COLORADO SPRINGS — For just the second time in the past 17 years, Colorado College will begin the Western Collegiate Hockey Association playoffs on the road.
With its fourth consecutive loss Saturday night — a 3-2 setback to North Dakota — the Tigers played their way out of home-ice advantage when the league playoffs begin March 12.
The Fighting Sioux, who won 3-2 on Friday with Matt Frattin’s overtime goal, got tallies from Chris VandeVelde, Danny Kristo and Frattin to earn the two-game sweep at the World Arena.
The Tigers, who begin a regular-season ending, home-and-home series against league-champion and No. 1-ranked Denver on Friday at Magness Arena, will finish no better than the sixth seed in the rugged league.
The fifth-place Fighting Sioux, who have won five in a row, clinched a top-five seed by virtue of a head-to-head tiebreaker with the Tigers.
If UND (29 points) doesn’t catch Minnesota-Duluth (31) and CC (25) stays ahead of Minnesota (24), the Sioux will host the Tigers in a No. 5 vs. No. 6 three-game playoff in Grand Forks, N.D.
“We should have won last night, and it was a one-goal game tonight,” said CC coach Scott Owens, whose team trailed 3-1 until Tyler Johnson scored with 2:09 to play and goalie Joe Howe pulled for a sixth attacker. “There are moments where we don’t get much accomplished, but I think North Dakota is a good team right now.”
CC figures to have a tough time turning things around against archrival DU, which will take an NCAA-best 10-game winning streak into the series. The Pioneers, who clinched the MacNaughton Cup as WCHA champion with their dramatic 4-3 overtime win Saturday and a series sweep at Minnesota State, leads 1-0-1 in the four-game Gold Pan series so far and needs a win or two ties against CC to reclaim the traveling trophy for the first time in four years.
“It’s a tremendous opportunity for us to get back on the winning ways,” said Tigers captain Mike Testwuide, the Vail native and younger brother of former DU captain J.P. Testwuide. “They’re the No. 1 team in the country and there’s not a better opponent to be going up against right now, testing ourselves and see where we’re going to be in the postseason.”
Said Owens: “Just playing Denver hopefully will rejuvenate us. We want to be playing a little better hockey when we get ready for the playoffs. I’m hoping just playing Denver will inspire us, force us to do some things a little better.”
North Dakota 1 2 0 — 3
Colorado College 0 1 1 — 2
First period — 1, North Dakota, VandeVelde 13 (Malone, Frattin), 16:42 (pp). Penalties — MacWilliam, UND (holding), 3:18; MacWilliam, UND (cross checking), 6:48; MacWilliam, UND (tripping), 12:55; DeBoer, CC (interference), 15:41.
Second period — 2, Colorado College, Boivin 1 (Johnson), 1:42. 3, North Dakota, Frattin 5 (Trupp, Malone), 10:19. 4, North Dakota, Kristo 12 (Hextall), 14:10. Penalties — Hextall, UND (interference), 12:06; Rapuzzi, CC (slashing), 18:28.
Third period — 5, Colorado College, Johnson 12 (Lowery, Fredheim), 17:51 (6-on-5). Penalties — Frattin, UND (elbowing), 10:30; Gregoire, UND (roughing), 13:27; Hall, CC (roughing), 13:27.
Shots — UND 12-9-10 — 31. CC 12-4-13 — 29. Power plays — UND 1 of 2. CC 0 of 5. Goalies — UND, Eidsness (17-8-4) 29 shots-27 saves. CC, Howe (15-13-3) 31-28. A — 7,171.
Mike Chambers: 303-954-1357 or mchambers@denverpost.com
