That familiar formula – an opportunistic opponent coupled with a key miscue or two inside the defensive zone – returned to haunt Colorado College on Friday.

While the Tigers battled to score goals in one end, they made just enough mistakes in their own to allow the University of Denver to escape with a 5-3?victory in Game 1 of their first-round WCHA playoff series at Magness Arena.

CC, 14-18-5 overall, needs to win a rematch in the Mile High City on Saturday to force Game 3 in the best-of-three series on Sunday and advance to the league's Final Five tournament in St. Paul, Minn., next week. If the Pioneers prevail either night, Colorado College hangs up its skates until next fall.

Faceoff for Saturday's contest, and Sunday's if necessary, is 7:07 p.m.

The Tigers, whose 42 shots on goal represented their most in a game since mid-November, grabbed an early lead when junior defenseman Eamonn McDermott's whack from a scramble in the goalmouth ended up behind DU netminder Juho Olkinuora off the leg of one his own teammates. Alexander Krushelnyski and Rylan Schwartz, who helped set up two goals apiece in the loss, were credited with assists on McDermott's third tally of the season at 11:07 of the opening period.

But sophomore left wing Larkin Jacobson lunged toward the cage to tip in defenseman Scott Mayfield's wrist shot from the right point a little more than five minutes later, knotting the score at 16:17.  

The Shore syblings put Denver up 2-1 at 17:46 when freshman Quentin, playing on the top line with team scoring leader Nick, took a pass from his older brother and went top shelf on senior goaltender Howe's glove side with a laser from the edge of the left faceoff circle.  

When Shawn Ostrow poked in Chris Knowlton's rebound during a Pioneers power play midway through the second frame, the visitors suddenly were down a pair.

Aaron Harstad's big blast from above the left circle beat Olkinuora cleanly at 12:07 to cut the margin in half, but freshman Zac Larraza got that one back at 16:45 of the middle stanza after knocking Daniel Doremus' cross-ice feed out of mid-air, settling the puck and flipping it off Howe's arm on the stick side.

Krushelnyski, on a rebound of Schwartz's backhand from the slot, and Denver's Ty Loney, off a CC turnover, traded third-period tallies to account for the final count.

Howe finished with 34 saves for the Tigers.