BOULDER – Sixty minutes separated the Colorado Buffaloes and a berth at St. Louis for the ACHA Nationals tournament.
The Division I Colorado Men’s Hockey team had one job to do on Friday night, win and hope the other results shake out in your favor. But all that was on their mind was to win in front of the home fans.
After winning on the road in Fort Collins the night prior, 7-2, the Buffaloes were looking to finish on a four-game winning streak to convince the computers that they belonged at Nationals. The team standing in their way was their biggest rival, Colorado State. A team that had struggled throughout the second semester and was looking for revenge after the Buffs beat them at their home rink.
After being rattled by Sam Simon being ejected, Colorado State had a jolt of rejuvenation knowing he would be in between the pipes for Colorado State again. On the other side, Matt Server would hold down the fort for the Buffaloes after a strong showing from Liam O’Gwen the night prior.
The Buffs started the scoring early, as Marc Borghi banged home a puck in a scramble in front of the net to make it 1-0 Colorado. A second goal was scored minutes later after George Issa threw a tough angle shot on the CSU goaltender, Simon, and Rapolas Marcinkevicius was there to put a tough backhander by him. The Buffaloes led 2-0 in the first ten minutes.
After the Buffs killed a penalty, Roman Di Domizio found Adam Trunko on a rush and he tucked it by Simon for a quick 3-0 lead. CSU head coach Camden Lambert would take his timeout at this point of the game and everything changed. But not before Paxton Bunting, a senior who had not scored all season despite strong play, finally put one in the back of the net on a tough angle shot that beat Simon and the Buffaloes were in total control of this game with a 4-0 lead. The Buffaloes up to this point had looked so dominant as they scored the last nine goals going back to Thursday Night.
They looked in control and destined to do their job, but after CSU’s Noah Decker sped past Quinten Kinney and beat Server to make it 4-1, life was brought back into the Rams’ bench. This was shortly followed by a great puck control play from Anthony Colagrosso and Riley Hunt-Bahn, with Colagrosso finishing the play by beating Server through the five hole. The Buffs would exit the first period with their 4-0 lead already cut in half at 4-2.
The Buffaloes had their hopes high entering the second as they still had a two-goal lead. But in the first five minutes, Cameron Cromwell found Justin Vickers trailing in the slot and he blasted a wrister by Server to make it a one-goal game. Defensive issues continued to plague the Buffs as Server continued to face shot after shot after shot, and shortly after making a great save couldn't stop a turnaround shot from Stepan Ruta. With five minutes to play in the second, the game had flipped on its head and the Rams had tied the game at four.
But the Buffs were not ready to keel over yet. In the dying seconds of the second period, A nice passing play saw Marcinkevicius in front of the net, Issa slid a pass to him from behind the CSU goal and Marcinkevicius didn’t miss. The Buffs stole back momentum and the lead at the end of the second period, 5-4.
This set up a third period that would have more tension and pressure than anyone had expected. The Buffs had survived the second to stay in front, but now needed to survive for twenty more minutes to come away with a win. Both teams had to give everything that they had to get the outcome they were looking for.
It was a physical third with both teams giving it their all. Penalties had not been an issue in this game as opposed to the last, the antics were put away for stellar play. Eight minutes in, CSU would get a goal from Colagrosso off a faceoff in the Buffs zone after Hunt-Bahn found him with a wide-open net. The game was tied once again.
Time slowly ticked off the clock and everyone was holding their breath at the rec center as the teams were fighting for one more goal to put their team on top. The clock trickled under five minutes with no goals, then under two minutes. With a minute and a half left, Vickers was looking for leading scorer Tristan Maestas for Colorado State, the puck deflected off of the skate of Hartman and right to the stick of Decker, the last guy CU wanted to have the puck with the much real estate. He buried the shot past Server and the Rams had their first lead of the game with only 90 seconds to play. The comeback was complete at 6-5.
Colorado would take their timeout to scramble and figure out a way to tie the game back up and force overtime. But after Jack Ferguson tripped with under 30 seconds to go, Colagrosso had a breakaway empty net to notch a hat trick and end the Buffs season. A 7-5 final score left the black and gold in heartbreak as their rivals had stolen a win and swiped away their shot at St. Louis.
Hope sprung up in the organization after forcing overtime twice on the road against No. 3 Central Oklahoma. The Buffs were pushed up to No. 23 in the country which set the stage for a potential run to Nationals. After splitting series after series after series, they put together two wins against Arizona State and won in Fort Collins the night prior. But Colorado fell one game short of glory.
The Buffs had their season cut short but have set a great foundation for next season which could see the Buffaloes return to the ACHA Nationals tournament for the first time since 2018. They’ll have to do it without some of their key pieces like Pasiennik, Borghi, and Trunko who all scored 10 or more goals this season. But will have McConaughy, Pearson, and Marcinkevicius returning to hold down the new regime. Before the season is officially over though, the seniors will play two more games at the rec center against the University of Oregon to cap off their collegiate careers for the home fans before closing the season out in Las Vegas against UNLV.
All Colorado club hockey games are broadcast live on the Sko Buffs Sports YouTube channel.
Cover photo by Remi Krupinski/Sko Buffs Sports
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