2009-2010 because of scheduling restraints, Owens said, but will feature the stretched-out version again in 2010-11.
It’s strange to say this, but the season-ending duel with DU was too overwhelming, too packed with thrills and history. It was just too much.
How could the Tigers top all this furious fun?
The answer is the problem. Owens has failed to revive his team after the matches with DU.
“There was an automatic, built-in letdown,” Owens said. “It’s just natural. It’s because the buildings were sold out and the excitement and the passion and the trying to one-up your archrival.”
This season, CC stomped DU in the final weekend. On March 8, the Tigers celebrated along with their fans, and they had plenty to celebrate.
The Tigers had won the MacNaughton Cup, symbol of supremacy in the Western Athletic Hockey Association, and the Gold Pan, symbol of college hockey supremacy in the state of Colorado.
At the time, no one could see disaster lurking in the near distance. Even as the Tigers celebrated their reign over a small hockey universe, they faced devastation in the battle for a larger, more important universe.
Three weeks after the Tigers’ hockey party, they were finished. They lost, on home ice, to Michigan State in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.
“There’s been so much at stake,” Owens said of the DU series. “It’s been very taxing mentally and physically as we head into the playoffs.”
Next season, he hopes, the taxes will be a little more reasonable.
5 comments:
I have never heard of this alleged Western Athletic Hockey Association.
The W.A.H.A. is a one team conference for Colorado based D-III hockey teams. CC has won the WAHA title 51 straight times, but are so emotionally drained from the parades and victory celebrations that they are too tired to win an NCAA championship.
it sounds like Owens is trying to find a scapegoat for CC's poor performance in the NCAA and WCHA tournaments.
Whatever Owens motives, the idea to have three rivalry weekends is a great one and props to whomever thought of it.
As was mentioned in the article DU & CC will just have two series in 2009-10. The weekend of Dec. 4th, 2009 which is over Xmas Break for DU and the last weekend of the season.
From then on they'll go with the three weekend format which is great for the rivalry and great for Colorado hockey.
A few other scheduling notes for 2009-10. Vermont will visit DU for a weekend series. DU will visit Ohio State as a payback for the Buckeyes coming to DU next season and the 2009-10 Denver Cup will feature BC, St. Lawrence & UN-Omaha.
In case you are missing it, the current Stanley Cup games between Pitt. and Detroit are well worth watching. Constant end to end hockey with no let up. Detroit won last night but I'm picking Pitt. in seven.
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