A quarter century has passed since Michigan Tech's “Miracle on Ice” moment.

While not as colossal an upset as the United States stunning the powerful and seemingly unbeatable Soviet Union at the 1980 Olympics, what the Huskies pulled off in the opening-round of the 1994 WCHA playoffs shook the college hockey world.

It was March 13 when the third and deciding game of last-place Michigan Tech’s series against first-place Colorado College went into overtime deadlocked at 2-2 in the Tigers’ final game at the old Broadmoor World Arena in Colorado Springs.

“I think everybody on both sides was feeling tired, us even more so because we had been outshot by so much in that game (54-20), but we were feeling good going into overtime knowing we were just one shot away,” then-sophomore Michigan Tech center Pat Mikesch recalled last week. “As big underdogs, we were feeling loose with nothing to lose and then, like a lot of us talked about a couple of years ago, it came down to executing a faceoff play we ran all the time.”

Just over five minutes into the extra session, Mikesch entered the faceoff circle to the left of Colorado College’s goal after the Tigers were called for icing. His weary teammate, Brent Peterson, positioned himself on the ice.

Mikesch cleanly won the draw and zipped a perfect pass to Peterson's stick. The junior winger then unleashed a 50-foot slap shot past Tigers’ goaltender Judd Lambert and into the upper right corner of the net. 

With that, the Huskies became the only last-place team to eliminate a first-place team in the first round of the WCHA's postseason tournament, which began in 1960. The top and lowest seeded teams began playing opening-round, three-game series against one another in 1985.

Tech took a modest 10-24-5 record into the series to the Tigers’ 22-9-5 mark. 

“I just wanted to win the faceoff and get the puck to Brent behind me with a quick release,” said Miksech, now head coach and general manager of the United States Hockey League’s Green Bay Gamblers. “I got a clean win and sent the puck right to Brent. It seemed like he didn’t wait long, maybe a half-second, before he shot.”

For Peterson, however, time stood still on the play.

“It seemed like I had a lot of time to shoot once Pat got the puck back to me,” he said. “I got a good, clean shot away to the upper corner of net. I figured that would be the best place to shoot because of where their goaltender liked to be.”

The Huskies’ bench erupted in euphoria and head coach Bob Mancini, his assistants and players poured onto the ice in celebration. Although the celebration was more subdued for some. 

“It was such an amazing feeling knowing what we had just done, but a lot of us then realized how exhausted we really were,” said Mikesch, Tech’s top scorer that year. “I remember my brother Jeff [a freshman center] and Travis Seale dancing around the ice, but I was like ‘I’m just glad it’s over.’”

Peterson, now a financial advisor in Hancock, Michigan, whose office is not far from Tech’s campus, felt the same way.

“It was incredible to believe in ourselves and actually pull off the upset, but I don’t remember that night having a lot of celebrating because so many of us were exhausted,” he said. “Those of us on the top two lines really played a lot of minutes and were kind of gassed.”

Among those sitting in disbelief on the Colorado College bench was sophomore forward Chad Remackel.

“We felt going into overtime if we just kept shooting the puck, eventually one was going in, but their goalie [All-American Jamie Ram] would not allow it,” he recalled. “I remember watching the winning goal go in and putting my head down, frustrated and upset we had just lost. Those of us on that team always talk about how crazy that series was whenever we get together.”

Ram’s performance was crazy. 

Playing in his final games with the Huskies before signing with the New York Rangers organization, Ram stopped 136 of the 143 shots he faced in the series, including 52 of 54 in the final game. 

“That’s why we didn’t want to play them,” first-year Colorado College coach Don Lucia told the Colorado Springs Gazette following the game. “We shot and shot and shot, but [Ram] was just like a wall.”

Ram turned aside four shots in overtime before Peterson scored.

“Jamie was easily the biggest reason we won that series,” said Peterson, the Huskies’ top goal-scorer that season. “He was probably playing better than any goalie in the country at the time. The defense played very well in front of him, too. Overall, we just believed in ourselves and the guys dug deep.”

Still, the Huskies required a rally to force overtime. 

Peterson opened the scoring with a 45-foot slap shot in the second period before the Tigers seized a 2-1 advantage on goals from Jay McNeill and Colin Schmidt. Martin Machacek then drew Tech even with 7:09 remaining by flipping a soft rebound past Lambert.

