Competing with a sense of desperation under dire circumstances, Colorado College defied the odds and willed its way to victory on Saturday.  

The Tigers, behind a spectacular performance by senior goatender Joe Howe, outlasted the University of Denver at Magness Arena, 2-1, to even their best-of-three first-round WCHA series at a game apiece and force a winner-take-all showdown in the Mile High City on St. Patrick's Day.

The survivor advances to the league's Final Five in St. Paul, Minn., starting next Thursday.

Faceoff for Sunday's contest, one of three Game 3s on tap in the WCHA along with Michigan Tech at North Dakota and Nebraska Omaha at Minnesota State, is 7:07 p.m. Tickets are available online at DenverPioneers.com/tickets as well as at the DU box office.

Howe steered aside 41 of 42 Denver shots in Saturday's thriller, including a huge one on Pioneers defenseman Joey LaLeggia from close in with 16.7 seconds left to play, as CC staved off elimination while improving to 15-18-5 overall for the season.  

Junior forward Archie Skalbeck's 12th goal of the season at 5:58 of the second period snapped a 1-1 tie and stood up as the game winner, his team-leading fourth of the 2012-13 campaign. Senior linemates Andrew Hamburg and Scott Winkler assisted on the tally.  

Senior center Rylan Schwartz also scored for Colorado College, which finished with 22 shots on target against Pioneers netminder Sam Brittain.

As in Friday's 5-3 loss, the Tigers struck first. Sophomore right wing Charlie Taft made a heads-up play, skating around a falling DU defender on the left side before chipping a nice backhand pass onto the stick of Schwartz, who slammed the goalmouth feed past Brittain at 9:44 of the first period. Alexander Krushelnyski, who initially got the puck to Taft, also earned an assist on Schwartz's 16th red lighter of '12-13.

Year-long nemesis Chris Knowlton of Colorado Springs sprung freshman linemate Quentin Shore in alone on Howe just 33 seconds into the second period, however, and Shore scored his second goal of the series to pull the Pioneers even.

But, less than six minutes later, Skalbeck shook off a heavy hit along the back boards and completed a pretty tic-tac-toe passing play from between the dots after Winkler forced a turnover inside the Pioneers blue line at 7:58 of the frame, putting CC ahead to stay.

Howe kicked out all 27 shots he faced the rest of the way, including a big one on the sharp-shooting Shore when the rookie winger got open in the left faceoff circle early in the third period. The Tigers also were credited with 13 blocked shots in the triumph while killing all three Denver power plays.