Buried under an avalanche of attractions - a perennial Stanley Cup contender one hour north in Denver, downhill nirvana three hours northwest at Vail and Breckenridge, the U.S. Air Force Academy in its backyard, Pikes Peak in its foreground and sunshine overhead 250 days a year - resides the hottest team in college hockey.
Situated in downtown Colorado Springs, the school is Colorado College, and its current claim to fame is the nation's longest winning streak - 14 games (12-0-2) spanning 61 days. The Tigers fell to UMass-Lowell, 4-1, Oct. 12 in the second game of their season. Six days later, they blanked Maine, 3-0, in Anchorage, Alaska, - the Black Bears' lone loss - and have not looked back since.
Second-ranked CC (13-1-2, 8-0-2 WCHA) visits Minnesota State University in Mankato for two games on Friday and Saturday, followed by two home dates next weekend with Western Michigan - two teams with a combined record of 11-15-5 - leading into a 12-day break.
A sweep of both would extend the streak to 82 days when the Tigers travel to top-ranked North Dakota on Jan. 3 for one of the season's most anticipated series. It's the Tigers' best start since 1995-96, when they began 15-0-3 and reached the national final before losing to Michigan.
"It remains to be seen how good we will be," said Scott Owens, a former CC goalie (class of 1979) in his fourth year as head coach. "We've been playing pretty good hockey. Special teams have been good, team defense has been good, and we've got some of the younger guys going who we thought would take longer to adapt."
If there is a current blueprint for regular-season success in college hockey, Colorado College is it - unrivaled special teams, headache- and heartache-producing goaltending, poised and productive freshmen, one-sided victories against the defending national champion and runner-up and one superstar who can take over a game in Peter Sejna.
Consider last weekend's home-and-home series with archrival University of Denver. In a sweep of the fifth-ranked Pioneers, CC converted three of eight power plays and held the Pioneers scoreless on 13 man-up opportunities. In 16 games, Colorado College has pumped in a Division I-best 29 power-play goals. Remarkably, the nation's top power-play goal scorer is Tom Preissing, a CC senior defenseman with 12 goals, 10 on the man-advantage. "It's very unusual," Owens said, "especially for a defenseman."
The Tigers last allowed a shorthanded goal Nov. 16 in a 2-2 tie against national champ Minnesota and have killed off 22 straight. Their penalty kill ranks third nationally at 90.5 percent (76 of 84).
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"Sometimes it takes half the season for the freshmen to be ready. But they don't play like freshmen. It's like we're playing with all upperclassmen on the ice." - Peter Sejna
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"Their special teams are very opportunistic," said Denver coach George Gwozdecky. "They are getting to a lot of loose pucks and are taking away shooting lanes."
When a shooting lane does open up, sophomore goaltender Curtis McElhinny is there to shut it off. Owens worked McElhinny, a sixth-round pick by Calgary, into seven games as a freshman. He went 6-0-1 and is now 16-1-3 career.
"We spotted him seven starts last year in select games," Owens said. "We knew he was going to be our guy, but he's been better and better. He stole a point in Minnesota in that 2-2 tie and another at Minnesota-Duluth when we won 4-3. And he was real strong last weekend."
Gwozdecky can attest to that. His team - and NHL.com's preseason No. 1 - out-shot Colorado College by a cumulative 60-45 yet lost, 4-3, at home and 6-2 in Colorado Springs.
"One guy who hasn't really received enough credit - because everyone is talking about Peter Sejna and he is their superstar - is their goalie," Gwozdecky said. "He has played terrific against us. We had good scoring chances, but when we got a chance he'd get a toe or a stick blade on it or cut down the angle to the point that about the only place for us to shoot was the post. And we had to hope it hit the inside of the post and went in. He is their best-kept secret."
Sejna's linemates, senior Noah Clarke and freshman Marty Sertich, are similar in their quiet productivity. Clarke leads Division I with 24 assists, while Sertich - one of seven freshmen to draw regular duty - centers the top unit. First-year defenseman Mark Stuart, (6-foot-2, 212 pounds) is in Owen's estimation the likeliest Tiger to be drafted this summer.
Asked to guess how many points the freshmen have contributed, Sejna suggested: "Thirty?"
Fifty-five, he is told. "Wow," he said. "Sometimes it takes half the season for the freshmen to be ready. But they don't play like freshmen. It's like we're playing with all upperclassmen on the ice."
Still, it is Sejna, a junior from Slovakia, who is the driving force. In November, the college-hockey commissioners voted him the inaugural National Player of the Month. His 33 points (16 goals, 17 assists) equal North Dakota's Zach Parise for the Division I lead, and he should draw considerable attention from pro teams when his college career concludes.
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"We try to play an up-tempo style emphasizing skating and skill on the big surface. So we recruit kids who are comfortable there." - Scott Owens
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A mathematical economics major, Sejna worked in the accounting department of a Des Moines' casino the summer after his freshman year.
A junior player for Owens in Des Moines, Sejna followed his coach from the USHL to the WCHA. A 58-point scorer as a freshman and a 50-point producer last season, Sejna's pace works out to 74 for the year, the postseason notwithstanding.
Owens credits Sejna's productivity to offseason workouts with his brother, Martin, in Slovakia, where he returned for a full summer for the first time since beginning college. Back home, Sejna toned himself down from 207 pounds to a more versatile 196.
"He has always worked out extremely hard," Owens said, "but he streamlined his body and now he is leaner and it's helped him. He has a great mindset."
Sejna said his preparation was twofold. Physically, he ran and lifted weights with an emphasis on plyometrics - rapid exercises intended to enhance muscle power. Mentally, he worked scenarios through his head. "I focused on giving myself more time to make decisions and score," he said.
The proof is in the points. No one has more game-winning goals or consecutive games with a point (17, dating to last season) than Sejna. His fifth game-clinching goal put Denver away last Saturday on home ice.
That home ice is Olympic-size - 100 feet wide rather than 85. To prepare the Tigers for regulation surfaces, the World Arena complex that opened in 1998 includes three rinks - the oversized surface used for games, an oversized practice rink and a regulation practice rink.
"We try to play an up-tempo style emphasizing skating and skill on the big surface," said Owens, who is 85-45-9 and is in the first year of a five-year contract extension. "So we recruit kids who are comfortable there."
The Denver wins retained for the Tigers the Gold Pan, described in a CC release as an "authentic mining utensil" awarded to the winner of the regular-season series.
"It's an original old prospector's mining pan that is pretty much beat to hell," said Owens. "But that makes it something that since the early '90s has summarized our series with them.
"I'm looking right at it. It resides right here."
The same goes for the most unstoppable team in college hockey.
NHL.com's Current Top 10...
- North Dakota (14-1-1)
- Colorado College (13-1-2)
- Maine (11-1-2)
- Cornell (10-1-0)
- New Hampshire (10-3-2)
- Boston College (9-3-2)
- Denver (12-4-2)
- Michigan (11-4-1)
- Minnesota (9-4-4)
- Ferris State (12-4-0)
Chris Snow covers college hockey for NHL.com.
