Hunter McKown scored the game's only goal and Kaidan Mbereko posted his fourth shutout to send Colorado College to its first league championship game in a decade with a 1-0 victory over 3^rd-ranked Denver Friday at the Xcel Center in St. Paul.
 
The Tigers, making just their second appearance in the NCHC Frozen Faceoff, will play in their league title game for the first time since dropping a 3-2 decision to Wisconsin in the 2013 WCHA Final. They will face either St. Cloud State or North Dakota in the NCHC Championship Game on Saturday, March 18, beginning at 6:30 p.m. (MT).
 
Saturday's championship game will mark CC's seventh appearance in a conference final and the Tigers are in search of its first outright league tournament title. Colorado COllege, which snapped an 11-game losing skid to Denver on Friday, shared the 1978 WCHA title when the conference had two "regional" champions.
 
Mbereko, a second-team all-NCHC selection, was outstanding once again, finishing with 23 saves. He is the first CC goalie with four clean sheets in one season since Alex Leclerc in 2017-18.  
 
Mbereko and his counterpart, Magnus Chrona, each collected some huge saves in the first period. The CC freshman stopped Brett Edwards on a breakaway, while Chrona did the same to McKown and also swept away a rebound chance, which were two of his 12 saves in the first 20 minutes.
 
McKown put the Tigers ahead 1-0 with his nation-leading 14^th power-play goal at 13:22 of the second period. Nicklas Andrews sent a pass to McKown, who fired a rocket from the left circle past Chrona for his 21^st goal of the season. Noah Laba also collected an assist on the play.
 
The Tiger defense, which had 11 blocked shots, including four by graduate student Bryan Yoon, was in control the entire contest. CC's penalty-kill unit swept away all four of DU's power-play opportunities with Mbereko making six saves.
 
Colorado College, winners of three straight games for the second time this season, outshot the Pioneers, 26-23, and McKown led all players with five.