Colorado College hockey coach Kris Mayotte has maintained a belief in the way his Tigers have played, despite recent results. 

His faith was rewarded on Saturday as No. 20 CC held Arizona State scoreless in the third period and picked up its first conference win by a 3-1 margin at the Sun Devils’ Mullett Arena. 

The victory snaps a three-game winless streak for the Tigers, and CC (6-3-1, 1-2-1) earned four of the available six points toward National Collegiate Hockey Conference standings. 

Much like Friday, which saw the Tigers blow a three-goal lead in an eventual tie, CC entered the final period up a goal. Much like Friday, the Tigers maintained their advantage through a majority of the period and forced Arizona State to pull goalie Samuel Urban for an extra attacker. Again, like Friday, a goal was scored at 18:51 of the third frame. Unlike Friday, it wasn’t the Sun Devils who scored an equalizer but rather CC sophomore right wing Gavin Lindberg who scored an empty-netter on the wraparound.  The insurance tally was Lindberg’s second of the weekend and fourth of the season. 

“I love how we found a way in the end,” Mayotte told team personnel after the game. “It wasn’t our prettiest. Last night I liked our third period more in terms of how we controlled the game. I thought tonight they controlled the third period, but we found a way to get it done which is something that we’ve been waiting for this team to do.” 

As the Tigers earned the result they deserved collectively, so did rookie left wing Tomas Mrsic on an individual level. Mrsic, who scored 90 points for the Western Hockey League’s Prince Albert Raiders a season ago, was held without a point through CC’s first four games of the season. After a line change, he’s come alive in the Tigers’ past three weekends, earning two assists at Northern Michigan on Oct. 18, scoring his first career goal at home against Omaha on Nov. 1, and opening the scoring for CC on Saturday with a power-play goal at 6:21 of the second period. 

Mrsic’s goal was CC’s second on the man advantage this weekend as Lindberg netted a power-play goal on Friday. The scores are a nice bounce back for the Tigers after they went 0-6 on the power play in last weekend’s series against Omaha. 

Just over a minute after Mrsic’s tally, sophomore defenseman Fisher Scott scored his first goal of the season with a shot from the point at 7:34.

“Loved our second period. We’ve struggled in that period this year and that was by far the best one that we’ve had,” Mayotte said. 

Sun Devils’ freshman forward Jack Beck put his team in position for another come-from-behind result on Saturday by cutting the hosts’ deficit to a single goal late in the second period. He beat Tigers senior goalie Kaidan Mbereko stick side with a wrist shot from the right circle with just 25 seconds remaining in the middle frame.  

Mbereko finished with a season-high 35 saves on Saturday as Arizona State outshot CC by a 36-35 margin. 

The Tigers battle for the Gold Pan next weekend, facing rival Denver in a home-and-home series.