Supporting cast steps up for Tigers

Colorado College has some talented, dangerous scorers. What the Tigers need in the final stretch of the season is for other players on the roster to emerge as reliable scoring threats.

On Friday, Andreas Vlassopoulos, Tyler Johnson and Brian McMillin - who had combined for five goals in the first 22 games - scored four times in a 5-2 victory over Minnesota State-Mankato at World Arena. The five goals were the most in a series opener for CC this season.

"That's going to be a big part of our second half here, have a lot of people scoring," said McMillin, who has scored all four of his goals in CC's past three games. "Our first half, we had issues with that, we had not many guys with many points."

No. 12 CC improved to 12-6-5 and 8-5-2 in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. Mankato is 9-10-3 and 5-8-2. Minnesota lost to North Dakota on Friday, so CC passed the Gophers for second place in the WCHA.

CC, which ranked ninth in the WCHA in scoring before Friday, was without forward and third-leading scorer Bill Sweatt, who has an upper extremity injury. That didn't affect the Tigers, who scored three times on the power play.

CC took advantage of a couple of power-play opportunities after falling behind 1-0. In the first period, CC defenseman Brian Connelly faked a shot, causing a couple of Mavericks to go down to block it. He then moved the puck across the ice to Vlassopoulos, whose shot glanced off goaltender Mike Zacharias and trickled over the goal line.

A minute later, Johnson scored CC's second goal. On a power play, he moved in and squeezed the puck past Zacharias, who had forward Mike Testwuide harassing him in front of the net. The Tigers' power-play success came from moving the puck well and distracting Zacharias.

"We did a better job of getting traffic in front of the goaltender," coach Scott Owens said.

"I think that's a main reason we were able to have success."

Johnson appeared to have his second goal of the game in the second period, but his shot hit the post. Minutes later, McMillin's wrist shot gave CC a 3-2 lead.

Left wing Stephen Schultz and McMillin scored CC's final two goals. The win was the first in a series opener for CC since Oct. 17, but breaking the 0-5-4 streak in openers won't matter much if the Tigers don't complete the sweep tonight.

"The key will be to come out and play like we have been on Saturdays," McMillin said.

TODAY
Minnesota State-Mankato at Colorado College, 7:07 p.m., 103.9 FM