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DENVER — In a back-and-forth game where neither team could hold a lead, the Colorado College Tigers for the first time in 14 games didn’t lose to their in-state rivals the No. 1 Denver Pioneers, as the game finished as a 4-4 tie.
In the three-on-three OT, Colorado College garnered the extra conference standings point when Christiano Versich beat Tanner Jaillet low stick side at 3:36 during a Tigers power play.
“It’s a great feeling,” said CC coach Mike Haviland, who had never tied DU before. “I thought it was a great hockey game right from the start. We never quit; we kept coming and finding a way. … It’s been a long couple years.”
CC last defeated Denver on Feb. 22, 2014 to claim the Gold Pan Trophy. DU has retained the rivalry hardware since.
The first period didn’t feature much in the way of sustained pressure for either team. Denver kept trying to set up its star forwards for shots from the slot. Until late in the period, the most interesting thing was that both Denver and Colorado College took timeouts in the last six minutes.
However, with 24 seconds left in the period, Denver had an offensive zone faceoff, but lost control, and CC broke it out.
Trevor Gooch carried the puck in along the right boards and slid a pass through the slot to a streaking Kristian Bluemnschein, who kept his stick extended and the blade along the ice and deflected it in low stick side past Jaillet with seven seconds left.
CC had an early chance in the second with a power play, but the Denver penalty kill was effective, and then Denver tied it up when Colin Staub outworked a CC defender along the right boards and got it to Logan O’Connor, who circled behind the net and beat Alex Leclerc with a wraparound at 5:26.
Denver tried to gain momentum from that goal, and while the Pioneers held much of the offensive zone time, they didn’t get as many scoring chances, and that cost them when Mason Bergh got the puck deep in the left corner and passed it past two Denver defenders in the slot to Nick Halloran on the far post, who beat Jaillet with a quick shot at 15:31.
“I didn’t think we had enough urgency and pride in being relentless,” said Denver coach Jim Montgomery. “It seems like they came out really faster than us in the entire first period. Give them credit: they played desperate. We didn’t do enough defensively. You score four goals, you should win, and it’s like the fifth time, fourth time, where we’ve lost games where we’ve scored at least four goals.”
However, late in period, Denver’s top forwards finally got untracked. Dylan Gambrell got the puck deep and skated behind the CC net, going from Leclerc’s right to left. Gambrell stepped out in front of the net and made a quick spin move and beat Leclerc five-hole at 18:04 to tie it at two.
This time, Denver did gain momentum. Gambrell got the puck deep and after eluding a Tigers’ defender with a spin move, passed it to Ian Mitchell at the top of the slot. Mitchell skated deep and circled behind the net, going from Leclerc’s right to left, and as he came out with the wraparound, sent it into the slot, where it banked in off Leclerc with 16.6 seconds to go in the period.
“That was enough is enough; we’ve been through enough here, as a junior class especially, we just said forget about that goal, let’s come out flying and I think we did just that and put some pressure on them,” said Bergh. “Just kind of put that goal behind us whereas in the past, we let it kill us.”
Denver had a chance to build the two-goal lead early in the third period with a power play, but was unable to convert. The Tigers started to generate pressure, and Halloran tied it at 11:05 of the third when Jaillet gave up a poor rebound, and Halloran picked it up in the slot with time and stepped to his right, beating the goalie glove side.
“He’s always had the tools, and I just think it’s a little maturity that he’s got from freshman to sophomore year,” said Bergh of Halloran. “He’s got elite skills, and an elite shot, and it was on display tonight.”
The Tigers had a few good chances to take the lead, pressuring Jaillet, but Denver took the 4-3 lead at 17:32 after Troy Terry had made several spin moves around the right boards to keep the puck in. After a change, CC was unable to get it out, and Denver rushed in. Jaakko Heikkinen got the puck in the slot and beat Leclerc with a quick snap shot.
CC wouldn’t go away however, and after Denver was unable to clear it and Jaillet couldn’t get to the puck in front to cover it, Bergh got it and beat Jaillet into the open net with 6.8 seconds left, sending it to OT, with the extra-attacker goal.
“I think having poise in their zone; obviously we had a man up, so trying to find that open guy and we got pucks to the net,” said Bergh. “A lot of guys were crashing the net and I pulled it out of the chaos and had a wide-open net. A lot of hard work and no-quit attitude.”
