All of a sudden, heading into an extended holiday break, the outlook is bright again for Colorado College.

CC turned a four-game winless skid into a three-game undefeated streak on Saturday, exploding for three goals in the second period and coasting to a 4-1 victory over St. Cloud State in the finale of their weekend series at the National Hockey Center.

The Tigers, who don't suit up again until playing in the Florida College Hockey Classic on Dec. 29 and 30, improved to 11-4-3 overall and 8-3-3 in the WCHA. They remain undefeated (4-0-3) on the road. The two points, combined with the one they earned with Friday's 4-4 tie against SCSU, kept them second all alone in the league standings, just one point behind front-running Denver, which lost at Minnesota Duluth on Saturday. 

Colorado College grabbed another early lead in this one as freshman Andrew Hamburg, making a rare start at center between veteran linemates Stephen Schultz and Mike Testwuide, scored just 46 seconds into the contest.

The same combination clicked again on a three-on-two rush at 1:22 of the second frame, with Testwuide recording his 12th goal of the season and fifth in three games.    

St. Cloud State cut the deficit in half at 7:09 of the period when Jared Festler skated out of the right corner and beat freshman goalie Joe Howe through the five-hole while falling to the ice. But, less than five minutes later, CC's fourth line restored the two-goal cushion. After some hard work inside the Huskies zone by wingers Addison DeBoer and Brian McMillin, Nick Dineen shelved a high wrist shot past SCSU net minder Mike Lee from the left faceoff circle to make it 3-1.

Junior forward Brian Volpei, whose shorthanded goal late in the series opener helped St. Cloud State battle from behind for the 4-4 draw a night earlier, failed to cash in on a penalty shot a little more than two minutes after Dineen's red lighter.

Then, with 13 seconds left in the period, Matt Overman took a rebound of Gabe Guentzel's shot off the boards and slipped the puck between Lee and the left post to put the Tigers up 4-1. 

Howe finished with 18 saves while raising his record between the pipes to 10-3-3.

The victory was the 250th for Scott Owens as head coach at Colorado College.