The Colorado Evolution is winning with a distinct style, but it has nothing to do with peroxide blonde hairdos. Instead, it’s all about a lethal transition offense. No team is more aggressive with its forwards, floating them high, flying them early and connecting on long passes that deliver instant offense.

Colorado’s quick-strike approach was on full display Saturday as the Evolution survived a desperate push from Casey Severo (2G) and the previously unbeaten Buffalo Junior Sabres to advance at USA Hockey’s Youth Tier I 15-year-old National Championships with a 4-3 triumph.

Ignat Bialou was instrumental in the win, scoring the third Evolution goal and logging a heavy load of shut-down minutes in the defensive zone while his forwards poached between the blue lines. It’s a style that suits the 6-foot-3, Belarus-born defenseman, now in his second season stateside and increasingly comfortable flinging the stretch pass.

“We’ve been practicing this since the beginning of the season and now trust the forwards and know that they’re going to receive the puck,” he said. “And we’ve been practicing our passes, too, so now we feel comfortable about it.”

Evolution head coach Sergei Bautin describes it as a puck-possession style, but it’s certainly not predicated on retrieval. It’s more about lightning strikes, and there were several against Buffalo, often coming in connection with Ilya Usau, who scored the eventual game-winner and also earned a penalty shot for being dragged down on breakaway. What Colorado didn’t do was sustain offensive zone time. That was left to the Junior Sabres, who flung 36 shots on goal and played most of the third period in the attacking zone. Some of that was the result of consecutive Buffalo power plays, of which there were too many for Bautin’s taste.

“We won. This is big thing,” he said. “But I don’t like that we got lots of penalties.”

Fortunately for the Evolution, Buffalo wasn’t able to take advantage, though they did leave Colorado’s players gasping for breath at the final buzzer. Bautin, however, was unfazed.

“They’re fine,” he said. “They’ve got very good conditioning.”

That’ll be put to the test tomorrow in a quick-turnaround semifinal against the Pittsburgh Pens Elite at 12:15 p.m. local time. The other semifinal will match the Central Connecticut Selects against their neighbors from Yale at 12:45 p.m.