Toronto Maple Leafs right winger Joey Crabb (46) makes a shot through his legs against Dallas Stars goalie Kari Lehtonen (32) during the first period of an NHL hockey game, Friday, Nov. 25, 2011, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Mike Fuentes)

Former Tiger Colin Stuart credited good home cooking to a Rochester win.

Mark Cullen recorded two assists.

Brett Sterling is scoreless in two games for the Blues, who play at Columbus tonight. With all the injuries, he should have a chance to play tonight.

Compiled from web sites …

Miami 4, No. 10 Denver 2

DENVER — Junior forward Chris Knowlton and freshman forward Ty Loney each scored a goal but Denver would fall to Miami, 4-2, on Saturday night in the final game of the Denver Cup Classic at Magness Arena.

No. 20 Michigan State 4, No. 3 Minnesota 4

EAST LANSING — Sophomore forward Zach Budish registered a goal and an assist as the Minnesota Golden Gophers skated to a 4-4 tie with Michigan State Spartans at Munn Ice Arena on Saturday night.

No. 18 Michigan Tech 3, St. Lawrence 1

Ryan Furne, Milos Gordic and Tanner Kero each picked up a goal in the second period to help lift the Michigan Tech Huskies to a 3-1 win against the St. Lawrence Saints on Saturday afternoon at Appleton Arena.

Wisconsin 5, Mercyhurst 2

MADISON — Junior defenseman Justin Schultz scored a goal and added two assists to help Wisconsin sweep its weekend series against Mercyhurst with a 5-2 win on Saturday night at Kohl Center.

No. 19 Nebraska-Omaha 4, St. Cloud State 3

OMAHA — Junior forward Terry Broadhurst had two goals – including the game-winner at 17:42 of the third period – and added an assist to propel Nebraska Omaha to a 4-3 win against St. Cloud State on Saturday at CenturyLink Center.

McDermott held out

Colorado College sophomore defenseman Eamonn McDermott, who left Friday’s game with an unspecified lower body injury during the second period, was held out of Saturday’s game at North Dakota and remains day to day according to CC trainer Jason Bushie.

“This isn’t a significant long-term injury,” Bushie said.

After the game, McDermott said he was feeling better.

CC playing too loose in road losses

In all three road losses, the Tigers showed off their quick-strike offensive ability, but often at their own expense on defense.

Against Nebraska-Omaha, CC scored three goals in two minutes and two in two minutes against Denver. On Friday, the Tigers scored two goals in 16 seconds to tie the game at 5-5 midway through the second period of the 7-6 defeat.

That kind of explosiveness is a big reason CC leads Division I with 4.5 goals a game.

“We’re a good offensive team. That doesn’t surprise you or me,” Tigers coach Scott Owens said Saturday. “The problem is on the other end. We need to do a better job getting on the same page defensively.”

CC’s defensive breakdowns led to three of the Sioux’s four goals in a 4-3 North Dakota win Saturday

Owens said the Tigers also ran into teams hungry to bounce back from losses.

UND junior Danny Kristo, who recorded two goals and assist Friday, pointed to that as motivation.

“CC is a very strong team; very good offensively so we knew we had to be hitting on all eight cylinders,” he said.

Etc.

The 7-6 loss to North Dakota was the highest-scoring game involving Colorado College since an 8-5 home win over Michigan Tech on Oct. 24, 2009. … It was the highest scoring game between the teams since a 9-5 CC win on Nov. 24, 1995. … Rylan Schwartz’s hat tricks were scored before an estimated 35 family and friends from Saskatchewan. … Jaden Schwartz now has a career-best 17-game points streak with 31 points (22 assists) during that span. He has 64 points (42 assists) in 40 games. … Thanks to CC sports information director Dave Moross for picking up the phone Saturday night and doing his best to answer my questions about hat trick records. Hopefully we can figure things out more definitely early next week. …  According to the Grand Forks Herald, all the area motels were full Friday night because of two youth hockey tournaments and Canadian shoppers (Winnipeg is less than two hours’ drive) taking advantage of Black Friday sales.

GRAND FORKS, N.D. — A possible record-setting night for Colorado College’s Rylan Schwartz went for naught as North Dakota held on for a 4-3 win Saturday night to sweep the visiting fourth-ranked Tigers.

“He’s a special player,” CC senior David Civitarese said of Schwartz, who recorded his second hat trick in as many games. “It would have been nice to reward him with a couple wins this weekend.”

CC sports information director Dave Moross said Schwartz’s three hat tricks in one season is the most in his 26 years at the college and two in a row may be the most since the 1957 national championship season, when Bob McCusker recorded seven. No records were available to confirm the mark on Saturday night.

