CC snaps skid
Colorado College ended a four-year, 17-game winless streak against second-ranked Denver on Saturday when the Tigers won a tight 1-0 tilt in Denver.
After CC fell 5-1 on Friday in Colorado Springs in the teams’ home-and-home series opener on goals from five different Denver skaters, a Nick Halloran tally with 29 seconds left in Saturday’s first period stood up as the winner. Tigers goaltender Alex Leclerc came up huge at the other end, turning in a 40-save shutout performance.
Denver hits the road next week to face No. 3 St. Cloud State. CC will be away from home, too, at No. 13 Omaha.
Johnson gets UND back on track
North Dakota’s up-and-down season continued at pace over the weekend with a road split against Omaha.
UND led 3-1 early in Friday’s second period but saw Omaha score four consecutive goals en route to a 6-3 Mavericks victory that provided a blow to UND’s NCAA tournament hopes, dropping the Fighting Hawks to 15th in the PairWise Rankings.
They’re now back up to 12th, though, after a 3-0 win over UNO on Saturday. Three different UND skaters beat Mavericks goaltender Evan Weninger, while Hawks senior Cam Johnson’s 26 saves helped lift UND to its 1,500th win in program history.
The Hawks are on the road again next weekend against a Miami team that was just shut out twice at Minnesota Duluth, 4-0 on Friday night and 3-0 Saturday.
Huskies hit 20-win mark again
St. Cloud State is first in the PairWise and five points clear at the top of the NCHC standings after completing a road sweep against Western Michigan.
After skating to what’s officially a 5-5 tie on Friday, Jimmy Schuldt scored 35 seconds into a 3-on-3 overtime period to give SCSU two out of the three conference standings points on offer that night. That capped an exciting game that went to extras after Mika Ilvonen his second of the game with 49 seconds left in regulation.
A 4-2 win Saturday then clinched St. Cloud’s eighth 20-win season under coach Bob Motzko and the Huskies’ 14th since 1987-88. SCSU trailed 2-1 entering the third period before Jack Poehling tied it at 5:43. Two Mikey Eyssimont tallies, including the game-winner on a power play midway through the period, put the Huskies over the top.
Western, which was swept at home for the first time this season, plays at Lawson again next weekend against No. 11 UMD before ending the regular season at Colorado College.
