COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Hockey can be a cruel game. Just ask Colorado College.
Last season, the analytics said this was a really good hockey team. The Tigers’ puck pressure was as good as anyone, and they piled up the scoring chances. The highly-unofficial expected goals number published by College Hockey News (through no fault of the nice people at CHN, this number has flaws to it, but when you look at a full season sample, it’s still a good indicator of how things have gone) shows the Tigers scored 24 goals fewer than expected in 2025-26.
UMD associate coach Adam Krause was very complimentary of what he’s seen so far from the Tigers.
“I think probably of all the teams in our league, CC was probably the most undeserving of their record last year,” he said this week. “I thought they were a really good team. When we played them, they challenged us defensively all weekend. I can understand what the frustration was in terms of their coaching staff. So probably a team that didn’t get enough respect last year because of the won-loss record, but a very good opponent, very well coached. Their offense is extremely dangerous from the video we’ve seen. So we’re ready for a real tough weekend.”
Back in September, Tigers coach Kris Mayotte said he and his staff did a deep dive into their offensive analytics in the offseason. Numbers can overwhelm you, and these coaches nowadays have access to more information than I can articulate in this space.
“I think when you look back at it,” he said, “frustrating is a word that I think in the moment we felt, but it gave us opportunity to reflect going into this off season. When we started this year and we started to talk about our team and our plan to our guys and all of that, it really became quite simple. Our ozone numbers were great. Our possession, our in-zone recoveries, our controlled entries, our shot attempts from the slot, our rebound chances, all of those things, shots from the slot off the rush, all those things were top 15 in the country. Unfortunately, our net presence was wasn’t good enough and we were 52nd in screened shot attempts on net (in Division I). We were 61st in percent of shot attempts with a screen. At the end of the day, I think what we all learned is you just have to be there.”
Tigers are 5-1 at the outset, getting outstanding goaltending from sophomore Jackson Unger (.962 save percentage) and averaging four goals per game. Colorado College is getting contributions from all over the lineup, including seven of its 24 goals from defensemen.
Should sound familiar, in a sense.
Carl Axelsson (.961 save percentage) vs Unger in the NCHC opener for both teams.
For UMD, the same lineup as last Friday against Bemidji State, with Barrett Hall and Grayden Siepmann both back.
Lines?
Lines.
UMD forwards
Plante (Victor) – Plante (Zam) – Hall
Bibby – Shaugabay – Anderson
Zaremba – Arnott – Bentz
Fischer – Platter – Bechen
UMD defense
Hanson – Kleber
Pionk – Siepmann
Cleveland – Murphy
McInnis
UMD goalies
Axelsson – Dahlmeir – Sheffield
Colorado College forwards
Montgomery – Beckner – Link
Bjorck – Veinbergs – Olsen
Mrsic (Tomas) – Hvidston – Crandell
Mrsic (Mateo) – Halaburda – Stuart
Colorado College defense
Lindgren – Scott
Koering – Burkholder
Blais-Savoie – Roberts
Constance
Colorado College goalies
Unger – Pradel – Dempsey
Comments