2008 Woodie Awards
Club hockey to face DePaul at regionals
By: Tim Ottusch
Issue date: 2/18/08 Section: Sports
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Central will face DePaul on Friday (22-12-1), a team it split with earlier this season in DePaul, Ill. CMU won 5-2 on Sept. 28, but lost 6-5 on Sept. 29.
Despite splitting with the team, junior defenseman Andrew Anson said the team is confident it can advance.
"I think we have a real good shot," Anson said. "DePaul's a real good club. … But we know what we need to do to take care of them."
The final rankings came out Friday, which seeded the teams for regionals. The top two teams in the region, No. 1 Davenport and No. 2 Grand Valley, received automatic bids to nationals. The top two teams in each region (Northeast, Southeast, Central and West) receive automatic bids to nationals, hosted this year in Fort Myers, Fla.
Teams ranked No. 3 through 10 will have a playoff to decide the final two spots for each region. The pairings for the opening round for regionals are No. 3 Michigan State vs. No. 10 St. Thomas, No. 4 Missouri State-Maroon vs. No. 9 Robert Morris, No. 5 DePaul vs. No. 8 Central and No. 6 Michigan vs. No. 7 Lindenwood.
After the first round, the teams are re-seeded and the winner of each of those games advances to nationals.
The team will look to turn its season around after its second-half meltdown. CMU started the season 10-3, but has won just two games since Nov. 18. Since then, Central is 2-15 and now is five games under .500 with a 12-17 record.
"In the beginning of the season we couldn't really lose. We were rolling." Anson said. "I think we got hot heads, and we got so used to winning that we took it for granted. After Christmas break came, it was a downfall for us."
During the team's first 13 games, it averaged three goals against per game. The final 17, it averaged 6.18 goals against and has given up at least seven goals its last six games.
"The minute we started losing games it was a matter of we got a little negative. We got a little tense," said coach Chris LaPan. "Anytime something else went wrong or if we got a bad bounce off at the beginning of the game, it was more of a here we go again; as opposed to, 'We'll get'em next time' attitude."
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