Saturday night was about themes. 

Themes of a season and themes of a weekend. 

For the 13th time this season, Colorado College hockey took its opponent to overtime, but after a questionable penalty, host No. 4 Western Michigan put away the game and the series with a 2-1 win over the Tigers on Saturday night. 

Broncos left wing Liam Valente scored 17 seconds into the power play at 3:26 of overtime to complete the weekend sweep and oust the No. 6 seed Tigers from the National Collegiate Hockey Conference tournament, bringing CC’s season to a close. 

A controversial call led to critical power play for No. 3 seed Western Michigan on Friday and that was again the case on Saturday. After the two teams battled to a 1-1 finish at the end of regulation, the Tigers and Broncos moved on to a 20-minute, 5-on-5 overtime. There was a stoppage to review a moment involving Tigers freshman right wing Mateo Mrsic. Nothing was called on the ice, but after a lengthy review, Mrsic was issued a five-minute major and game misconduct for slew-footing.  

Like many times this season, CC played a close, tight game but couldn’t earn the winning goal in the extra period. Despite his team finishing with a 13-17-6 record this season, Tigers coach Kris Mayotte was proud of the effort and fight his team showed throughout the campaign. 

“We had belief in these guys, no matter what else was going on, didn’t matter how we were playing,” he said in a postgame radio interview. “We did everything this year except get hot and really get on a run and really get on a heater.” 

Saturday’s result also marked the end of the collegiate career of Tigers senior netminder and captain Kaidan Mbereko, who was unable to compete due to an injury suffered on Friday.

In the opening game of the NCHC quarterfinal series, Mbereko made program history, becoming the Tigers’ all-time leader in games played by a goalie with his 128th appearance. 

Mayotte said after the contest, Mbereko wasn’t just a starting goalie but a No. 1 goalie who led the program. 

Where one career ended, another career grew as freshman Jackson Unger got his first postseason start in place of Mbereko. He made 32 saves on Saturday and kept the defending conference and national champions off the scoreboard until the third period. 

“He was great, but we’re not surprised. He’s been great for us all year,” Mayotte told team personnel after the game. “It doesn’t matter the situation that he’s in, plays Denver at home, plays Providence at home, on the road at St. Cloud, on the road at Duluth, on the road at Western Michigan, and he’s just the same goalie. He’s so impressive, he’s so calm and obviously really talented.”

For a majority of the time prior to Western Michigan’s goal, CC enjoyed a 1-0 lead. 

After Friday’s game, Mayotte noted that junior Klavs Veinbergs missed on three great chances. The Latvian center made the most of an early opportunity on Saturday, scoring CC’s first shorthanded goal of the season to give the Tigers the lead. 

Thirty-seven seconds into the penalty kill, CC sophomore right wing Gavin Lindberg stole the puck at the point, setting up a 2-on-1 situation with Veinbergs. Lindberg slid the puck over to Veinbergs, who fired it in from the right circle at the 9:17 mark of the first period. 

Unger and the Tigers maintained the advantage until Western Michigan earned the equalizer midway through the third period. 

Unger saved a shot from Broncos’ top-line center Owen Michaels, but the effort moved him out of position. Michaels scored on the second chance moments later at the 11:39 mark. 

CC and Western Michigan were even in shots at 34 apiece. 

“Jackson Unger was fantastic for us and we just had a lot of guys do a lot of really good things in moments that are big and challenging,” Mayotte said. “There wasn’t a guy on our bench that I didn’t think was out there bringing something to the table for us.”