The No. 12 Omaha Mavericks prevail in a must-win game tonight defeating the No. 10 Colorado College Tigers 3-1.
The Mavericks took advantage of a poor CC after-the-whistle decision when
Tanner Ludtke fired home his 11
th lamp lighter of the campaign just 3:13 into the contest. His brother Griffin tallied the primary helper while
Matt Miller had the secondary.
4:04 later, the Tigers tied it with a wraparound goal that just barely trickled over the goal line. Omaha responded at 16:46 of the first period when
Jimmy Glynn buried a turn-and-fire backhand shot in the slot that beat Kaiden Mbereko five-hole.
After a scoreless middle frame and being outshot 32-10 through 40 minutes of hockey, the Mavericks battened down the hatches in the final 20 minutes of regulation. With 12:23 left,
Brock Bremer roofed Omaha's insurance goal on the power play.
Tanner Ludtke did a good job of holding the zone with a pretty between the legs pass to himself just before feeding Bremer in the slot.
For the remainder of regulation, Omaha did a great job of getting pucks north and keeping shots to the perimeter. In the final 20 minutes, the Mavericks outshot CC, 11-8.
Omaha and Colorado College faceoff in the final game of the quarterfinal round tomorrow night at 7:07 p.m. CT from Ed Robson Arena.
NOTES
After a career high 46-save performance last night, Omaha netminder
Simon Latkoczy was lock down once again saving 39 of the 40 shots he faced.
Special teams shined tonight as Omaha's power play went 2-2 while the penalty kill was a perfect 3-3.
The Mavericks improve to 11-3-0 when leading after one period of hockey and 14-2-1 when leading after 40.
Omaha is now 13-3-1 when scoring a power play goal this season and 12-4-4 when not giving one up on the PK.
When scoring first, the Mavericks are now 17-8 on the campaign.
Tanner Ludtke registered his team-leading seventh multi-point game of the season while Bremer notched his fourth.
The brotherly duo of Tanner and
Griffin Ludtke have combined for 51 points on the season (15 goals, 36 assists).