A speech from then-Tech football coach Bernie Anderson, whom Mancini had invited to bench late in the season, helped prep the Huskies for overtime.

“Bernie is a very inspirational type of guy who could fire us up,” Peterson said. “It was a good move by Coach Mancini to put him on the bench. He helped fill us with confidence going into overtime.”

The Huskies were confident going into the series despite a 3-12-1 record in their previous 16 games. They were 0-2-2 against Colorado College during the regular season.

“We felt that even though we hadn’t beaten them, we had played well enough and did not believe this was a No. 1 seed against a No. 10 seed matchup,” Mikesch said. “It was much closer. The coaching staff did a great job preparing us and even had oxygen tanks ready on the bench for the altitude [6,000 feet]. There was no pressure on us, either, just them.”

Amazingly, Tech had not beaten a WCHA team on the road all season. That changed when the Huskies opened the series with a 3-2 win.

“That was an interesting year because we just could not win on the road, which is why we wound up where we did in the standings,” said Peterson, who today does color commentary on radio broadcasts of Tech games. “That can become a real mental block, but we never stopped believing in ourselves and that belief was justified when we won that first game. Then, we just needed to win one of the next two.”

Peterson also opened the scoring in game one, during which the Huskies never trailed. Mikesch and Eric Jensen also scored as Ram stopped 45 of 47 shots.  

“Ram was frustrating because, usually, when you get that many shots on goal, you expect to win, but that didn’t happen,” said Remackel, who now owns an outdoor services company in Maplewood, Minnesota. “But, as I always tell the kids I’m coaching now, so much comes down to defense and goaltending. Ram got hot at the right time.”

However, it was Lambert who pitched a shutout in game two (3-0) after Lucia opted to start him in place of game one starter and future All-American Ryan Bach. Lucia stuck with Lambert for game three. 

Despite having to open the WCHA Final Five against Northern Michigan in Milwaukee four days later after the series ended, the Huskies responded with 5-1 win to reach semifinals before their improbable run ended with a 6-1 loss to Minnesota and an 8-3 loss to Wisconsin in the third-place game.

“I remember some hectic travel getting back to Michigan from Colorado Springs Sunday night and then, boom, we are on a bus heading to Milwaukee Wednesday morning,” Mikesch said. “We came through with a big win over Northern and were excited about being one win from the championship game, but we started running out of gas.”

After recovering from one shocker, Colorado College endured another when the Tigers found out they would not be going to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1978. 

The program’s plight led to the adoption of what became known as the “Colorado College Rule” which mandated two automatic NCAA Tournament bids for each conference. The rule was later rescinded as the number of Division I conferences grew.

“All of us thought we were getting [an at-large] bid and a chance to finish the season on a positive note,” Remackel said. “Not getting one was way more difficult and frustrating than losing to Tech. I felt terrible for our seniors, but it provided huge, huge motivation for us for the next year and beyond. We won a lot my last two years and met most of our goals.”

Colorado College won the next two regular-season WCHA titles and began a streak of five straight NCAA Tournament appearances in 1995. The Tigers reached the national championship game in 1996 before falling to Michigan.

Peterson and Mikesch became teammates again playing professional hockey in Germany and remain close friends. Both also keep in touch with several other former teammates, including Ram, who now lives in Scottsdale, Arizona. Mikesch, Peterson and Ram have also crossed paths with Colorado College players since that historic series. Peterson and Bach were teammates with the American Hockey League’s Adirondack Red Wings, while Ram and Tigers’ All-American defenseman Shawn Reid were teammates with the AHL’s Binghamton Rangers.

“It was always kind of fun to talk about our college days with Ryan when we did bring it up,” said Peterson, whose pro career included 56 games with the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Mikesch and two-time WCHA Defensive Player of the Year Eric Rud were teammates before college with the USHL’s Des Moines Buccaneers and during their pro careers with the East Coast Hockey League’s Florida Everblades before spending one season together as members of the Gamblers coaching staff.

Rud is now head women’s hockey coach at St. Cloud State.

“Eric and I became pretty good friends over the years and our families get together at least once a year,” Mikesch said. “We honestly have not talked much about that series, except maybe a couple of times when our wives have brought it up just for fun.”

Mark Spezia is a freelance writer based in Lapeer, Michigan, whose work has been featured in the Detroit Free Press, Hour Detroit Magazine, ESPNW.com, and Flint, Michigan-based My City Magazine.