Another week, another milestone for Colorado college hockey.
Yet gripping then no. No. 2 North Dakota State last weekend completed the first four-game sweep of the Fighting Hawks in program history, and CC jumped five spots in the US College Hockey Online Poll to No. 10.
This rating is the highest for the Tigers since February 6, 2012.
Other ranked teams from the National Collegiate Hockey Conference include North Dakota State, which fell to No. 4, Denver at No. 3, Western Michigan at No. 13, St. Cloud at No. 15, and Omaha — which the Tigers will take on this weekend — at No. 1.19.
But perhaps even more significant for CC's coaching staff is that the team jumped six spots in the doubles rankings to No. 11. These specific rankings are important because they are used to determine which teams go to the NCAA Tournament after the conference tournaments.
Sixteen teams participate in the tournament and the six conference champions receive automatic bids. The remaining ten are chosen pairwise. With no teams from the Atlantic Hockey Association and Central Collegiate Hockey Association inside the top 20 at doubles, CC will need to finish 14th or better to have a chance. At 11 the Tigers would likely be in the tournament if the conference tournaments were held last weekend.
CC is 18-9-1, which matches the most overall wins in a season since 2010-11 and 12-6-0 in the NCHC, which matches the most wins in the conference this season.
