Colorado College scored three times within a span of 59 seconds in the third period to upset 7^th-ranked Western Michigan, 3-1, in the opening game of the best-of-three first round NCHC playoff series Friday night at Lawson Arena.
 
The Tigers snapped a 13-game winless streak and posted just their third opening-game victory in the first round of the NCHC playoffs, joining the 2018 team at Denver and the 2019 squad at Western Michigan that won the series in Kalamazoo to advance to the NCHC Frozen Faceoff in St. Paul, Minn.
 
With Western Michigan holding a 1-0 lead in the final period, Logan Will evened the score with his fifth goal of the season at the 13:36 mark with a wrist shot from the slot that cleanly beat WMU goalie Cameron Rowe.
 
Just 40 seconds later, Tyler Coffey took a pass from Noah Laba and sent a one-timer past Rowe to take the lead and silence the Lawson Arena crowd. Shortly thereafter, Aidan Fulp was called for a kneeing penalty at the 14:30 mark, and Hunter McKown scored his nation-leading 13^th power-play goal with a blast from the point.
 
Tiger goalie Kaidan Mbereko was outstanding once again, finishing the game with 25 saves, including a couple of spectacular stops during a five-minute penalty kill in the second period after Matthew Gleason was assessed a major and a game misconduct for checking from behind.     
 
Both teams were flying from the opening faceoff, as the first five minutes provided a furious pace and each team rang a shot off the pipe in the first 70 seconds, including one by McKown just 1:05 into the contest.
 
The Broncos took advantage of a tripping call against CC's Noah Prokop and opened the scoring with a power-play goal at the 14:50 mark of the first period. Ryan McAllister scored on a wrist shot from the left point that eluded a screened Mbereko.
 
The Tigers survived the five-minute major and game misconduct call to Gleason at 7:09 of the second period with a solid penalty kill, including a great save by Mbereko on Zak Galambos in the waning seconds. Mbereko also kept the deficit at one with a save on a breakaway by Dylan Wendt in the final minute of the middle frame.
 
Following CC's three-goal flurry in the third period, Rowe was on the bench for the final 3:08 but the Broncos could not get anything past Mbereko.
 
Western Michigan outshot the Tigers, 26-25, and was 1-for-2 on the power play, while CC was 1-for-3 with a man advantage. Rowe collected 22 saves.
 
The two teams battle again on Saturday, March 11, in game two of the series, beginning at 4 p.m. (MT).