Post-game press conference

They say every dance needs a Cinderella. Two is a bonus.

In any case, Colorado College doesn't want the fairytale to end just yet.  

The Tigers, the lowest seeded team playing at the WCHA Final Five this week, took another step toward a happy ending of their storied tenure in the league by whitewashing regular-season co-champion and No. 1-ranked University of Minnesota, 2-0, in Friday's semifinals.

They will meet the University of Wisconsin, which got off to a horrendous 1-7-2 start last fall, in Saturday's 7:10 p.m. (CT) championship game at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn., with an automatic NCAA tournament bid going to the winner.

The game will be televised live by Fox Sports North and ROOT Sports.

Playing for the fifth time in eight nights, Colorado College again rode the solid goaltending of senior Joe Howe to its fourth consecutive post-season victory while squaring its overall record at 18-18-5. Howe turned aside all 35 shots he faced, while senior center Rylan Schwartz and sophomore right wing Charlie Taft struck for tallies just 3:25 apart early in the second period to provide all the offense he needed.  

The Tigers also killed all three Minnesota power plays, including one resulting from a five-minute major penalty in the third period, in a game that kept the sellout crowd of 18,949 largely silent.

"It was a good team effort tonight," said Howe. "I thought our defense, especially our penalty kill, was unbelievable – especially on that five-minute [call]. We gave up one shot and it really wasn't that good of a scoring chance. We've been winning in a lot of different ways lately and that's what you have to do in the playoffs."

Wisconsin played its way into the title contest with a 4-1 triumph over top-seeded St. Cloud State University in Friday's earlier semifinal. But like CC, the Badgers (21-12-7) need to win the Broadmoor Trophy on Saturday in order to earn a berth at one of next week's NCAA regionals.

Schwartz took a pass in the neutral zone from sophomore defenseman Peter Stoykewych, overtime hero against North Dakota a night earlier, and cut toward the high slot in the Gophers zone before snapping a quick wrist shot that beat patially screened freshman netminder Adam Wilcox high on the stick side 59 seconds into the middle frame.

Taft made it 2-0 at 4:54, after Alexander Krushelnyski's one-handed poke check inside the blue line broke up a Minnesota clearing attempt. Krushelnyski shoved the puck ahead to his linemate, who stickhandled to his right and unleashed another bullet from the same area as Schwartz.

Colorado College, which has matched its longest winning streak of the season at four, never has never claimed the Broadmoor Trophy despite reaching the WCHA championship contest on three previous occasions.