THIS WEEK
No. 5 Western Michigan continues its three-week road trip, traveling up to Colorado College for a pair of games on Friday at 9:30 p.m. ET and Saturday at 8 p.m. ET. Both games will be streamed live on NCHC.tv and can be heard live on the Bronco Radio Network.
 
LAST WEEK
The Broncos kicked off their long road trip with a split at No. 7 Minnesota-Duluth. In the series opener, Western Michigan twice erased a two-goal deficit but a goal by UMD's Hunter Lellig broke the 4-4 tie to give the Bulldogs the win. Ethen Frank, Max Sasson, Drew Worrad and Jason Polin picked up the goals for WMU. Polin and Worrad each had assists for two-point nights, while junior defenseman Ronnie Attard had two assists.
 
The Broncos had to battle back again on Saturday night. A short-handed goal by Josh Passolt in the second period tied the game up at 1-1. A power play goal by Attard then tied it back up at 2-2 just 58 seconds into the third period. The game went to overtime, where Passolt netted his second of the night at 1:51 to get the Broncos the winner and the extra point in the standings.
 
THREE IN A ROW
Freshman forward Max Sasson became the third Bronco to earn a NCHC monthly award after he was named NCHC Co-Rookie of the Month for January. In four games in he racked up five points on two goals and three assists. WMU went 3-1-0 in the month with all three wins coming against Top-10 teams.  Sasson had the game-winning goal in the 2-0 win over No. 9/10 North Dakota and a pair of assists in the 4-1 win the night before. He also helped set up the game-winning goal in overtime against Minnesota-Duluth.
 
He joins Ethen Frank, the NCHC Player of the Month for November, and Brandon Bussi, the NCHC Goalie of the Month for December, as WMU's honorees.
 
JOSH PASSOLT VS. THE COLORADO COLLEGE TIGERS
Fifth-year senior Josh Passolt has made a habit of scoring against Colorado College. In 15 career games he has posted 17 points on four goals and 13 assists and has a plus/minus of +10. Passolt's most successful season against the Tigers came in 2018-19 when he racked up seven points on seven assists in five games. Two of his four career goals against CC have been game winners.
 
THE COLORADO COLLEGE TIGERS (7-14-3, 4-9-1 NCHC)
- THE SERIES: Western Michigan holds a 16-8-6 advantage in the all-time series and is 4-0-2 in the last six. WMU has not lost to the Tigers since the NCHC Quarterfinals season in 2019. The weekend series will be the first for the Broncos in CC's brand new Ed Robson Arena.
 
- SCOUTING THE TIGERS: Colorado College currently sits in seventh place in the NCHC standings and are 3-3 since the start of January with a sweep at Miami, two losses in a home-and-home to Denver and a home split last weekend against Omaha. The Tigers are 3-8-1 at Robson Arena this season.
 
Sophomore forward Logan Will has a team-high 14 points with five goals and nine assists with the Tigers averaging 2.38 goals per game. Sophomore forward Hunter McKown leads the squad with eight goals, while Tyler Coffey has seven. Freshman forward Stanley Cooley and sophomore forward Danny Weight are tied for the team lead with 10 assists. Senior Brian Yoon is the team's top scoring defenseman with nine points on a goal and eight assists.
 
The Tigers are allowing just 2.79 goals per game with junior Matt Vernon and sophomore Dominic Basse sharing the workload in net. Basse has seen the majority of the action with 18 starts, a 6-10-2 record, a .900 save percentage and a 2.77 goals against average. Vernon has appeared in nine games, making six starts with 1-4-1 record, a 2.15 goals against average and a .930 save percentage.
 
CC's power play sits at 18.2 percent (18-for-99). Jordan Biro and Matthew Gleason each have three power play goals to lead the team. The Tiger penalty kill sits at 78.1 percent (68-of-87).
 
ON THE HORIZON
The Broncos head back on the road next week, traveling to No. 7 St. Cloud State.