Happy to be home, CC awaits defending champion Michigan State

Coming off a disappointing weekend at the Western Collegiate Hockey Association Final Five in St. Paul, Minn., Colorado College just wanted to get home on Sunday.

The annoucement of the NCAA Tournament seedings Sunday morning weren't too suspenseful for the Tigers, who knew after they lost Saturday's consolation game to North Dakota that they'd be the second seed at the West Regional at World Arena. As host institution, CC's spot in the West Regional bid was only contingent on making the tournament.

The only mystery lay in what teams would make the trek to World Arena. The Tigers will face defending national champion Michigan State in a semifinal matchup Friday at 8 p.m. New Hampshire, the top seed in the West Regional, will square off against Notre Dame at 4:30 p.m. The semifinal winners will advance to Saturday's West Regional final at 8 p.m.

"I knew it wasn't going be an easy night for the committee with us being a 5-seed and Wisconsin being 12-seed," said coach Scott Owens, referring to overall seedings. "It was a a matter if we were going to get Minnesota, Clarkson or Michigan State."

While Clarkson might have been ideal because the Tigers dominated them in early February at World Arena, playing Minnesota for time in a week after an emotional overtime loss at the Final Five would have been tough.

Michigan State, though, has Hobey Baker finalist Jeff Lerg in net and is led by a trio of juniors who powered the Spartans to a national title last season.

"Our first reaction was, ‘Wow, that's a pretty tough bracket,'" captain Scott Thauwald said. "There are four legit, big-name teams coming. But if you look at every bracket, they're all hard no matter what regional you're in. We're hoping to use the big sheet to our advantage. ... I think the matchup will be pretty good and I think a lot of the guys are really excited to get a crack at the defending champions."

The last time CC faced Michigan State resulted in a 6-3 victory the Great Lakes Invitational in Detroit in December 2005.

This season, the Spartans finished third in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association standings to Tournament overall no. 1 seed Michigan and no. 2 seed Miami, respectively. Michigan State failed to advance to the league championship weekend for the first time in 17 seasons after dropping two of three first-round games to streaking Northern Michigan.

Fresh off their own letdown, the Tigers will resume practice Tuesday with gusto, Thauwald said.

"Guys are excited to get home and excited for the fact that we're playing in the NCAA Tournament and we've still got a lot of hockey ahead of us," he said. "It's a whole new season and anything can happen. ... We'll be dialed in ready for a good week of practice. We're going to be hungry."