It’s a likely personal record regardless.

“I don’t think I’ve done that since I was 5 or 6, maybe never,” Schwartz said. “It felt like every one of my shots had a chance. My linemates worked hard to find me.”

But ultimately, the real record to be concerned about is 7-4, 5-4 Western Collegiate Hockey Association, the Tigers’ mark after losing twice at Ralph Engelstad Arena this weekend.

“We played a pretty good game,” Tigers coach Scott Owens said. “We needed to get these points.”

CC had its chance. With goalie Joe Howe pulled, CC was unable to bang in a rebound in front with 32 seconds left against North Dakota (6-7-1, 4-6).

“In the final minute, (goalie Aaron) Dell made a huge save for us,” Sioux coach Dave Hakstol said. “The guys competed all the way through.”

North Dakota took a 4-2 lead when Danny Kristo scored a shorthanded goal after a CC turnover with 13:51 left in the third. It was the third score off a Tigers turnover recorded by the Sioux junior this weekend.

The shorthander hurt but it wouldn’t have mattered if not for goals scored by North Dakota’s Corban Knight with 34.2 seconds left in the first period and by Derek Rodwell  with 17.5 remaining in the second to keep the 11,236 fans excited in Grand Forks.

“Those kinds of goals will kill you on the road,” Owens said.

Before Knight’s go-ahead goal, Howe made a number of big-time saves to keep the game tied at 2-2. He made three in 21 seconds during a UND power play late in the second.

Howe’s performance was aided by a better team defensive performance after Friday’s 7-6 shootout loss.

“We played better defensively but we have a lot of work to do,” Civitarese said.

—

Contact Joe Paisley: 636-0260

Twitter @csgazettehockey

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North Dakota 4, No. 4 Colorado College3

Colorado College         2          0          1          –3

North Dakota   2          1          1          — 4

First period – 1. Colorado College, R. Schwartz (Rapuzzi, J. Schwartz) :40; 2. North Dakota, Nelson (Knight, Simpson) 5:07 (PP); 3. Colorado College, R. Schwartz (Winkler, Dineen) 15:36 (Pp); 4, North Dakota, Rodwell (Blood, Rowney) 19:42.

Penalties – CC, Harstad, roughing, 5:02; CC, Eveland, cross checking, 6:54; CC. J. Schwartz, cross checking, 13:12; CC, Stoykewych, roughing, 13:12; UND, Blood, slashing, 13:12; UND, Forbort, roughing, 13:12; UND, Simpson, delay of game, 14:28.

Second period – 5. North Dakota, Knight (Nelson, Kristo) 19:25. Penalties – UND, Parks, holding, 6:58; CC, Winkler, tripping, 14:02; CC, J. Schwartz, hooking, 16:33.

Third period – 6. North Dakota, Kristo (Nelson, Blood) 6:09 (SH); 7. Colorado College, R. Schwartz (J. Schwartz, Boivin) 13:25. Penalties – UND, Lamoureux, hooking, :47; UND, Blood, boarding, 1:38; UND, Lamoureux, hooking, 5:30; CC, Winkler, roughing, 6:09; CC, Civitarese, holding, 10:32.

Power play – Colorado College 1-5, North Dakota 1-6. Shots on goal — Colorado College 6-12-11 –29; North Dakota 11-14-4 – 29. Saves-minutes – CC, Howe 9-13-3 – 58:45; UND, Dell 4-12-10 – 60:00. Attendance – 11,236.

Corban Knight knocked in a crossing pass from Brock Nelson to give North Dakota a 3-2 lead with 34.3 seconds left in the second period.

CC goalie Joe Howe made a number of big-time saves to keep the game tied at 2-2 for the first 19 minutes of the period. He made three in 21 seconds during a North Dakota power play late in the second.

Rylan Schwartz recorded his seventh goal in the last seven periods against North Dakota when he redirected a power-play attempt by Scott Winkler to make it 2-1 Tigers with 4:24 left in the first period.

North Dakota’s Derek Rodwell redirected a slap Ben Blood with 17.5 seconds left to tie the game at 22 headed into the first intermission.

Rylan Schwartz scored only 40 seconds into the game when he reached back to haul in a Rapuzzi pass and snapped off a shot that beat North Dakota goalie Aaron Dell stick side to make it 1-0.

But defensive breakdowns continued to plague CC as it did in Friday’s 7-6 loss. Brock Nelson popped free in front of the CC net when the Tigers failed to clear the puck out of their zone. He scored only five seconds into the UND power play to make it 1-1.

Sophomore defenseman Eamonn McDermott, who left Friday’s game with an unspecified lower body injury during the second period, was held out of Saturday’s game at North Dakota.

