COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) - Colorado College’s first home win of the season was a big one.
The Tigers scored a fluke goal in the first period and two empty netters in the third to beat North Dakota 3-0 Saturday for a split of their National Collegiate Hockey Conference series.
Freshman goalie Alex Leclerc made a career-high 45 saves to lead Colorado College to a 3-0 win over North Dakota Saturday in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference.
“He played a great game. We were in there the whole time and couldn’t score a goal,” UND coach Brad Berry said. “No excuse, we weren’t good enough to get a goal.”
But they got an own-goal. The winning goal for the Tigers with just 30 seconds left in the first period was a deflection off UND player Casey Johnson. Luc Gerdes got credit for the goal. Sam Rothstein and Alex Berardinelli added empty-net goals in the third period.
UND outshot the Tigers 45-20.
The victory was the first for the Tigers (7-17-2, 3-11-2 NCHC) at home this season. They had lost their first 10 games. It also snapped a 14-game winless streak against UND (14-10-3, 7-8-1-1) and ended the Fighting Hawks’ seven-game road winning streak. The 12th-ranked Hawks have lost four of their last six games.
North Dakota had a season-high 16 shots on goal in the first period and followed it with 21 shots in the second. Berry said the shots were there, but the grade A chances weren’t.
“A lot of times we didn’t have good net-front,” Berry said. “We didn’t have a guy in the goalie’s eyes. He made some saves but we could have got better net-front. If we did, maybe we get a goal or two.”
That would have helped Matt Hrynkiw, who got his first start of the season in goal for UND and made 17 saves. The only goal he allowed was a shot by Gerdes that deflected off Johnson’s shin as he skated in front of the net.
UND was playing without forwards Tyson Jost and Joel Janatuinen, defenseman Gage Ausmus and starting goalie Cam Johnson, all out with various injuries. Jost, Janruinen and Ausmus have 20 goals between them.
North Dakota had 15 shots on the power play but went 0-for-6. But the Hawks were still in the game when it pulled Hrynkiw for an extra attacker with 1:45 to play.
That backfired as Rothstein scored at 19:09 and Berardinelli at 19:36.
“We’re not happy and were not satisfied,” Berry said of the split. “In order to win what we want to win at the end of the year, we have to find a way to win. We have to find a way to win these types of games.”
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