Nila Horner
Staff Writer
THE BROADMOOR WORLD ARENA- OCT. 10-11, 2014: Two nights in a row, the Colorado College men’s hockey team bounced back from a disappointing second period by scoring just one more goal to bring them over the edge to victory. On Saturday, senior and team captain Peter Stoykewych scored the 4-3 game-winner with 5:26 remaining in the third period to give CC its first two-game home sweep in almost two years.
The night before, junior Cody Bradley scored the game-winning goal with 7:03 remaining in the third period to give the Tigers, along with newly hired coach Mike Haviland, a 3-2 victory.
More than 5,000 fans welcomed the Tigers into their historic 76th season Homecoming opener against the UAH Chargers on Friday night. With the temperature on the surface of the ice at a chilly 24 degrees by the time the first puck hit the ice, the packed arena came alive when the goalies took to their nets.
Bradley, a junior from Tampa, Fla., scored with a wrist shot from the right side that flew around UAH goalie Carmine Guerriero. Junior Peter Maric earned his second assist of the night on the goal after making a drop-pass to Bradley.
“That was a pro-play by Cody,” said Haviland on the CC Athletics website. “He chipped the puck out of our zone and hustled down the ice to take a nice pass from Peter and he just buried it.” With his 11th career goal, Bradley came in at the perfect time to save the Tigers from a pair of goals scored by the Chargers in the second period
The Tigers started out strong in the first period, with dominating goals by senior Aaron Harstad and first-year Teemu Kivihalme, making the Tigers 2-0 just 20 minutes into the game.
Harstad fired a powerful shot from the right point that blew past Guirriero just 3:45 into the game on a power play, assisted by firsr-year Garrett Cecere and Maric. Kivihalme then scored his first career goal halfway through the period with a top-shelf shot from the left side, assisted by senior Scott Wamsganz and freshman Jordan Berger.
The Chargers retaliated in the second period as UAH’s Brent Fletcher got past CC’s goalie Tyler Marble in a power-play goal at 12:11 mark. Jeff Vanderlugt excruciatingly evened the score with just 1:59 left in the second. CC outshot Huntsville, 13-8, in the period but couldn’t quite get past Carmine on goal.
The Tigers got their groove back and fired 14 shots in the third period alone, while CC’s Marble made 16 saves altogether in his first career appearance. Strong shooters included sophomore Christian Heil with game-high eight shots and junior Hunter Fejes with six.
The action continued on Saturday in the game-winner as Stoykewych took a pass down the center from Maric and catapulted a shot past Saturday’s UAH goaltender Matt Larose as the Tigers took their second win of the weekend. Sophomore Christian Heil was also part of the play with an assist on the four-on-four goal.
Stoykewych and Heil saw a lot of ice earlier in the game as CC thundered out with a 3-0 lead in the early part of the second period. After junior Hunter Fejes scored a great short-handed shot at 8:59 into the first period, Stoykewych assisted on sophomore Alex Roos’ goal with an exciting four seconds left in the first. Sophomore Sam Rothstein also earned his first mark of the season with an assist on the goal.
Heil made it 3-0 for CC when he took a drop pass from sophomore Matt Hansen and amazingly beat Larose at an open net 25 seconds into the second period. At that point, CC’s struggles in Friday’s second period seemed like a long-forgotten memory.
Unfortunately, by the end of Saturday’s second period, UAH had gotten their legs back to tie the game at 3 – thanks to a pair of goals by Brandon Carlson and the other by Frank Misuraca. All three goals came at the expense of CC first-year goalie Chase Perry, who also made nine incredible saves before bowing out of the game to be replaced by sophomore Marble.
Marble made an impressive 14 saves in the third period alone on Saturday, moving the Tigers to 2-0 so far this season. The Tigers hammered Larose with 45 shots over the course of the night! Interestingly, CC did not profit from any of its six power-play opportunities on Saturday, while the Chargers were one-for-three on the power play and had 26 shots overall.
However, coach Haviland ended the great weekend by saying, “this was a great weekend for us. This team really showed what kind of character and perseverance is in that locker room.”
Go to the Worner desk with your Gold Card for your free student ticket and come cheer on our CC Tigers at home tonight, Oct. 17, and tomorrow, Oct. 18, as we face second-ranked North Dakota! Go Tigers!