CC trainer Jason Bushie said McDermott remains day to day.

“This isn’t a significant long-term injury,” Bushie said.

CC will play three freshmen defensemen for the the “first time in a long time,” Tigers coach Scott Owens said.

Colorado College

LW-C-RW

J. Schwartz/R. Schwartz/Rapuzzi

Krushelnyski/Dineen/Winkler

Eveland/Civitarese/Collett

Skalbeck/Hall/Hamburg

LD-RD

Guentzel/Marciano

Young/Stoykewych

Harstad/Boivin

Goalies –  Howe, Thorimbert

North Dakota

LW-C-RW

Nelson/Knight/Kristo

Rodwell/Lamouruex/Rowney

O’Donnell/MacMillan/Parks

Pattyn/Gaarder/Gleason

LD-RD

Forbort/Blood

MacWilliam/Mattson

Simpson/Panzarella

Goalies – Dell, Eidsness, Maris

Compiled from school web sites …

No. 10 Denver 3, Princeton 0

DENVER — Freshman goaltender Juho Olkinuora turned aside 38 shots to earn his first collegiate shutout as the Denver Pioneers skated to a 3-0 win against the Princeton Tigers on the opening day of the Denver Cup Classic on Friday.

No. 20 Michigan State 4, No. 3 Minnesota 3

EAST LANSING, Mich. — For the second consecutive Friday, the third-ranked Minnesota men’s hockey team made a furious rally in an attempt to erase a late-game deficit but came up short, this time falling 4-3 to No. 20 Michigan State at Munn Ice Arena in East Lansing, Mich.

St. Lawrence 3, No. 18 Michigan Tech 2

The Michigan Tech Huskies would scored two goals in the third period but came up just short in a comeback effort in a 3-2 loss to the St. Lawrence Saints on Friday night at Appleton Arena.

Alaska-Anchorage 5, MSU-Mankato 4

MANKATO, Minn. — Freshman forward Scott Allen scored his fist collegiate goal at 14:25 of the third period to lift Alaska Anchorage to a 5-4 win against Minnesota State on Friday night at Verizon Wireless Center.

Wisconsin 7, Mercyhurst 2

MADISON — Sophomore forward Mark Zengerle scored a goal and added four assists and six other Badgers recorded multiple-point efforts as Wisconsin skated to a 7-2 win against Mercyhurst on Friday night at Kohl Center.

GRAND FORKS, N.D. — Both team’s defensemen and goalies will want to burn the tapes of Friday night’s 7-6 win for North Dakota over No. 4 Colorado College.

Both teams struggled mightily on defense. The Sioux took advantage of a third-period power play to score the only goal of the final 27 minutes of what had been a wild Western Collegiate Hockey Association contest before 11,375 excited fans at Ralph Engelstad Arena.

“I’m disappointed with how our defensemen responded to their pressure,” Tigers coach Scott Owens said. “We certainly can play that kind of game but it was a little too wide open.”

North Dakota’s Danny Kristo took advantage of the opportunities he created when he scored his second goal by pouncing on a turnover in the Tigers zone to score and tied the game at 6-6 with 6:49 left in the second. His first goal came off a turnover only 36 seconds into the first period.

“Their one forechecker did a lot of damage,” Rylan Schwartz said. “We were holding the puck too long.”

Losing sophomore defenseman Eamonn McDermott to an unspecified lower body injury in the second period hurt an already struggling CC defense. It was unknown if McDermott will be available to play Saturday.

“Losing one of your top four put a lot of pressure on the five remaining defensemen,” Owens said. “We had to plays to play the young guys more than we wanted.”

CC’s Rylan Schwartz recorded a hat trick to give the Tigers a 6-5 lead with 9:06 left in the second, ending UND starter Aaron Dell’s night.

That capped a three-goal spurt, the first two scored only 16 seconds apart, that wiped out a 5-3 Sioux lead that ended CC goalie Josh Thorimbert’s night.

‘In both ends, the forwards were the first to the puck,” Schwartz said. “It’s something we need to work on and be better (Saturday).”

Colorado College was lucky to be in the game after the first 10 minutes, but CC junior Scott Winkler scored with 2:29 left in the first period to make it 3-2 headed into the first intermission.

CC’s Gabe Guentzel scored only 29 seconds into the second period to tie it at 3-3 and the wild middle period was off and running. The teams scored three more goals apiece in the next 13 minutes to set the stage for the decisive third.

“Going into the third we felt we had a good chance to win it,” CC senior Nick Dineen said. “But we didn’t respond that well. They got the power play and took advantage.”