Western Collegiate Hockey Association
Richard Bachman blanked UMD twice. |
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Bachman blanks Bulldogs, CC nears title
Feb. 29, 2008
By John Gilbert
In the long and storied hockey history of Colorado College, no goaltender ever had recorded back-to-back shutouts in road games. Until now.
With first place in the WCHA on the line, and only three weekends remaining in the regular season, Richard Bachman took things into his own hands, gloved though they were. Bachman, a freshman, who hadn't practiced all week because of the death of his grandmother, showed up in Duluth just after midnight Friday, and proceeded to blank the UMD Bulldogs 3-0 and 4-0 in his first time ever inside the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center.
That sent CC into this weekend's series against Minnesota State-Mankato, and the season-ending home-and-home set against Denver, needing only one point in the last four games to outdistance North Dakota and three points to eliminate Denver for the MacNaughton Cup.
The UMD weekend solidified Bachman's grip on both meaningful goaltending statistics, and he's done it without even a hyphenated first name. His 1.68 goals-against mark is best, with North Dakota's Jean-Philippe Lamoureux second at 1.88. That, however, is a measurement of team defense. More impressive is his personal save percentage, which is .938 - solidly first, ahead of Michigan Tech's Michael-Lee Teslak.
"He's the main reason we're in first place," said coach Scott Owens. "We don't apologize for that."
Why would they? The Tigers have been at or near the top of the WCHA all season, but they had their final idle weekend the previous week, and onrushing North Dakota caught CC for first place. But with three weekends left, CC had two games-in-hand. With North Dakota idle, those games-in-hand were literally in hand - on the DECC ice.
"I hadn't been inside the arena, but I knew it was a small rink, so I figured they'd be shooting from all angles," said Bachman. "I thought UMD played really good. But we've been playing solidly all year, including our power play, and penalty-killing."
From CC's standpoint, the biggest question coming into the league was the Tigers goaltending position. From UMD's standpoint, Bachman should be declared an unfair advantage, freshman or not. When the Bulldogs were swept at CC early in the season, Bachman shut them out 3-0 with 34 saves.
But UMD had a chance to claim a home-ice position, and should have been at full intensity for the rematch at the DECC. Instead, Bachman stoned them 3-0 again, making 31 saves. The 'Dawgs came out with renewed fire in the second game, but Bachman stopped all 29 shots and the Tigers won 4-0.
UMD coach Scott Sandelin had said he thought Denver was the toughest team his Bulldogs had faced in the first half of the season. "But in the second half, it's not even close," said Sandelin. "They've got good speed up front, with some skilled players who can make something happen, they have good defense - and I think Jack Hillen is one of the top defensemen in the league - and they've obviously goa a good goaltender."
True, goals are required to win games, and the Bulldogs have been specifically goal-challenged all season. The Tigers are not, although it wasn't until the second period that Scott McCulloch broke the scoreless tie by smacking a Jimmy Kilpatrick pass into the net at 8:12 of the second period. Twenty-five seconds later, the Bulldogs turned the puck over and Mike Testwuide fed Chad Rau a perfect pass and his 1-timer made it 2-0. Andreas Vlassopoulos made it 3-0 in the third period with both teams a man short.
UMD hustled and pressed for shots, but Bachman never let them in. Nothing ruffled him. That, too, is understandable. He is from Highland Ranch, Colo., but he went away to private school in Massachusetts, then played junior hockey in the U.S. Hockey League, for Cedar Rapids.
"I was a little concerned about my first start in Colorado, after four years of being away," Bachman said. "But the fans were very supportive, and I just found my rhythm. We've got such great defense, I was able to settle into the league pretty well."
In the second game, Eric Walsky scored midway through the first period after a neat pass exchange with Matt Overman on a 2-on-1. Then Rau scored again, rifling a power-play 1-timer from the top of the left circle that glanced off the inside of Alex Stalock's left leg and glanced in for a 2-0 lead at the first intermission.
Rau scored again, his third of the weekend and 22^nd of the season, on a second-period power play, with Jack Hillen and Vlassopoulos both assisting on both Rau goals. Midway through the third period, Hillen moved in from left point, hesitated, then shot a hard pass toward the right of the net, and Kilpatrick deflected it in for the 4-0 final.
Bachman had 29 saves, meaning he now has shut out UMD for three straight games, and 197 minutes and 46 seconds going back to the last Bulldog goal, in the first game of the earlier series at CC.
"When North Dakota caught us, we knew we had a couple of games in hand," Bachman said. "Our focus, coming off the bye week, was that we really needed these two wins. Our forwards played really well, and I didn't have many hard shots."
Hard or less than hard, he stopped them all.
It has been a trying week for Bachman. His grandmother's death in Salt Lake City meant he was with his familyand hadn't practiced all week.
"We knew Duluth would come out hard, and we took a licking," said Owens.
"You can't help but hit in this rink. But I thought our quickness
showed. And Bachman played with confidence and stood tall."
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