Box Score Highlights
The Colorado College Tigers put together their most complete game of the season Saturday night and knocked off No. 1 Minnesota Duluth, 2-1, for their first-ever victory at AMSOIL Arena and a four-point weekend against the NCHC-leading Bulldogs.
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Mason Bergh and
Teemu Kivihalme scored for the Tigers and
Alex Leclerc continued his outstanding play in the net with 26 saves as CC earned its first win over No. 1-ranked team since March 22, 2013, a 2-0 victory over Minnesota at the WCHA Final Five.
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Colorado College (6-12-2, 2-6-2 NCHC) evened its win total from each of the last two seasons and is 3-1-2 in its last six games.
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"This is a huge win for our program," head coach
Mike Haviland said. "We played hard for six periods this weekend and this was a total team win tonight."
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Bergh opened the scoring with his team-leading 10th goal of the season just 3:46 into the contest. Senior
Luc Gerdes found fellow senior
Matt Hansen, who flipped a pass in front to Bergh, whose back was to the net. Bergh spun and placed a shot past the stick side of UMD goalie Hunter Miska.
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"That was a huge goal by Mason," Haviland said. "It really settled us down and gave us a lot of confidence. The first period was so important tonight. We said 'Let's go at them and see how they respond to us.'"
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After a couple of penalties to freshmen
Kade Kehoe and
Alex Berardinelli, Minnesota Duluth (12-4-4, 8-3-1 NCHC) evened the score when Adam Johnson scored a 5-on-3 goal at the 4:45 mark of the second period. Johnson's wrister from the right circle went over the left shoulder of Leclerc.
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Junior
Teemu Kivihalme then scored a similar goal that turned out to be the game-winner, giving the Tigers a 2-1 lead at the 8:57 mark of the middle frame. During a 5-on-3 opportunity after a couple of Duluth penalties, Kivihalme took a drop pass from Bergh and placed a wrister from the right circle above Miska's left shoulder into the upper right corner for his second goal of the season and first since Oct. 14 against UMass-Lowell. Gerdes collected his second assist of the night on the play.
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"To respond the way we did after they scored with the two-man advantage was huge," Haviland said. "The difference the last eight games for us is our confidence and that we fully believe in each other."
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Leclerc took over from there, making 18 saves after Johnson's tally, including a spectacular stop on UMD's Carson Soucy, who was all alone on the Tiger doorstep during a UMD power play and tried to flip a backhand past the freshman netminder with five minutes left in the contest.
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The Tigers had a golden chance to put the game away when UMD's Willie Raskob was called for a five-minute major early in the third period, but only came away with one shot on net. The Bulldogs also had a power-play opportunity with six minutes to go in the third, but Leclerc stopped all three shots, including Soucy's.
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Kivihalme led all players with a season-high seven shots, followed by Berardinelli with five. Miska finished the game with 23 saves for the Bulldogs.
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The Tigers return home to play at The Broadmoor World Arena for the first time in six weeks when they host Omaha on Jan. 13-14.
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