COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. The No. 5 Colorado College Tigers (26-9-1, 21-6-1 WCHA) used goals by Mike Testwuide, Matt Overman and Bill Sweatt, and 27 saves from No. 2 goaltender Drew O’Connell in a 3-1 win over No. 7 Denver Pioneers (22-13-1, 16-11-1 WCHA) tonight before 7,780 fans at World Arena.

 

CC completes the two-game sweep of DU and finishes first in the WCHA, while DU places third with its third consecutive loss. No. 3 seed Denver will host No. 8 seed Minnesota Duluth in the first round of the WCHA playoffs in a best 2-of-3 series March 14-16.

 

“Give CC credit for the sweep and a fine regular season,” DU head coach George Gwozdecky said. “We had our chances this weekend, but couldn’t capitalize. We’ll be ready for Minnesota Duluth next weekend.”

 

Testwuide and Overman staked CC to a 2-0 lead after the first period. Testwuide scored on the power-play at 12:09 on a feed from Andreas Vlassopoulos, while Overman followed in his own rebound 90 seconds later.

 

After a big save by O’Connell on a shot from the low slot by Kyle Ostrow (Calgary, Alberta), CC made it 3-0 with a goal from Sweatt at 2:37 of the middle stanza. DU freshman Marc Cheverie (Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia) spelled senior Peter Mannino (Farmington Hills, Mich.) and made 15 saves the rest of the way.

 

Chris Butler’s (St. Louis, Mo.) power-play goal at 3:02 of the third made the final 3-1. Rhett Rakhshani (Huntington Beach, Calif.) and Tyler Bozak (Regina, Saskatchewan) earned assists on the goal.

 

Sweatt led CC with a goal and assist. DU outshot CC, 28-24, and went 1-of-7 on the power play. CC finished 1-of-5 with the man-advantage.

 

Notes: Denver is sixth in the latest PairWise Rankings...The Pioneers have scored just five goals in their last four games (1-3-0)...DU is 12-8-1 against ranked opponents and 5-9 against teams ranked in the top five of the WCHA standings.