Marty Sertich knocked in two goals, including the game-winner, as Colorado College (2-0-0) put up a repeat 4-2 performance against Union (0-2-0) in front of 5,822 on Saturday night at the World Arena.
After ending last season as CC’s top scorer with 11 goals and 28 assists for 39 points, Sertich appears to be setting up for another big year. After Sertich’s two-point (one goal, one assist) night on Friday, he was good for three in round two versus the Dutchmen, adding an assist to the two goals to bring his two-game total to five points.
Although Friday and Saturday ended with identical scores, the games played out differently. Friday saw the Tigers up 4-1 in the third, as they dominated play and out-shot Union 43-30. Despite outshooting the Dutchmen 37-23 Saturday, CC was down by a goal after one and went into the last stanza in a 2-2 tie before a Union turnover halfway through the third period resulted in Sertich’s game-winning goal.
“Union played very, very well,” said CC head coach Scott Owens. “It’s a good win for us to have to come from behind.”
“I thought we played ready hard, but at times we didn’t play real smart,” said Union head coach Nate Leaman. “We turned the puck over in danger areas and when you’re playing a good team, you’re just digging yourself in a hole.”
After another powerful CC start, the Dutchmen scored a quick two at the end of the first frame to take a 2-1 lead heading into the second period.
Although Union seemed to have kept its momentum from the end of last night’s game to leave the first period evenly matched, the Tiger defense was impermeable until the last minute of play when the Union man-advantage stirred things up and resulted in not only a converted power play for the Dutchmen, but also a follow-up goal a mere 14 seconds later.
Union’s tallies came from freshman Josh Coyle, unassisted on the power play at 19:05, and then from Olivier Bouchard, who got help from Scott Seney and Sean Streich off the center-ice faceoff and put a one-timer high on CC goaltender Matt Zaba’s glove side for the 2-1 lead.
The CC first-period goal came at the 13:14 mark when the first line of Sertich, Brett Sterling and Derek Patrosso combined to put the Tigers on the board first for a second night in a row. Patrosso skated into the left circle after Sertich took the face off in front of the Dutchmen net, snagged the puck and sent it in front to Sterling, who shoveled it to Sertich for the goal.
The game-tying goal came at 13:10 of the second period with CC holding the man advantage. The offensive unit of Sterling, Sertich, Slattengren took control, as Sertich and Slattengren assisted Sterling on his third lamp-lighter in two games and locked the game up at 2.
As Union faded in the third period, Mayotte continued to be tested by the feisty Tigers, who put up 14 shots on net in the last 20 minutes.
“I think we battled back from [the two late first-period Union goals] real well,” said Owens. “We were grittier in the second and third periods.”
On a shorthanded play that was nothing short of brilliant, Sertich scored his second goal of the night and the game-winner for CC. The Roseville, Minn., native stole the puck in the neutral zone and beat two Dutchmen head-on before slipping it past Kris Mayotte, unassisted, at 10:42 of the third period.
Joey Crabb scored for CC on the empty net to make the final tally 4-2. Lee Sweatt and goaltender Matt Zaba assisted on the play. Zaba contributed 21 saves on the night compared to Mayotte’s 33.
Union heads back to Schenectady, N.Y., for a two-game series versus Bowling Green on Oct. 22-23, while CC faces off at Air Force on Friday then returns to the World Arena for a game against Quinnipiac on Saturday.
