Colorado College battled gallantly on the road Friday night, but in the end fell victim to the Connolly collection.

    Mike Connolly's goal, set up by fellow sophomore Jack Connolly at 6:42 of overtime, lifted the University of Minnesota Duluth to a 3-2 sudden-death triumph over CC in Game 1 of their best-of-three first-round playoff series at the DECC.

    Duluth, the defending Broadmoor Cup champion, can eliminate the Tigers and advance to next week's WCHA Final Five with another victory in Game 2 on Saturday. Game 3, if necessary, will be played on Sunday. 

    Friday's defeat spoiled a solid performance between the pipes for freshman Joe Howe, who despite an abbreviated week of practice, turned aside 32 UMD shots, including six big stops in overtime before disaster struck. It also ruined a two-goal night by sophomore center Nick Dineen, who has doubled his season production in the last three games.

    Colorado College, out-shot by a 35-21 margin in the contest, dropped to 18-16-3 overall after losing for the sixth time in its last seven outings.      
       
    The Bulldogs drew first blood at 8:48 of the opening frame when Rob Bordson skated in from the right side and beat Howe high on the glove side after winning a battle for the puck along the boards.

    But CC pulled even just 62 seconds later as Dineen took a pass from freshman defenseman Doug Leaverton, got behind the Minnesota Duluth defense and backhanded a shot past goaltender Kenny Reiter at the 9:50 mark.

    Held to five attempts on goal in that first period, the Tigers turned up the heat with some sustained pressure to start the second. It paid off at 6:04 when Dineen converted a pretty feed from freshman right wing Scott Winkler, who won a battle for control behind the UMD cage. The assist was the first point of Winkler's collegiate career. 

    Bordson tied it up during a Bulldogs power play midway through the middle stanza, firing a shot through traffic that eluded a screened Howe. That's the way it remained until the unrelated Connollys, who finished tied for third among WCHA scoring leaders and have been a thorn in CC's side throughout the course of this season and last, took matters into their own hands.    

    The game was the sixth in 11 all-time playoff encounters between the teams that required overtime.