The smell of beer and ice filled the stadium as fans packed into their seats, ready for the home opener series. Anticipation spread through the rink as the crowd grew louder, waiting to see the team take the ice. When Colorado College’s mascot, RoCCy the tiger, made his way onto the ice, the arena erupted in cheers. As the series went on, the student section kept the energy high with familiar chants of “sexy goalie” and “ugly goalie,” while every goal was met with a resounding “sieve” echoing throughout the arena.
Philippe Blais-Savoie ‘28 loved the energy from the student section and said, “The student section was packed. I thought they were loud from the first puck drop, and I think it helps obviously when we’re playing well and we have the crowd into it.”
This home opener weekend, Oct. 2 and 3, the unranked Colorado College Tigers competed against the No. 10 University of Massachusetts Minutemen (UMass). The Tigers swept the series with a banger of an opening series. On Friday, the Tigers won 2-0 and on Saturday, they won the game with a massive upset, with a score of 6-1.
The Tigers were playing an impressive game, interrupting passing lanes for UMass, and Jackson Unger ‘29 had an amazing first two games to start out the season, especially keeping the rebounds to a minimum and taking away shooting chances. Unger was named the NCHC Goaltender of the Week after his 0.982 save percentage and 54 saves through the weekend.
CC came out strong on Friday. The first period started, and the Tigers seemed to be playing with a chip on their shoulders and intended to set the tone for the rest of the season. They played aggressive and scrappy, starting the game with intensity. Halfway through the first period, Ryan Koreing ‘28 was sent to the penalty box for a minor penalty.
The Tigers worked a lot this summer on their penalty kill and making sure they would feel more confident taking penalties and not allowing goals, according to a Saturday night press conference with Mayotte. “A ton of credit to [John Lidgett] for all of the work he did this summer in reshaping our PK and coming up with a plan that we felt fit this team, and we could execute,” he said.
Blais-Savoie also commented on the work they put into their penalty kills, “We definitely had an emphasis, especially on penalty kills. We changed up where we are standing and everything, and I think it worked out pretty well; we went five for five this weekend.”
After a very strong penalty kill, the Tigers responded two minutes later with a goal. The first goal of the night was from a wide-open rebound, where Mats Lindgren ‘29 gathered the rebound and Head Coach Kris Mayotte commented on Unger’s great game for Friday, “I’m happy for him; I’m proud of him. The reason we recruited him in the first place was because he had championships in his junior career … what stands out when you watch him play is just how calm everything is and how poised he is in all those moments.”
After the weekend, the U.S. College Hockey Online released new rankings for each of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I hockey teams, and the Tigers had such an impressive weekend that they are now ranked 15th in the polls.
Because of their strong games this weekend, Blais-Savoie said, “[We’ve done] some system changes, doing a couple things differently in the way we play. I think the big thing right now is that we are all older now. I mean, we have the smallest incoming class in the NCAA. We brought back like 22 guys, so I think that is a big piece of it because we understand what it takes to win a series.”
A few newcomers to the ice to look out for — Carmelo Crandell ‘29, Zach Olsen ‘30 and Ty Halaburda ‘30. Each played a good game, with Crandell and Halaburda each getting points on the board after assisting on two goals.
had a beautiful shot to put the Tigers on the board. The goal was assisted by Klavs Veinbergs ‘27 and Wilson Bjorck ‘29. The period ended with UMass scoreless and the Tigers up by one.
The second period was very similar to the first, with a lot of aggressive plays and great shots on goal. The period started out with Lindgren in the box after a hooking penalty, but the strong penalty kill by CC kept any shots from getting to the back of the net. UMass had 21 attempted shots in the second period that were either shut down by the defense or by Unger.
The third period was another 20 minutes of scrappy hockey. Big hits and fights had the fans on their feet from the drop of the puck. Four minutes into the period, UMass took a penalty for holding but killed off the penalty, with the Tigers getting three shots on goal during the power play.
The score remained the same even after the Tigers took a bench penalty for delay of the game later in the period. With hope they could tie up the game, UMass pulled their goalie with 30 seconds left in the period. After a lengthy pass from Bret Link ‘27 and a speedy chase to the puck, Drew Montgomery ‘27 scored an empty-net goal with 12 seconds left on the clock.
Unger had a standout game, with 32 saves; he earned his first career shutout, meaning he let in no goals and also led the CC Tigers to their first shutout in a season-opening game since Oct. 10, 2008.
