The Colorado College men’s hockey team dropped two games to No. 9-ranked Denver University this past weekend. Unfortunately, the Tigers, now 5-23-1 overall, 1-18-1-0 in the NCHC, did not come home with the Gold Pan, the trophy that epitomizes the rivalry between CC and DU.
Seven of the Tigers’ past nine games have been against top-ten teams in the nation—North Dakota, Miami of Ohio, and DU. While the Tigers have struggled to come away with wins, the fierce competition has only prepared the team for what’s to come in the playoffs.
“As we come close to the end of the season, we understand we can play with anyone in the country and now need to prove it in a ‘do-or-die’ situation,” said junior forward Peter Maric.
The Tigers fell Friday night to the Pioneers 6-4 in front of a home crowd at the Broadmoor World Arena.
CC’s sophomore forward Sam Rothstein found senior defenseman Peter Stoykewych, who put the Tigers up 1-0. But the lead only lasted 45 seconds until DU slid a shot past CC goaltender Tyler Marble to tie it up.
The teams combined for five goals in the second period. Rothstein put CC ahead 2-1 with his sixth goal of the year off of a power play early in the period. DU scored the next two goals, then CC’s sophomore forward Christian Heil added another, making the game 3-3. DU managed to slide another goal in with just 30 seconds left in the period, giving the Pioneers the upper hand going into the final stretch.
DU put the game away by scoring the first two goals in the third period. Maric added one more goal to CC’s tally late in the third.
“We had good jump and pace as a group,” said Maric. “But a few lulls and lapses on our part gave DU some unearned opportunities.”
The Tigers fell to the Pioneers for the fourth time this season in a 6-3 loss at Magness Arena on Saturday night.
DU opened the scoring at the 8:41 mark. The Pioneers continued to dominate the first period, outshooting the Tigers 22-5.
Marble came up with 21 saves, an impressive career high for the goaltender made in one period.
DU went up 2-0 just 1:44 into the second period. CC’s sophomore defenseman Jaccob Slavin was able to capitalize on a power play later in the second to cut the Pioneer lead in half. A few minutes later, the Pioneers snuck in a power play goal of their own to finish the second period up 3-1.
The Tigers came out blazing in the third, tying up the game with a pair of goals in the first 80 seconds in the period. Slavin scored his second goal of the game a mere 57 seconds into the period. Maric followed 23 seconds later with the equalizer.
But that was all that the Tigers could muster. The Pioneers slotted three more goals before the buzzer sounded to walk away with a victory.
Marble finished the game with 38 saves before he was escorted to the locker-room late in the third period because of dehydration.
“I liked our response coming out in the third,” said CC head coach Mike Haviland to a reporter after the game. “I liked the way we played for stretches tonight.”
“Saturday was not our most consistent effort,” said Maric. “But we were competitive in the third period when the game was being decided.”
When asked about the rest of the season, Maric responded, “All we can do is continue to work as hard as we can in practice and have that consistent play translate into games.”