View complete weekly press release »

Making its first trip to Duluth in nearly two years and its first appearances ever at the new AMSOIL Arena,  Colorado College returns to Minnesota for the fourth time this season with a chance to wrap up its 17th home-ice playoff berth since the 1993-94 campaign.

Faceoff is 7:07 p.m. (CT) Friday and 7:37 p.m. Saturday as CC, 16-12-2 overall and 13-10-1 in conference play, takes on defending national champion University of Minnesota Duluth in a two-game Western Collegiate Hockey Association series.

Only three points separate the Tigers from both third and seventh place in the WCHA standings with four regular-season games to play. Michigan Tech, currently seventh and on the outside looking in with regard to a top-six finish that means home ice for the first round of the playoffs, visits Colorado Springs next week (March 2-3). 

UMD, meanwhile, trails league-leading University of Minnesota by just two points in a down-to-the wire battle for the MacNaughton Trophy. The No. 5-ranked Bulldogs, 20-7-5 overall and 14-6-4 in WCHA play, are five ahead of Colorado College, which is tied for fourth place with the University of Nebraska Omaha and University of North Dakota. Tech, which plays host to St. Cloud State University this weekend, is three points behind all three.

If it's any encouragement to 16th-ranked CC, Minnesota Duluth has been more vulnerable at home (10-5-1) than on the road, where it has lost only twice (10-2-4) in 16 outings this season. And, despite leading the nation in scoring at 3.72 goals per game, the Bulldogs have a power play (20.3 percent efficiency rate) that ranks only 20th.

The teams last met a year ago, when the Tigers earned three points with a 5-4 victory and 3-3 tie at the World Arena. They own 84-79-7 all-time advantage in the rivalry but have won only three of their last 13 encounters with UMD dating back to the 2008-09 season.