KALAMAZOO, Mich. — Nick Halloran ensured that the first victory for Colorado College at Lawson Ice Arena will certainly be a memorable one.
Halloran, standing just right of the high slot, one-timed a faceoff win from linemate Mason Bergh over the shoulder of Western Michigan netminder Ben Blacker at 4:03 of overtime to give the visiting Tigers a come-from-behind 6-5 victory in National Collegiate Hockey Conference play.
“Bergh’s been working on face-offs a lot,” said Halloran. “I knew if he could get it to me, I’d have a chance to maybe get it on net. Luckily, he found me.
“I wasn’t trying to place it, I was just trying to get it on net – that’s the biggest thing,” Halloran added.
Big, it definitely was. In the series opener, the Tigers had fallen just 35 seconds into overtime as the Broncos’ Richard Zehnal won it in overtime with his first collegiate goal and point. Colorado College wasn’t going quietly on Saturday, and erased a 3-1 deficit in its winning effort.
The line of Trey Bradley, Bergh, and Halloran was on the ice in overtime on Friday. It wouldn’t be denied in the finale.
“Those guys have been great all year,” said Tigers coach Mike Haviland. “They find a way to get it done here tonight. It was a whole team win, but it was nice to see, after last night, to see them redeem themselves.”
“It was a tough one last night,” added Haviland. “I think the message was that they were going to come out hard like they did, put us away, and put some doubt in our minds.
“I’m really proud of the guys for the way they responded the last 45 minutes in a tough building and against a good hockey team.”
The Broncos raced out to a 3-1 lead after the first period on goals by defensemen Neal Goff and Cam Lee and forward Josh Passolt. Zach Berzolla snapped in a seeing-eye goal at 4:44 of the first on assists from Troy Conzo and Christiano Versich for the Tigers’ lone first period tally.
“Our captain, Mason Bergh, laid into the team – I could hear him as I was coming in,” said Haviland, speaking of the first intermission. “I [also] kind of laid into them a little bit.
“This is a good group – we have a good group and they can respond to things; they have all year.”
Colorado College outscored Western Michigan 5-2 the rest of the way on second period power play goals from Bradley and Bergh and on even strength third period goals from Conzo and Jack Gates.
Western Michigan was able to find a 4-3 lead on a power play goal by Paul Washe at 14:00 of the second, but never lead again after the tallies by Conzo and Gates. The Broncos did tie it in the waning moments of regulation on a put-back goal by forward Austin Rueschhoff at 18:35 of the third, but the home heroics for the second night in a row were not meant to be.
“I thought we started to gain confidence,” Haviland said. “We started to hold onto the puck down there, make plays, and move our feet.
“We were down, but we found a way to keep battling back and our power play kind of got us going,” said Haviland. “It was nonexistent last night and, all of a sudden, got us going in the second. I thought we got better as the game went on.”
“I loved our response. [The first intermission] was not an easy intermission for anyone.”
Western Michigan would have gained at least a share of first place in the always-tough NCHC with a win.
“That’s a tough one to swallow,” said Broncos coach Andy Murray. “I give full credit to Colorado College for their win tonight.
“We had too many guys, in my opinion, that were on individual agendas, trying to beat people one-on-one when we needed to operate down below [the net],” Murray added.” We gave up six goals. You can’t give up six goals in the NCHC and expect to win.
“Every night in the NCHC is a battle,” Murray said.
“This, to me, is the best conference. If you’re not ready, you’re going to get beat,” said Haviland. “Anybody can beat anybody. You’ve got to battle for every inch.”
Colorado College, which hosts Miami next weekend, improves to 10-11-3 overall and 4-8-2-1 in conference play. Western Michigan, which travels to Nebraska-Omaha next weekend, falls to 13-10-1 overall and 8-6-0-0 in conference play.
“It was a great battle. It was great to see the resilience of our team,“ Halloran said. “We got some incredible, secondary offense that we definitely needed. I thought we built off of their turnovers.
“We’ve got a good team in here that believes that we can win any game and I think you saw it here tonight.”
