DENVER – The No. 3 Denver Pioneers (14-4-3, 6-4-1-1) tied the Colorado College Tigers (8-12-3, 2-7-2-0) 4-4 and won in the NCHC shootout for the extra point in the conference standings on Saturday at Magness Arena. The game will be officially recorded as a tie in the NCAA records and will stand as a tie in the Battle for the Gold Pan.
 
Brett Stapley finished with two goals, one assist and the shootout winner, while Liam Finlay recorded three assists in a game where the Pioneers trailed 4-2 late in the second period, but battled to tie the game with a pair of third-period goals. Denver's unbeaten streak stands at eight games.
 
"It was a come-from-behind effort," Richard and Kitzia Goodman Head Coach David Carle said. "We continued to work and continued to stick with it. Going into the third period, we just told the guys, 'continue to work, continue to stay on your toes and you're going to get rewarded.'"
 
The Pioneers sprinted at the start of the game with a flurry of chances before scoring the first goal of the night at 5:48 when Tyler Ward took a shot from the left faceoff circle and Stapley stashed the rebound past Alex Leclerc. The Tigers quickly shifted the momentum with Trey Bradley's power-play goal at 8:43, then benefited from Les Lancaster's five-minute major and game misconduct for contact to the head shortly thereafter. Colorado College capitalized early on the man advantage with Westin Michaud finding Trevor Gooch on a low-to-high pass to make it 2-1 halfway through the first period.
 
Denver evened the score only 33 seconds in the second period as Stapley left a puck for Finlay, who slipped a cross-crease pass to Ward for the equalizer. Colorado College responded with Bradley's wraparound at 13:41, drawing a penalty on the same play. The Tigers' Christiano Versich deflected Chris Wilkie's shot from the left circle on the ensuing power play to make it 4-2 at the second intermission.
 
After firing a shot off the post in the second period, Jarid Lukosevicius got on the board for the Pioneers at 9:10 of the third with a re-direct on Emilio Pettersen's shot to make it 4-3. Stapley tied the game at 13:21 as he won a faceoff in the offensive zone, then crashed the net on Finlay's shot.
 
The teams traded chances in five-on-five and three-on-three overtime, but the stalemate held until Stapley scored in the sudden-death shootout and Filip Larsson denied Alex Berardinelli to seal the extra point. 
 
Larsson made 24 saves in net for the Pioneers. Denver finished 0/2 on the power play and 1/4 on the penalty kill. The Pioneers outshot the Tigers, 32-28.

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