Hunter McKown’s hat trick leads Colorado College past Miami in overtime | CC Hockey

It was a game of ups and downs for the Tigers, a common theme this season.

Flashes of brilliance were sandwiched between miscues and missed opportunities on Friday at Ed Robson Arena.

But this time, when the mistakes happened, the Tigers answered, something coach Kris Mayotte has been waiting for all season.

“We played confident,” he said on KRDO radio. “We played to win the game.”

A Hunter McKown hat trick helped matters as well, and the sophomore secured an overtime victory for his team, 4-3 with 15 seconds left in the extra frame.

“He can score, man,” Mayotte said. “He has all the tools, and it’s been fun to watch his progression.

“The thing with Hunter is, he wants to be a player, he wants to keep pushing. He wants to improve.”

In the first period, CC was able to make the most of its ups.

With 16:04 left in the frame, the lights went out on the ice. Stanley Cooley’s shot attempt went just wide, but it was so close that the person controlling the lights thought the puck had gone in.

CC didn’t score, but it started a period that saw the Tigers dominate, with 16 shots on goal to Miami’s nine. And, despite failing to score on two power plays, the Tigers still skated into the first intermission with a 1-0 lead.

Almost 16 minutes after Cooley’s near miss, the lights went out for real, this time on a slick move by McKown. The sophomore spun around a Miami defender, skated to the net, and slid the puck past Ludvig Persson for the goal.

The Tigers also left opportunities on the ice, including a five-minute major that was assessed to Miami’s Red Savage. During the power play, Cooley had back-to-back attempts, corralling his own ricochet for another shot. Danny Weight also had a quality look, and Logan Will lined up a one-timer with three minutes left on the advantage. But despite the flurry of attempts, CC ended the power play without a goal.

It happened again in the second frame when Alec Capstick was whistled for contact to the head, and the Tigers got another five-minute power play.

Miami came out of the first intermission down 1-0 and left for the second up 2-1.

Both goals came on the power play, one from PJ Fletcher and one from Matt Barry. They both came on similar across-ice passes.

“I was a little disappointed with our second period,” Mayotte said. “I thought we played pretty good, if not as good as you can play, in the first period. I know we got two power plays, but I was fine with our power plays. We were 0-2 in the first period, but we generated shots. … Then in the second period we started to get loose.”

CC’s Brett Chorske answered with 3:01 gone by in the third period, to lock the teams at 2. Then, Fletcher scored again for Miami.

Down 3-2, CC once again needed to respond to Miami’s advance. It was McKown that came up with the game-tying goal on the power-play at 11:40 before ending the game in overtime with his third score of the game, and 13th on the season.

This was CC’s first overtime win of the season.

The Tigers have a chance to sweep Miami for the second time this season, as they wrap up the series on Saturday at 6 p.m.