MH: Dissapointing End to a Great Season

CycloneHockey · 03-04-2007, 07:51 PM

Well, it's hard to believe, but the 2006-2007 Cyclone Hockey season has come to a close. It wasn't the end we had come to expect, but it was still an incredible season.

The Cyclones fell to #11 West Chester in the first round of the ACHA National Tournament. The entire team was stunned especially when looking at the final score of 6-3 in favor of the Golden Rams. It was just one of four upsets that day at Nationals. Ohio, Lindenwood, and Oklahoma all fell to lower ranked opponents. The most shocking thing of all was yet to come.

As of 6 PM today, the #10 ranked Oakland University Golden Grizzlies knocked off perennial powerhouse, Penn State for its First Division 1 National Title. They were the lowest ranked team ever to win, but more amazing is that this is their first season in Division 1.

Last year, Oakland won the Division 2 national championship after absolutely domination the second tier field. So they now have won at the first tier level. Just incredible. More incredible was that 4 of their 5 goals were scored by Tournament MVP Will McMahon.

It will go down as one of the biggest upsets in ACHA History. Penn State has now been to the finals the last 10 consecutive years, but have lost the last four. It was an exciting year and an exciting tournament.

Back to the Cyclones. In fact, the Cyclones swept the now National Champs way back in October on home ice by scores of 4-3 and 5-4. But that doesn't exactly make the sting go away from the disappointing finish to a roller coaster season.

Cyclone Hockey finished with a record of 30-10-2 while playing one of the toughest schedules in all of Division 1. They won their first conference championship in 5 years, had 3 All-Tournament Players, including CSCHL Tournament MVP Trent Baker, and had one of the best recruiting classes in ages.

The future looks bright for the team who will have immediate needs at the center and goaltender positions. You can expect heavy recruiting this next year to build on the great class of 06-07. We will have updates on whether any of our players will receive national awards in the very near future as well as a comprehensive season recap with the highs and lows of a championship season. More to come soon!

PS Sorry I haven't been posting as regularly...I was away at nationals and then got sick. Just when you thought you'd had enough...I'm back!

j4state · 03-04-2007, 08:00 PM

That sucks. Where the hell is Oakland anyway? Not CA I'm assuming.

superfan · 03-04-2007, 08:07 PM

Originally Posted by joskvig

That sucks. Where the hell is Oakland anyway? Not CA I'm assuming.

If I'm not mistaken, there's an Oakland University somewhere in Michigan, I think around Detroit. I only remember because they won the pigtail game in last year's NCAA MBB tournament.

aeroclone08 · 03-04-2007, 08:32 PM

Their basketball floor was where NW St. beat Iowa in the tourney last year.

CycloneHockey · 03-05-2007, 12:40 PM

Yep, that's correct. Oakland is near Detroit. While they're a small school, they still have some great hockey out there.

Their leading scorer, Will McMahon was up for Best Athlete in the Detroit Area which included NHLer Niklas Lidstrom, Chauncey Billups, and other pros. Not too shabby for a little school with a Division 1 ACHA Team. The team was also featured on Fox Sports Detroit in a package about the life of an ACHA team.

If we didn't win, I'm glad it was Oakland. They are great ambassadors for the ACHA and are proof that the league is growing. It could be very interesting in the next few years to see where the ACHA is going. The sky is the limit at this point.