CC rallies to beat Wisconsin in WCHA opener

MADISON, Wisc. • Unproven, inexperienced and rebuilding were all words used to describe Colorado College headed into this season.

Now that the games have started, add a new one — resilient.

CC showed considerable moxie by battling back from down 2-0 in front of 11,571 fans at the Kohl Center to upend No. 14 Wisconsin 3-2 Friday night.

“The way we came back is almost as important as the win,” coach Scott Owens said. “We hung around, hung around, hung around and suddenly it was 2-2 on the road and the game was up for grabs.”

Junior Tyler Johnson seized the Western Collegiate Hockey Association-opening win for the Tigers (2-1, 1-0) when he scored with 2:07 remaining from just inside the right faceoff circle. He took a pass from Rylan Schwartz, spun and fired a hard low shot past Wisconsin junior goalie Brett Bennett in one quick motion.

“Tyler was a scorer in high school and has a good shot. He came here as a true freshman, so it took him a couple years to figure things out,” Owens said.

Johnson has three goals in as many games this season.

It took a while for CC to get into the game after senior captain Mike Testwuide went down with what trainers have called an upper body injury after a collision with Wisconsin junior Ryan McDonagh 28 seconds into the game.

Testwuide did not return.

“We were lucky it wasn’t 2-0 or 3-0 after the first period,” Owens said. “Coming back to win after losing a leader like Mike is a tremendous confidence booster.”

Freshman goalie Joe Howe (2-0) made 39 saves, including a couple big ones in the second to keep Wisconsin (0-1, 0-1) from pulling away.

“Howe was really good,” Owens said. “For a freshman to come into this environment and play that well is something.”

The Tigers also hit the ice to block a number of shots.

“The defense did a great job in front of me,” said Howe, who was playing in Kohl for the first time since midget hockey. “It was exciting to play in front of this crowd. The fans cheered when my own team scored on me in warmups. They think it was getting into my head but it only fired me up.”

The starting goalie for CC tonight will be decided this morning.

The boisterous Badgers fans got a little quieter after Matt Overman scored 82 seconds after Wisconsin’s second goal to make it 2-1 and spark the CC rally in the second period.

Brian McMillin later scored on a 3-on-2 breakaway off a beautiful backhanded pass by Nick Dineen to tie the game with 7:43 left in the second period.

Wisconsin looked to have retaken the lead with 6:32 left in the game, but Andy Bohmbach’s goal was waved off after the video review.

“It hit two posts and then stayed out,” Wisconsin forward Ben Street said. “If it had gone in, the game would have been different. If we (had) gotten a few bounces, we would have won.”

Wisconsin scored a power-play goal by Blake Geoffrion with 15:28 left in a penalty-filled first period for a 1-0 lead.