Colorado College Athletics

Lack of puck luck cost Colorado College dearly on Friday.

A pair of third-period goals by Travis Oleksuk and Kyle Schmidt lifted the University of Minnesota Duluth to a come-from-behind 4-3 victory over the Tigers in the opener of their two-game WCHA series at the World Arena.

It was CC’s first defeat of the season in league play – one in which it out-shot the Bulldogs by a 33-21 margin, including a 27-15 edge after the opening 20 minutes, and led 3-2 heading into the final 20.

Duluth struck for the first two goals of the game, on a power-play blast by defenseman Brady Lamb just 3:41 in and a deflection by Mike Seidel at 16:45.

But senior right wing and team captain Mike Testwuide cut the deficit in half with 36 seconds left in the first period, taking a pass from Stephen Schultz on the left side and cutting across the slot to beat UMD goalie Kenny Reiter. 

Seeming to find their legs, the Tigers carried the momentum into the second period. And, midway through the stanza, senior defenseman Kris Fredheim and freshman winger William Rapuzzi scored just 19 seconds apart to put them up by a goal. 

Then, with Duluth really on the ropes at 12:15, Schultz was tripped from behind on a breakaway and awarded a rare penalty shot. Reiter was able to get his left arm on the shot, however, preventing Colorado College from building a 4-2 cushion at that point.

CC, now 4-2-1 overall and 3-1-1 in league play, had numerous opportunities to pull even after falling behind on Schmidt’s red lighter at 15:08 of the final frame.

With 1:40 left to play and the visitors skating a man short, Tyler Johnson’s shot from the right faceoff circle hit the inside of the far post behind Reiter and bounced right back in the direction from which it came.

UMD quickly took another penalty, giving the Tigers a five-on-three power play that turned to a six-on-three for 31 seconds when freshman goalie Joe Howe skated to the bench with a little less than a minute to play. But Reiter, who finished with 30 saves, came up with a couple big stops and saw several other shots sail just wide as the Bulldogs, 6-2-1 and also 3-1-1 in WCHA play, held on to win their fourth consecutive game against CC at the World Arena dating back to last December.