Brett Sterling scored two goals and added an assist to lead Colorado College to an 8-2 win over St. Cloud State in Game 1 of their WCHA first-round playoff series Friday night at the World Arena.
CC grabbed an early lead when Marty Sertich scored just 1:22 into the game, but the Huskies tied the game on a power-play goal just under two minutes later by sophomore forward Nate Raduns.
The Tigers then broke the game open with five consecutive goals, including two by Aaron Slattengren in a span of 3:51 midway through the first period. Slattengren’s first tally with 8:57 left in the opening frame proved to be the game-winner, his fourth in the last seven games.
James Brannigan scored twice for his first multi-goal game, while Sertich, who leads the nation in scoring, had a goal and two assists.
CC also got a goal from Mark Stuart and two assists from both Scott Polaski and Jack Hillen. Billy Hengen scored St. Cloud’s other goal.
Tiger goaltender Curtis McElhinney had 29 saves while improving his record to 18-2-1 as CC outshot SCSU 45-31.
Tim Boron was the goalie of record for St. Cloud with 25 saves in 31:03 of play. He started the game, was relieved in the first period by Jason Montgomery and then returned to the nets for the third period.
The Tigers can wrap up the series and a trip to the WCHA Final Five on Saturday night.