On Saturday, the Tigers came out wanting to repeat the great game they had played the night before. The crowd was just as rowdy as the night before, and the hope for another upset spread quickly.
CC had an amazing first period, ripping shot after shot at the UMass goalie. UMass served a penalty in the middle of the period but killed it off. With two minutes left in the period, perseverance and staying in the offensive zone led Rylie Stuart ‘27 to score the first goal of the game, assisted by Halaburda. The first period ended with the Tigers leading 1-0.
During the first intermission, the Colorado College hockey team was recognized for earning the inaugural NCHC Team Excellence Award for having the highest average team GPA in the conference. The team GPA is 3.762 and was presented to goaltender Beckham Dempsey by a member of the NCHC.
In the second period, the Tigers kept up the excitement and made very smart, aggressive plays. To start the period, Olsen received a penalty for hooking and the stronger CC penalty kill kept the puck from the back of the net yet again. Minutes into the period, the UMass goalie went behind the back of the net to catch a pass, getting ready to pass it to his team and Montgomery was in the right position to catch the puck, scoring a goal unassisted.
Five minutes later, UMass answered back, scoring their first and only goal of the series. Just a minute later, the Tigers responded again as Lindgren sent a pass to Crandell, who powered into the offensive zone and passed off to Blais-Savoie at the blue line. Blais-Savoie shot a rocket from the blue line straight into the back of the net, earning the Tigers their two-goal lead back. After the third goal was scored, UMass traded out their goalie for Jackson Irving, who played the rest of the game.
Mayotte was very happy with Blais-Savoie’s goal as it helped the Tigers get back their two-goal lead and some confidence: “Blais-Savoie’s goal made it go from a one-goal game back to a two-goal game… it started to get away…there was the great entry by [Carmelo], a delay, then find [Blais-Savoie] and hit it; that was a huge goal…We had a lot of pucks go in the net tonight, but none bigger than the Blais-Savoie one; they get within one and then the next shift we’re able to get another one and get the two-goal lead back.”
The third period only added more tension to the game as UMass had another puck hit the back of the net, but CC coaches challenged the play, claiming that the puck was kicked in. The referees reviewed the play and decided that the puck was directed into the net by the leg, calling the goal back. As the Tigers entered the offensive zone, the goalie tried to jump on a shot taken, but the Tigers kept working to get the puck into the net and eventually got the fourth goal, which was scored by Bret Link ‘27. UMass tried to challenge the call for goalie interference, but the call on the ice stood after the referees reviewed the footage. Link was assisted by Veinbergs and Fisher Scott ‘28.
One minute later, the Tigers were back in their offensive zone ripping shots again, and captain Max Burkholder scored the Tigers’ fifth goal of the night. He received a pass from Koering and Veinbergs in order to take a beautiful shot from the blue line.
The student section was going crazy, and with six minutes left in the third, chants of “overrated” and “start the buses” rang out. Towards the end of the period, more fights started and dirtier hits began to happen. Montgomery took a pretty hard hit where his helmet broke and Burkholder retaliated, fighting the hitter. Many fights broke out, UMass had two players in the box and Burkholder was in the box for the Tigers.
Mayotte liked to see Burkholder back on the bench after a season-ending injury last year, commenting, “I loved [Burkholder] stepping up and protecting a teammate there at the end and obviously scoring a goal; good to have him back.”
As the 5-on-4 started, another penalty was called on UMass for hooking. Now the Tigers were 5-on-3 and quickly got the puck into the back of the net, scored by Connor Hvidston ‘29, assisted by Owen Beckner ‘28 and Blais-Savoie. The period ended with the Tigers winning, in a blowout game, 6-1.
Both Mayotte and Blais-Savoie commented on the overall feelings on the bench. Blais-Savoie said, “I feel like it was very calm. I think that was a big difference from last year; there was a lot of panic even if we were controlling the game. Whereas this year, even like this weekend, at times when I felt like [UMass] was controlling it, we weren’t freaked out at all; we were calm.” Mayotte added.
As the season progresses, it will be exciting to see if the Tigers can use their synchronization and strengths as an older and wiser team to their advantage. Hope for their season is igniting among fans and it will be interesting to see how they do next.
The Tigers will stay at home next weekend, playing an exhibition game against the U-18 USA Hockey National Team Development Program on Friday night, Oct. 9.