Colorado College continues to be on the wrong end of the special teams battle even when it shouldn’t be. 

Up a goal late in the first period, the Tigers earned a lengthy power play on a five-minute major penalty to Minnesota Duluth’s Max Plante. Instead of scoring, the Tigers were stymied, the No. 4 Bulldogs gained momentum, and Plante went on to record a hat trick as CC fell 4-2 at Ed Robson Arena.

“They end up with all the momentum off of that power play, like, all of it. I don’t even know if we got a shot attempt maybe,” CC coach Kris Mayotte said. “It felt like we never quite got back and they get two 5-on-3 goals which you can’t give a power play and a top line like that those free looks.”

Plante leads the National Collegiate Hockey Conference and is tied for the lead in the nation with 13 goals. He scored the final three goals of the game against the Tigers on Friday. 

The top-line left wing scored 5-on-3 goals at 8:32 of the second period and 5:40 of the third. He completed the hat trick with an empty-netter with just 31 seconds remaining in regulation. 

His heroics were necessary for the visitors after CC (6-6-1, 1-5-1) came out with an impressive opening period. 

CC’s second line made hustle plays for the Tigers all evening, but none was bigger than the team’s first goal. Junior center Klavs Veinbergs retrieved the puck off the boards and passed it up to right wing Gavin Lindberg. The sophomore skated into the neutral zone, bounced the puck off the boards and past a defender and then, with defender Aaron Pionk skating stride for stride, he beat Bulldogs goalie Adam Gajan for the score at 10:16 of the opening period.  

“That’s a big time goal,” Mayotte said. “It’s a 1-on-2, their D pinches, he chips it behind him, self chip, goes and gets it himself, the weak side D is coming over. That’s a really hard play to hold that weak side D off. …. That’s a big time individual effort. There’s a lot of really good stuff in there in terms of determination, toughness, executing a game plan that was the spark we needed and we were able to carry that through the first.”  

Following the big play for Lindberg, UMD center Kyler Kovich capitalized on a CC turnover in its own zone to tie the game at 13:07. 

CC entered Friday’s game near the bottom of the conference in power play percentage at .163, but Mayotte has said previously that despite the lack of goals, his team was building momentum on the man advantage. 

That was the case on the Tigers first power play of the evening after a tripping call to UMD defenseman Ty Hanson. The Bulldogs killed the penalty but freshman fourth-line center Connor Hvidston earned his first career goal moments after the kill, beating Gajan from the right circle at 16:40 of the first period. 

CC seemed poised to score more after Plante was given the major but Duluth’s penalty kill, which was an NCHC-best .885 entering the contest, was up to the task. 

In the second period, the Tigers went on a 14-second power play before Veinbergs was called for roughing. Junior right wing assistant captain Drew Montgomery was called for slashing during the ensuing 4-on-4, leading to a 4-on-3. Duluth, which entered Friday with the conference’s second-best power play at .269, scored on the brief window of a 5-on-3, Plante’s first goal. 

The Minnesota sophomore scored the game-winner early in the third period after CC picked up an interference call to defenseman Ryan Koering and a bench minor.

CC is at the bottom of the conference standings alongside St. Cloud State and Miami (Ohio).

Tigers senior goalie Kaidan Mbereko made 26 saves on the evening, and the Bulldogs outshot the Tigers 30-20. The teams will finish the series on Saturday at 6 p.m.