Effort isn't wasted, but Tigers must settle for tie

Another stout effort by Richard Bachman against a familiar opponent wasn't enough.

Neither was a flurry of shots that nearly propelled Colorado College in the final seconds.

Continued struggles on the power play Friday negated more efficient penalty killing and doomed No. 6 CC to a 1-1 tie against Minnesota-Duluth before an announced crowd of 5,541 at World Arena.

Bachman stopped 32 shots to move to 4-0-1 against Duluth, which has scored one goal against him in the past 262 minutes. Eight of his saves were versus a power-play unit that's tied for sixth in the country at 20.6 percent.

The Tigers (9-4-4, 6-3-2 Western Collegiate Hockey Association) registered seven shots in overtime, although Alex Stalock stood strong to keep CC winless on a Friday for the seventh straight week.

"I don't think we played very well," said CC coach Scott Owens, whose team lost Scott McCulloch to a lower-body injury in the first period. "We struggled, and it was a little bit more of the same. But we survived. We didn't lose a game. We picked up a point."

Two points almost went CC's way.

In the closing 40 seconds, Brian Connelly was denied from the left circle before Andreas Vlassopoulos had a shot batted away from the slot, Mike Testwuide whiffed on an attempt between the circles and Stalock made a glove save on Vlassopoulos.

"Testwuide was working it down low, and I just slipped into the slot, and he hit me with a one-timer, and I thought it was in," Vlassopoulos said. "I got good wood behind it, and it wasn't too high. It was pretty close to the ice."

Matt Overman put CC on the board 64 seconds into the game with a backhander from the slot. Duluth (6-4-5, 3-4-4) halted its scoreless streak against Bachman at 233 minutes, 47 seconds when Josh Meyers converted a power-play goal in the second.

The Tigers went 0 for 8 on the power play, falling to 15 percent on the season.

Ryan Lowery lost a puck off his skate during a second-period man advantage. A 34-second 5 on 3 in the third period resulted in nothing, as Meyers blocked Chad Rau, Vlassopoulos made a sloppy pass and Stalock stuffed Bill Sweatt in the slot.

"It's not getting set up very well," Owens said. "We looked tentative, kind of shoveling the puck around."