COLORADO SPRINGS – Despite forgoing the Gold Pan trophy for the third consecutive season, the No. 8 Pioneers were able to battle back from a 3-1 deficit to tie in-state rival No. 18 Colorado College 3-3 at the World Arena in Colorado Springs.

“I thought that it was a tough point to get, a tough game to play having to come from behind in a building that has not been historically kind to us,” said DU head coach George Gwozdecky.

The Pioneers (17-9-4, 13-7-3 WCHA) were trailing 3-2 late in the third period, until freshman Joe Colborne converted on a pass from freshman Patrick Wiercioch with just 56.3 seconds remaining in the game.

“This is a pretty rich sort of feeling because we obviously wanted two points so that we’d get a chance to get the Gold Pan, but when you look at it now it was a huge point for us in the standings and a huge character win for us that will hopefully carry into Wisconsin,” Colborne said.

“We’ve got to look to the future,” senior captain J.P. Testwuide said. “There’s a lot more trophies to win. The comeback into the third was huge. It puts us in a good position right now, so we’re pretty happy with ourselves.”

Colorado College scored first on the power-play at 8:53 into the first period.

Sophomore Dustin Jackson tied the game 4:32 into the second period, but CC was able to take the lead again scoring twice, only 98 seconds apart, giving the Tigers a 3-1 lead.

Colborne made it 3-2 on the power-play, assisted by junior assistant captain Rhett Rakhshani and Wiercioch at 15:17 in the second period.

The Pioneers outshot the Tigers 44-28.

“The Gold Pan is no longer available to us, but in the bigger, national scope of things, there are some awful big championships that have to be won by somebody,” Gwozdecky said.

Denver now shares first place in the WCHA with North Dakota with 29 points, just ahead of idle Wisconsin with 28 points and Colorado College with 25 points.

The Pioneers will travel to take on the No. 13 Wisconsin Badgers next weekend for a key two-game series.