Colorado Springs – The domination continues.
Short-handed and reeling, Colorado College entered the weekend on a four-game losing streak, and full-strength Michigan Tech came in winning four in a row.
But the outcome of the two-game series hardly followed those trends, because the Tigers – in typical fashion – came out the winners.
With a 2-1 victory Saturday night over Michigan Tech in a Western Collegiate Hockey Association game, the Tigers improved to 16-0 against the Huskies at the World Arena and 36-1-7 in the series overall since the 1993-94 season.
That’s 44 games and just one CC loss. How do you explain that?
“I don’t know,” Tigers coach Scott Owens said.
Make no mistake, there have been close games between these teams, and Saturday’s two-game Western Collegiate Hockey Association finale was just that.
The Tigers, outshot 31-25, got outstanding goaltending from senior Matt Zaba and opportunistic goals from sophomore Chad Rau and freshman Addison DeBoer to produce their first two-game series sweep of the season.
Rau scored a power-play goal in the first period, and DeBoer made it 2-0 with a breakaway tally during a delayed penalty in the second. Zaba, who also backstopped Friday’s 4-1 win, allowed a goal late in the second period, but was solid in the third. He and the Tigers withstood a 6-on-4 disadvantage in the final minute after Derek Patrosso took a cross-checking penalty and Huskies goalie Ron Nolan went to the bench for a sixth attacker.
CC, swept the previous two weekends by New Hampshire and Minnesota, improved to 5-4-1, 2-2 in the WCHA. Michigan Tech is 5-3, 2-2.
“It wasn’t pretty. We looked exhausted. They looked tired down the stretch,” Owens said. “But we hung in there, and for a team that’s had its confidence shaken in the two previous weeks, I thought the guys hung in there pretty good, especially in the last 1:47 (during Patrosso’s penalty).”
The Tigers again played without star freshman forward Billy Sweatt (mononucleosis) and freshman defenseman Nate Prosser (strep throat). But senior co-captain Lee Sweatt, Billy’s older brother, made up for both absences.
Lee Sweatt was CC’s best defender, and he assisted on DeBoer’s goal. Sweatt was hooked by a Michigan Tech forward before making the pass that freed DeBoer on the breakaway. The Sweatt-drawn penalty was waved off because DeBoer scored while Zaba was skating off for an extra attacker.
“Nice to have a sweep under our belts, especially coming off two rough weekends,” Lee Sweatt said. “It’s good to get this confidence back underneath us and be above .500. We bent but we didn’t break. We made them make perimeter shots (and) forced them to the outside. They didn’t really have that many high-quality scoring chances.”
CC continues its four-game homestead Nov. 17-18 with a two-game WCHA series against Minnesota State.
Mike Chambers can be reached at 303-954-1357 or mchambers@denverpost.com.
