COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO (CC Athletics) — Third-ranked Denver scored three times in the third period and rallied to beat Colorado College, 4-2, Saturday night on Senior Night at Robson Arena.

The Tigers led 2-1 after the second period thanks to goals from Matthew Gleason and Hunter McKown, but the Pioneers scored twice in a span of 52 seconds midway through the final period, then added an empty net goal.

Gleason opened the scoring on the power play with 1:31 remaining in the first period. Ethan Straky had his shot saved by DU goalie Matt Davis, but Gleason was there to clean up the rebound for his third goal of the season.

The Pioneers evened things up at 11:44 of the second when Shai Buium scored a power-play goal of his own. Buium took a cross-ice pass from Casey Dornbach and fired a shot past CC goalie Matt Vernon from the right circle.

McKown, the Tigers’ leading scorer, made it 2-1 at the 15:15 mark of the middle frame with a blast from the point while a delayed penalty was being called against Denver. McKown’s 19 goals are the most in one season by a Tiger since Chris Wilkie had 23 in 2019-20.

Tristan Lemyre scored at the 12:04 mark of the third period to tie the game at 2-2. Kyle Mayhew’s shot from the right circle was saved by Vernon, but Lemyre scored on the rebound while crashing the net.

Just 52 seconds later, Aidan Thompson put the Pioneers ahead after taking a pass from behind the net by Carter Mazur. Massimo Rizzo closed out the scoring with an empty-netter with 39 seconds remaining.

Denver outshot the Tigers, 33-27, and Vernon finished with 29 saves. Davis collected 25 saves for the Pioneers. Each team connected once on the power play.

CC’s six seniors, Patrick Cozzi, Connor Mayer, Noah Prokop, Chad Sasaki, Matt Vernon and graduate student Bryan Yoon, were honored in a post-game ceremony following their final appearance at Ed Robson Arena.

The Tigers finish seventh in the NCHC standings with a 10-21-3 overall record and 6-15-3 mark in league play. They will travel to No. 2 Western Michigan next weekend for the first round of the NCHC playoffs, which begin on Friday, March 10.