Five Colorado College players scored and Ben Copeland collected a pair of assists to lead the Tigers to a 5-2 victory over St. Cloud State Saturday at the National Hockey Center in St. Cloud, Minn.
 
With the victory, CC completed its first sweep of St. Cloud State since Dec. 10-11, 2010 and handed the Huskies their first back-to-back losses at home since Nov. 18-19, 2016 vs. North Dakota.
 
Nick Halloran opened the scoring for the second consecutive night, this time with a highlight goal at the 17:14 mark of the opening frame. Halloran brought the puck into the zone down the left side, skated towards center ice, spun around 180 degrees and placed a backhander past SCSU goalie David Hrenak.
 
Andrew Gaus put the Tigers (4-3-1, 2-1-1 NCHC) ahead 2-0 with a backhander of his own that beat Hrenak just 1:30 into the second period, then freshman Brady Smith scored the first goal of his career at the 6:49 mark of the second to make it 3-0. Smith took a cross-ice pass from Copeland and sent a blast just inside the far post and Hrenak was pulled from the game in favor of Joey Lamoreaux.
 
The Huskies (2-4-4, 0-2-0 NCHC) cut the lead to 3-1 with a power-play goal by Easton Brodzinski at the 10:15 mark of the middle period, but Kristian Blumenschein put the Tigers back up by three with his first goal of the season at the 15:09 mark of the second.
 
Chase Brand scored a power-play goal just 2:21 into the third period to make it 4-2. Later in the period, Brand was called for a 5-minute major for checking from behind, but the Tigers could not capitalize.
 
However, the Tigers held firm and Christiano Versich sealed the deal with an empty-net goal in the final minute for his third goal of the weekend.
 
What Head Coach Mike Haviland Said
"We played extremely well for six periods. We worked hard all weekend. You go through some adversity, but the guys stepped up. It was really good to see us put back-to-back games together."
 
"We did all the little things that need to get done to win hockey games. You know you can do it, now we need to continue doing it."
 
"(Nick) Halloran had his legs going all weekend and looked like the Nick of two years ago."
 
"I thought we were really good in the second period. I like our work ethic and we have some other guys scoring, which is really good to see."
 
Three Stars of the Game
1. Kristian Blumenschein, Colorado College (1g, +3)
2. Ben Copeland, Colorado College (2a, +3)
3. Nick Halloran, Colorado College (1g)
 
Colorado College Notes
Nick Halloran led all players and tied his season high with five shots
Matt Vernon finished with 27 saves
Four different Tigers collected a +3 rating
 
Up Next
The Tigers head back to Minnesota for a two-game series against two-time defending national champion Minnesota Duluth, Nov. 22-23, in Duluth.