In the regular season finale Saturday night at AMSOIL Arena, the No. 9 University of Minnesota Duluth men's hockey team fought back from a two-goal deficit to tie Colorado College 2–2 before winning the National Collegiate Hockey Conference shootout.
Sophomore forward Zam Plante scored twice in the third period to anchor the comeback, the first tie for the Bulldogs this season.
"I didn't think we played as well as we did last night," said UMD head coach Scott Sandelin. "We knew CC would be better, which they were, but a little deja vu when their first shot goes in and kind of the same game. But I like how our guys stuck with it again, got it to even, and I was hoping that we could win in regulation or overtime, but I liked the resilience. ?There wasn't a lot of panic on our bench, and those are situations you're going to find yourself in, you're going to be able to stay with it and battle back and it's nice that we won the shootout, it's a better feeling, but now it's for real. Now you get into the second season."?
The Tigers got two goals from Brandon Lisowsky, including one just 1:50 into the first period. Lisowsky made it a 2-0 CC lead 1:29 into the third frame, but Plante's first goal, a snipe near post past CC goaltender Jackson Unger pulled UMD within one 8:28 into the third. Plante drew the Bulldogs even on a power play goal at 16:47 with a one-time shot off a cross crease pass from Ty Hanson, and finally, the Bulldogs were back in business.
UMD outshot CC 34-22 in the game but both sides managed just two shots in overtime. The shootout went seven rounds, with Jayson Shaugabay scoring first for the Bulldogs. After CC knotted it up, Daniel Shaline beat Unger to go up 2-1, while Adam Gajan did the rest in his first game back since suiting up in the Winter Olympics with Slovakia.
In all, Gajan made 20 saves, along with six in the shootout. Jackson had 32 for CC, who went 0-of-2 on its power play while the Bulldogs scored on one of their four attempts.
UMD (20-13-1, 11-12-1) will host St. Cloud State University next weekend at AMSOIL Arena in the first round of the NCHC postseason. The puck will drop on the best-of-three series next Friday at 7:00 p.m.
BULLDOG NOTES: UMD dominated in the faceoff dot 37-25 Saturday night, with Kyle Gaffney and Zam Plante leading the way … Gaffney went 12-of-7, while Plante was 12-of-8 … UMD is now 3-4-1 in overtime games this season …the Bulldogs finish the regular season against the Tigers with a 1-2-1 record … UMD has now scored 44 of its 110 goals in the third period.
