Boston beaned/ Injury-plagued CC happy to last weekend

Colorado College escaped the World Arena on Saturday night with an impressive win over Boston University, a successful three-point weekend completed against two traditional East Coast hockey powers and maybe best of all for the Tigers, nobody got hurt.

For a night anyway, the Tigers played a game with fewer ambulance rides than your average episode of "General Hospital." And they dominated BU in 5-3 victory that wasn't as close as the score. CC outshot the Terriers, 35-18.

Granted, this isn't the BU that annually storms the top of the national rankings and treats Western Collegiate Hockey Association teams like snacks on its schedule. This is a squad limping to a 2-8- 1 record and a six-game losing streak.

But CC isn't looking for props these days. The injury-riddled Tigers are just trying to win. Style points aren't on any of their holiday gift lists.

"This was a big weekend for us," said CC defenseman Mike Colgan, who had a goal and an assist. "This was a big win against a good opponent. The three points are important in the standings and for our confidence. The guys are pretty happy right now."

With new injuries to defenseman Tom Preissing and forward Tyler Leibel, lost in Friday night's game against Providence, the Tigers were patching more holes on Saturday, despite already playing without forward Mark Cullen and defenseman Paul Manning.

"If you can be successful playing this way, it only helps your depth and confidence later in the season," said CC coach Scott Owens. "That's the spin we're taking. This was a good team weekend."

CC snatched the momentum in the second period, although it had to do it twice.

Justin Morrison opened the period by tying the score at 1 on a nifty single-handed effort on a power play. He took a pass from Peter Sejna, skated by a defender and roofed a shot with only 22 seconds gone in the period.

But the announcer was still giving details of the goal when BU scored 16 seconds later after an errant clear ended up on the stick BU forward Frantisek Skladany, who popped it into the net.

But CC dominated the rest of the second period, getting its second goal from Colgan and a third on a power play by Sejna. CC's defense was playing so well that goalie Jeff Sanger faced only four shots in the period.

Forward Jesse Heerema scored an important insurance goal midway through the third - his first of the year - and CC hung on the rest of the way, trading a late goal by BU with an empty-netter at the end by Sejna.

"We started off the season scoring like this, but we've been playing better clubs so the goals haven't come easy lately," Heerema said. "It's good to cash in when you get the opportunity."

- Lynn Zinser may be reached at 636-0376 or lzinser@gazette.com Edited by Jim O'Connell; Headline by Larry McFarland

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