“I think we got it deep and were able to pull the goalie and we battled,” said Haviland. “We found a way to find that loose puck and somehow it got to Mason and he buries it. This team never quits. They believe they can play with anybody in the country. Tonight, I was real proud of them the way they played the entire game. There was a lot of ups and downs in the game.”
Denver had a chance to win in OT, but Tariq Hammond’s shot at the end of the first overtime, which went into the net, came after the buzzer sounded.
In the three-on-three overtime, Colorado College got a power play with just over two minutes left when Staub was called for hooking. Jaillet made a big save on Bergh’s chance from in close early. However, it wasn’t enough, and Versich scored to start the CC celebration.
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NCHC roundup
No. 5 North Dakota 2, No. 2 St. Cloud State 2 OT (UND wins shootout)
North Dakota and St. Cloud State traded goals in the second and third periods, with host St. Cloud scoring first and North Dakota answering both times, in what was officially recorded as a tie.
Easton Brodzinski struck first for the Huskies, deflecting a shot in past Cam Johnson five-hole at 11:31 of the second. Rhett Gardner tied it at 15:16 during a four-on-four with a snipe top shelf glove side. Ryan Poehling gave St. Cloud the lead at 6:15 of the third when he intercepted a pass at the blue line and raced in on a breakaway, beating Johnson with a backhand.
Cole Smith answered at 9:14, getting the puck just outside the crease and beating Jeff Smith five-hole. North Dakota had the best opportunity to win it in the first overtime with a power play, but they were unable to generate any sustained pressure.
The three-on-three OT saw lots of chances for both teams, with numerous two-on-ones, before a penalty to Nick Jones for goaltender interference gave St. Cloud the power play for the final 1:30. However, the Huskies were unable to convert, sending it to a shootout, which North Dakota won for the extra conference point. Johnson stopped Jake Wahlin’s five-hole attempt, and Christian Wolanin beat Smith five-hole on North Dakota’s first attempt.
Miami 5, No. 11 Western Michigan 2
Miami’s two-goal second period broke open a 1-1 game, and the RedHawks beat the host Broncos, 5-2. Gordie Green got Miami on the board at 12:13 of the first with a quick snap shot from the left side of the slot after picking up a loose puck. Hugh McGing tied it at 5:35 of the second on a power play, beating Ryan Larkin with a quick wrist shot from the hashmarks of the right circle.
However, Karch Bachman answered for Miami less than a minute later on a power play on a pretty play right off the draw, as Josh Melnick worked it down low and slid a pass to Bachman in the slot for the redirect goal. Melnick made it 3-1 with a rifle of a snap shot from just inside the blue line off a neutral-zone turnover, beating Ben Blacker at 13:20.
Phil Knies scored at 4:32 of the third to put Miami up by three. After Western’s Corey Schueneman answered with a power-play goal 38 seconds later, Miami iced it with an empty-net goal at 18:41 from Green. Larkin made 32 saves in the win.
Omaha 7, No. 17 Minnesota Duluth 5
In a wild back-and-forth offensive affair that saw both teams replace their starting goalies, Omaha emerged with a 7-5 win at home over No. 17 Minnesota Duluth behind a hat trick for Zach Jordan.
The tone of the game was set when Duluth’s Avery Peterson scored just 23 seconds in when he got the puck in the right faceoff dot off a nice pass by Nick Wolff and beat Evan Weninger. However, Omaha’s Zach Jordan answered at 6:45 when he picked up a rebound in the crease off an Omaha rush and lifted it into the net.
The teams then traded goals, with Omaha twice taking a lead and Duluth answering, including Wolff’s goal to tie it at three with 13 seconds left in the period, beating Weninger with a quick wrist shot form the right circle. Weninger was replaced by Alex Blankenburg at the start of the second.
Duluth struck early in the second, with Scott Perunovich giving the Bulldogs a lead just 37 seconds in, but from there it was all Omaha.
Jordan scored his second of the game at 6:24 to tie it, and David Pope gave the Mavericks a lead with a power-play goal at 11:08, one-timing a slap shot top corner glove side past Hunter Shepard, who was then pulled in favor of Nick Deery. Jordan completed his hat trick with a power-play goal at 18:59 of the second, picking up a loose puck in the slot off a rebound and firing it top corner into the open net before Deery could slide back over. The teams traded goals in the third for the final margin.
