BOULDER – Colorado’s Division I men’s club hockey program is on the rise to begin the second semester despite losing three of their last four games.
Back-to-back overtime losses to No. 3 Central Oklahoma looked more impressive to the computers than anyone could have predicted. Entering the semester at No. 34 in the Division I rankings, CU jumped up eleven spots to No. 23 in just one weekend of play in which they did not even win a game. Oddly, their position did not change after going 1-1 against the Missouri State Bears last weekend.
The Buffaloes' opponent last weekend was the Oklahoma Sooners, a recognizable brand in college sports and a former Big 12 rival of the black and gold. OU had a strong start to their season, going 6-0 before losing their first game to the Buffaloes back in October.
Entering Friday night, Oklahoma was ranked at No. 24 in the nation, just one spot behind Colorado. These two teams entered as the first two squads missing out on nationals due to other schools stealing their bids from winning their conference’s auto-bid.
The game was originally slated to begin at 7 p.m. MT but due to some confusion with referees being sent to another game in the area, the teams scrambled to find another set of refs to save the game from being canceled. After they found replacement referees, the game was set to start at 8 p.m. MT.
The stakes were incredibly high for the WCHL tilt, and it started with a bang as a shot from Colorado defenseman Jesse Kittay found a way past Oklahoma goaltender Brendan Culbertson-Bond for a quick 1-0 lead in the first 75 seconds.
After the Sooners were able to get their first chance on Matt Server, Brodie Pearson stole the puck and beat out defender Adam Goldstein to get a 1-on-1 look on Culbertson-Bond. Pearson made one move and finished the play, giving the Buffs a 2-0 lead in just about seven minutes.
Just a minute later, after Rapolas Marcinkevicius stole the puck in the neutral zone, Fred Ferro took control and found a way to get it to Blake Blevins through traffic. Blevins fired a one-time wrister toward the top left corner past Culbertson-Bond for a 3-0 Colorado lead after just eight minutes of play.
This proved to be enough for head coach Peter Arvanitis and the Oklahoma bench as Brendan Culbertson-Bond was pulled.
In came Trey Attanasio, who had played in just one contest this season and faced just six shots, one of which found the back of the net.
The Oklahoma defense tightened up for their new goaltender and was given a couple power play opportunities for the remainder of the first. The first Oklahoma penalty of the night was taken while they were on the power play, thus leading to 4-on-4 play. During the 4-on-4 session, Nate Pane struck iron, beating Buffs’ Server but barely missing the net. Server made a subsequent save seconds later and stopped play. The Buffs led 3-0 after the first period.
In the second, the spotlight was on the goaltenders. No goals were scored but that did not mean each team did not have their fair share of chances.
Colorado had several great looks on an extended power play, though failing to score on a 5-on-3 opportunity. Oklahoma continued to apply pressure and get some chances but Server was getting the best of Friday night’s Sooners team.
The turning point in the game was late in the second when Tristan Glass put on a wrister that beat Server over his stick side but hit the corner of the net and stayed out. Many in the arena thought the puck had entered the corner of the net but the referee made a real-time call to rule that it was out. Oklahoma failed to score for the rest of the period as the score remained 3-0.
In the third period, Oklahoma had a lot of work to do trailing by three and being shutout. The Sooners went to the powerplay twice in the first eight minutes and failed to capitalize, squandering a perfect chance to claw their way back into the match.
The Buffaloes put the game out of reach when Drew McConaughy fired a laser past OU’s Attanasio to make it a 4-0 game. This was McConaughy’s seventh goal of the year.
At that point, it was all about shutting the door, which is exactly what the Buffs defense did. Server finished the game saving all 33 Oklahoma shots and picking not only his second shutout of the season but his second shutout against Oklahoma.
While the game was even for most of the game, the first eight minutes proved to be the difference. Colorado improved to 6-7-2 in WCHL play this season and looks to move into sole possession of fifth place in the conference standings tonight.
These two teams will get one more chance to prove to the computers that they deserve to go to St. Louis for nationals on Saturday night at 7 p.m. Mt.
All Colorado club hockey games are broadcast live on the Sko Buffs Sports YouTube channel.
Cover photo by Corey Neumeier/Sko Buffs Sports
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