Box Score

Junior captain Sam Rothstein scored his first two goals of the season Saturday night to lead Colorado College to its first victory of the season with a 4-3 win over Air Force at The Broadmoor World Arena.
 
Senior Cody Bradley and junior Luc Gerdes chipped in with a goal and an assist apiece as the Tigers snapped their season-opening 13-game losing skid with a season-high four goals.
 
Rothstein, who posted the first multi-goal game of his career, evened the game at 2-2 when he poked the puck past AFA goalie Shane Starrett on the power play with 7:18 remaining in the second period. Gerdes and freshman Trey Bradley each collected an assist on the play.
 
The captain then slammed home a rebound off a Gregg Burmaster shot that gave CC a 3-2 lead four minutes into the third period. Freshman Trevor Gooch started the play by creating a turnover in the neutral zone and finding Burmaster, who skated to the right circle and put a shot on net that Starrett could not control.
 
The Tigers increased their lead to 4-2 just before the midway point of the third period when Bradley scored an unassisted goal thanks to Air Force's Jordan Himley, who deflected Bradley's pass across the crease past Starrett and into his own net with 10:21 left in regulation.
 
The Falcons responded just 12 seconds later as Ben Kucera sent a one-timer from the slot past CC goalie Jacob Nehama to make it 4-3. The Tigers held on for the final 10 minutes of the game, including 1:22 with Starrett on the bench for an extra attacker.
 
Nehama did his part to keep the Falcons at bay with two huge saves on 2-on-1 opportunities, one with six minutes left in the second period against Phil Boje on a near 2-on-0, then another early in the third on Ben Carey.
 
"I'm proud of the way we battled back after being down tonight," head coach Mike Haviland said. "We never gave up and played a full 60 minutes. I think the fans got their money's worth."
 
It was an inauspicious start for the Tigers, who allowed AFA's Erik Baskin to score just 1:17 into the contest. CC held firm the rest of the period and it paid off as Gerdes notched his third goal of the season, a power-play tally off assists by Cody Bradley and Teemu Kivihalme, with 1:06 remaining in the first to tie the game at 1-1.
 
CC's two power-play goals tied a season high, equaling each of the first two games against UMass. The Tigers entered the weekend with five PP goals and added three in the two games against Air Force.  
 
"I was happy with our compete level, especially our one-on-one battles," said Haviland. "Those are the little things you need to do to win hockey games."
 
The Tigers host Miami University next weekend, Dec. 4-5, at The Broadmoor World Arena in the final home series of the first half of the season.