Colorado College kept right on rolling Thursday, taking one more giant step toward an NCAA tournament bid that seemed so improbable until the last month.

Sophomore defenseman Joe Marciano, who entered the game with one career tally, struck for a rare pair to fuel the Tigers to a 4-2 victory over the University of Alaska Anchorage in the quarterfinals of the WCHA Final Five at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn.

CC, which improved to 22-17-3 overall, won despite launching only 16 shots on two Seawolves netminders and giving up its 10th shorthanded goal of the season late in the game.   

Sophomore right wing William Rapuzzi also scored once and assisted and another red lighter by junior left wing Tim Hall that gave their team a 2-0 lead at 16:30 of the first period.

Rapuzzi, an Anchorage native, now has collected 10 of his 35 career points against UAA. That includes eight of his 19 goals the last two campaigns.  

With this latest triumph, the Tigers earned another shot at No. 1-ranked and regular-season champion University of North Dakota in Friday's league semifinals. Faceoff is 7:07 p.m. CT.  The teams split two decisions at the World Arena in late January.

Sophomore goaltender Joe Howe was solid again between the pipes, finishing with 21 stops including a spectacular skate save in the first period on UAA's Tommy Grant that preserved a 1-0 lead at the time.

Rapuzzi put CC ahead to stay during a power play at 7:30 of the opening frame, tapping in a loose puck from the right side after freshman Dakota Eveland redirected Eamonn McDermott's shot from the point. Nine minutes later, at 16:30, he backhanded Ryan Lowery's shot from the blue line to Hall, who beat Seawolves goaltender Chris Kamal cleanly with a bullet from the inside edge of the right faceoff circle. 

Marciano notched the eventual game winner at 4:39 of the second period when his shot from just inside the blue line deflected off the leg of a defender and past Kamal, who was yanked at that point in favor of fellow freshman Rob Gunderson.

After Mickey Spencer pulled Alaska Anchorage to within two goals at 14:57 just as a Tiger penalty expired, Marciano blasted a rocket through traffic to make it 4-1 with 17.7 seconds left in the middle stanza. UAA wrapped up the scoring on Luka Vidmar's shorthanded effort with 61 seconds remaining in the game.

Senior winger Stephen Schultz and freshman left wing Jaden Schwartz assisted on both of Marciano's goals. 

The Seawolves, who had won three of five previous meetings between the teams this season, finished with an overall record of 16-18-3.