The prospect of winning playoff games on the road might be daunting for any sports team, but don’t expect a timid Tigers hockey team to walk into Lawson Ice Arena in Kalamazoo, Mich. 

Colorado College hockey finished the regular season in sixth place in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference. As a result, the Tigers will travel to third seed, and No. 4 in the nation, Western Michigan this weekend. Puck drop is at 5 p.m. Friday, 4 p.m. Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday if a Game 3 is needed. 

CC and Western Michigan just battled at Ed Robson Arena two weekends ago, where the Tigers only scored once across both games of the series. But they also held an offensively potent Broncos team in check. Western Michigan came in averaging 3.9 goals per game and scored just three goals against CC all weekend.  

“It seems like we play tight games with them all the time. I think six out of our last eight games against them have gone to overtime,” Tigers coach Kris Mayotte said. “Certainly things we can learn from that weekend, things that we did well, things that we need to improve. But I think our defensive play in general, probably stemming from that Saturday game against St. Cloud, has been pretty good. And I think it’s becoming a strength of ours at the right time of year.” 

Senior goaltender Kaidan Mbereko has been crucial to that success. He’s allowed just four goals in his last four appearances, propelling the Tigers to a 2-1-1 record in that span. If he plays for CC this weekend, he’ll become the Tigers’ all-time leader in appearances with at least 128.

Another key cog in the Tigers’ defense of late has been the team’s penalty kill, which hasn’t allowed a score in 15 of its last 16 outings. 

But for as good as the Tigers have been on defense, the offense remains inconsistent. CC earned a big top-10 win over Minnesota Duluth in the regular-season finale last week, but remained ineffective on the power play. The Tigers have not scored in their last 14 man-advantage situations. 

This weekend presents a prime opportunity for CC to turn that stat around, as the Broncos went to the penalty box 10 times in the last series. 

Mayotte admits his team didn’t score enough goals to win against Western two weeks ago, but he was pleased with the way the Tigers generated offense. After tying Western Michigan in the first game, the Broncos went on to win the second by a 2-0 margin. That game could have gone differently though, were it not for key moment in the second period. 

After Western Michigan jumped out to a lead, CC freshman defenseman Mats Lindgren scored at the end of the second period to tie it. However, his goal was waved off due to a penalty. 

While the Tigers certainly won’t make excuses for the result, Lindgren’s near goal does highlight a theme this season. CC has been in close battles with most of its opponents. The Tigers led the conference in ties with six and have been in an NCHC-high 11 overtime games. Most of those contests ended with an extra point for CC’s opponent. 

Playoffs often come down to defense and winning close games. CC has played in those intense moments all season long, Mayotte said. 

“This team is so well-tested. They’ve done it with a lot of adversity. It hasn’t been easy,” he said. “Going into the last weekend we’re 12-15. If the weekend doesn’t go your way, there’s a chance your season’s done, and we played really good hockey against a really good team on the road. We’ve been in a lot of tight games. … We’ve been in a lot of close, tight hockey. Our team handles those situations really well. So we’re going to expect the same thing this weekend.”

The one key difference is that this weekend, in the playoffs, there are no more 3-on-3 overtime periods, no more shootouts and no more ties. 

“I think what this team has shown is 5-on-5, we’re a really good hockey team. And so 3-on-3 hasn’t really gone our way this year. Shootouts certainly haven’t gone our way this year. We won’t have to worry about those moving forward,” Mayotte said.