Box Score - Text Box - Game Sheet

Jaden Schwartz picked up two assists for the Tigers

Picking up right where it left off last March, the Colorado College power play blasted off to a great start in Sunday's 2011-12 exhibition opener.

The Tigers converted three times with a man advantage in the first period, got solid work between the pipes from their two veteran goaltenders, and posted a 3-2 victory over feisty Canadian powerhouse McGill University at the World Arena.

A trio of forwards - sophomore Alexander Krushelnyski, junior Scott Winkler and senior team captain Nick Dineen - all found the back of the net before the game was 20 minutes old, putting CC?in command early. Senior defenseman Gabe Guentzel and sophomore left wing Jaden Schwartz each assisted on two of the tallies.

Junior Joe Howe and sophomore Josh Thorimbert split the netminding duties, with starter Howe turning aside 10 of 11 attempts by McGill and Thorimbert stopping nine of the 10 he faced.

The Tigers out-shot the visiting Redmen by a hefty 38-21 margin, but couldn't get anything past goalie freshman goalie Mark Segal after their initial uprising.

Dineen struck for what proved to be the game winner with 22 seconds left in the opening frame, tapping in a centering pass from Guentzel on a quick rush up the ice with Rylan Schwartz. Junior defenseman Mike Boivin started the play by clearing the puck out of the CC?crease after Howe slowed down a shorthanded attempt by McGill captain Evan Vossen.

Boivin earlier assisted on Krushelnyski's red lighter off a rebound just 3:33 into the game, and finished the night with nine shots on goal.

The Redmen, who reached Canada's collegiate national championship game last season, got tallies from senior defenseman Ben Morse in the first frame and freshman Nicolas Biniek late in the contest. Biniek's goal, which set up a tense ending, came at 17:26 of the third period with McGill on the power play after a rash of penalties to both teams at 16:01.

After going 0-for-4 on the power play in their regular-season finale at Wisconsin last spring, the Tigers cashed in at least once in all seven of their WCHA and NCAA playoff games while posting better than a 32-percent success ratio (11-for-34). They finished 3-for-7 in Sunday's victory.