“Sweep. Sweep. Sweep.”
That was the chant by the Colorado College student section at World Arena in Colorado Springs Saturday night, as their Tigers were just two minutes away from a 5-3 victory and a season sweep of the Pioneers.
The chant quickly turned to stunned silence when the Pioneers scored twice in the last 35 seconds of the game to force overtime and gain a much needed tie.
The Pioneers, after dropping a dismal 3-0 contest the night before at Magness Arena, were down the entire game Saturday night to their instate rivals before clawing their way back to a tie.
Saturday’s game began with the Pioneers creating some early pressure but not generating any quality scoring chances.
The game began to take a bad turn for the Pioneers when freshman defenseman Keith Seabrook took a penalty less than two minutes into the game.
Playing on an Olympic-sized sheet of ice at World Arena, the Tigers used the extra space to their advantage. They worked the Pioneers out of position before Tiger forward Bill Sweatt slid a pass through the DU defense to teammate Mike Testwuide for an easy one-timer goal, giving CC an early 1-0 lead.
The Pioneers, who struggled to get any shots on Tiger goalie Matt Zaba in the early moments, were given their first power play with 12 minutes left in the first period.
As has been the trend lately for the Pioneers, they struggled with puck control, making sloppy passes, leading to zero shots on goal.
Moments after the power play ended, DU freshman defenseman Cody Brookwell took a five-minute major penalty and a game misconduct for checking from behind.
With the Tigers gaining a five-minute power play, in which they could score as many times as possible without losing the man advantage, they took full advantage.
After a failed clearing attempt by DU freshman Brock Trotter that almost led to a Pioneer 2-on-1 rush, the Tigers grabbed the turnover and got the puck to forward Chad Rau in the slot, who promptly ripped a shot past Pioneer goalie Peter Mannino for a 2-0 lead.
Barely over one minute later, the Tigers extended their lead to 3-0 when defenseman Jack Hillen sent a wrist shot past Mannino, who was screened in front of the net.
The Pioneers were able to kill off the rest of the penalty, and with just over three minutes left in the period, DU cut the lead to two.
Pioneer sophomore defenseman Chris Butler finished off a fancy rush that included a give and go pass with junior forward Ryan Dingle, by placing an accurate shot to the low blocker side of Zaba.
The goal was the Pioneers’ first in over two games, and it got them back in the game despite being outshot 17-5 in the first period.
The second period started with the Pioneers getting some good pressure in the Tiger zone.
However, only a few minutes into the period, Trotter was called for a penalty, giving the Tigers yet another power play.
The Tigers were quick to capitalize, as Rau scored his second goal of the game by ripping a shot into the upper right corner and out of reach of Mannino’s glove.
The Pioneers would answer on a power play of their own, after CC’s Hillen was sent to the penalty box.
Freshman forward Tyler Ruegsegger wristed a shot that found its way through a screen and into the back of the net to cut the lead down to 4-2.
Then, after CC buried another power play goal in a 5-on-3 advantage, the Pioneers bounced back when Trotter cut through the Tiger defense and snap a shot past Zaba’a blocker to make the score 5-3.
That would be the score heading into the final period. Both teams swarmed each other’s nets, creating offense and generating shots. The Pioneers who had been drastically outshot in the first period began to take a slight lead in shots.
Both teams were held scoreless through the first 18 minutes of the period, when the Pioneers first pulled their goalie. With the play being 4-on-4 due to matching penalties on both teams, DU pulled Mannino to gain a 5-on-4 advantage.
It looked as the Pioneers weren’t going to be able to come back when Seabrook sent a shot from the point that filtered through a clump of DU and CC players in front of the goal to touch the twine, cutting the lead to 5-4 with just 35.4 seconds remaining.
The once boisterous home crowd was now a little quieter as the Pioneers regained the zone to try to tie the game. With both players jumping out of the penalty box, DU had a 6-on-5 advantage.
Ruegsegger sent a shot from the point that ricocheted off of Zaba’s pad and right onto the stick of Dingle, who quickly buried the puck into the back of the net, tying the game with just three seconds left.
“I was just trying to sit in front of the net and screen [Zaba],” said Dingle of his last second heroics. “If he can’t see it, he can’t save it. Ruegseggar made a great play and threw it at the net, and luckily I got my stick on it.”
The Pioneers forced the game into overtime, and with both teams unable to score, the game ended in a 5-5 tie.
Though a tie may not be the ideal ending to the Pioneers’ regular season, it was a huge confidence boost for a team that had been shutout in its previous two games.
“We were very unhappy, disappointed with the start of the game,” said Head Coach George Gwozdecky. “But we are very encouraged with our ability to stay in the game and our confidence to be able to come back.”
Dingle finished the game with a goal and an assist, giving him a team-leading 21 goals on the season. Mannino made 24 saves to earn the tie.
This was a drastic change from Friday night’s game against CC, in which the Pioneers gave a lackluster performance being shut out 3-0 in front of a home crowd at Magness Arena. Counting their home 3-0 loss to North Dakota on Feb. 24, it was the first time that the Pioneers had been shut out in back-to-back games since Dec. 17-18 of the 1983-84 season, and the first time that the Pioneers had been shut out in back-to-back home games in the history of the program.
The Pioneers (21-13-4, 13-11-4 WCHA) will now face the University of Wisconsin in the first round of the WCHA tournament at Magness Arena. The first round is decided by a best 2-of-3 series. The puck will drop at 7:37 p.m. MT on Friday.
