Looking to get back to .500 on the season, the Colorado College Tigers got goals from sophomore winger Rylan Schwartz in the first and last minute of the second period and four points from his younger brother, Jaden, to defeat the Michigan Tech Huskies 7-3 on Friday night at the John MacInnes Student Ice Arena.
The game was full of scoring streaks as the Tigers had two two-goal bursts and one three-goal burst to score their seven goals for the game.
The Tigers (7-7-1, 4-5-0 WCHA) controlled the majority of the first period, firing 21 shots at Huskies netminder Kevin Genoe, but Genoe stopped all but one.
“I was glad with the way we played on the road,” Tigers coach Scott Owens said. “All in all, I thought it was a good team win on the road.”
Sophomore winger Andrew Hamburg buried a rebound off a shot from junior center Nick Dineen to open the scoring 14:07 in.
The Tigers took a 2-0 lead just eight seconds into the second period when Rylan Schwartz scored his first of the night off a pass from brother Jaden.
The Huskies (3-7-2, 1-7-1 WCHA), who are mired in a seven-game losing streak, recovered from their shock and notched a pair of goals to even things about four minutes later.
Freshman center Jacob Johnstone burst out of the Huskies’ defensive zone, skated the puck the length of the rink, and beat Tigers goaltender Joe Howe low to the glove side for his third of the season.
Freshman winger Milos Gordic tied the game with his team-leading seventh goal 38 seconds later with a shot from a similar spot that snuck past Howe.
“We had a great second period,” Huskies coach Jamie Russell said. “I thought Johnstone’s line was outstanding for us.”
Rylan Schwartz scored with nine seconds left in the middle frame to put Colorado College ahead 3-2.
Hamburg scored what stood as the game-winner 5:35 into the third period off a pass from Dineen in front of the net.
The Huskies again cut into the Tigers’ lead when Johnstone busted down the right side of the ice and found freshman winger Ryan Furne in front for his fifth tally of the season at 8:09.
“We had the lead, and they battled back,” Owens said. “Tech can score, and I was very concerned about that.”
Senior winger Tyler Johnson regained the two-goal lead for the Tigers at 13:08 before they extended that lead with power-play markers from captain Ryan Lowery and Dineen.
All told, the Tigers fired 47 shots at Genoe, who stopped 40. Howe collected 31 stops en route to his sixth win of the season.
“We have to do a better job with our wingers of blocking shots,” Russell said. “We let little 5-[foot]-8 guys get position on us and win battles.”
The Tigers finished 2-for-5 on the man advantage while the Huskies went 0-for-2.
