The Colorado College men’s hockey team pulled together a tie and a win this past weekend against Western Michigan to finish out their regular-season home game schedule. After a season plagued by near losses and unconverted opportunities, the Tigers, now 6-23-2 and 2-18-2-0 NCHC, finally seem to be clicking.
“We talk about the season as a process that is always building toward the playoffs,” said assistant coach RJ Enga. “Now we’re coming off our most complete weekend of the season with a tough schedule under our belts. We’re right where we want to be.”
The Tigers matched the Broncos in a 2-2 tie last Friday night. CC opened the scoring early in the first period with a goal from sophomore Luc Gerdes. Both sophomore Matt Hansen and junior Hunter Fejes earned an assist off of Gerdes’ third goal of the season. 37 seconds later, junior Peter Maric put CC up 2-0.
Western Michigan put two more—unanswered—goals away in the remaining two periods. CC outshot Western Michigan, 14-7, in the first 20 minutes, but allowed the Broncos 45 shots on goal the rest of the game while getting only 11 of their own. CC’s sophomore goalie Tyler Marble posted a career high 50 saves on Friday night. Head Coach Mike Haviland told a reporter after the game that it was Marble’s best game of the season.
“We came out strong in the first period, but we got away from our structure in the second,” said senior Scott Wamsganz. “Marble gave us a great game, but we need to be more solid defensively.”
The Tigers blanked Western Michian 5-0 in Saturday’s Senior Night and home game finale.
Junior Cody Bradley notched the first two goals of the game to put the Tigers up 2-0, but the night belonged to the seniors as each of the five that played in his final home game for CC had at least one point.
Seniors Wamsganz, Charlie Taft, and Ian Young all scored in the second period to blow the game wide open 5-0. Peter Stoykewych and Aaron Harstad each added an assist.
“We found ourselves in the same position as Friday night after the first period,” said Wamsganz, “And we weren’t going to let them back into the game like we did the night before.”
“I think the team really rallied around the seniors,” said Enga. “This class is a group of hard-working guys that we, as a new coaching staff, relied heavily on to carry our message to the locker room.”
When asked about what the team still needs to work on before play-offs start, Enga joked, “You don’t have enough paper to get all that down.”
The Tigers plan to build on this weekend’s momentum and up the competition in practice. “We need to find that last one percent,” said Enga. “Right now, our guys are doing 99 percent right, but that last piece makes all the difference.”
The Tigers close out the regular season this weekend at Nebraska Omaha.