Photo by: Jacob Rokeach
The Pioneers delivered a convincing win over University of Minnesota-Duluth Saturday night to earn a series split in WCHA action this past weekend.
After a rough performance in Friday night’s game, in which the Pioneers lost a heartbreaker 2-1 in overtime, DU responded by pummeling the Bulldogs 4-2 in Duluth, Minn. Saturday.
The Pioneers, though outplayed for the majority of Friday night’s loss, were able to stay in the game due to exceptional play by senior goalie Glenn Fisher, who made an impressive 34 saves on the night.
The game was a defensive battle all the way, as both Fisher and UMD goalie Alex Stalock kept the game scoreless through the first two periods.
The Pioneers killed off four power-play chances for the Bulldogs and Fisher made 17 saves in the second period alone to keep a charging UMD team off the score board.
DU’s best chance to score came on a two-man breakaway, as junior Ryan Dingle and senior Ryan Helgason broke in all alone only to have Stalock make an outstanding save on Helgason’s wrist shot.
In the third period, however, the Pioneers finally broke the tie, as Dingle netted his fourth goal of the season just three minutes into the final stanza. Dingle received a redirected pass from freshman Rhett Rakhshani in the left face off circle and rifled his shot past an out-of-position Stalock and into the top left corner of the net.
The Pioneers held the lead for only about six minutes when Bulldog forward Michael Gergen, while on a power-play, sniped a shot from the middle of the slot over Fisher’s outstretched blocker to tie the game at 1-1.
Both goalies kept the game tied with a number of impressive saves, and the game went to overtime.
Unfortunately for the Pioneers, the overtime period didn’t last long enough, as Bulldog Jason Garrison fired a shot from just inside the blueline that snuck through a screen in front and past Fisher, who never saw the puck coming.
The goal at 1:03 of overtime gave the Bulldogs a 2-1 win. UMD outshot the Pioneers, who were 0-7 on the power-play, by a whopping 36-22 margin.
Though the loss was painful to both the team’s record and moral, the Pioneers responded Saturday night by dominating the Bulldogs form start to finish.
Once again scoring the first goal of the game was Dingle, who banged home a rebound off of a shot by defenseman Chris Butler, midway through the second period.
The Pioneers made it 2-0 when they finally converted a power-play chance at 12:28 of the second, as Rakhshani buried his first career goal off a smooth pass from forward Geoff Paukovich.
The Bulldogs answered back with consecutive power-play goals less than three minutes later, tying the game at 2-2.
After playing scoreless through the rest of the period, the Pioneers took the lead at 11:49 of the third period.
Freshman forward Tyler Ruegsegger caught a pass from captian Adrian Veideman and launched a shot past Stalock for the game-winning goal.
The Pioneers would add an empty netter by Rakhshani, his second of the game, to seal the victory.
DU outshot the Bulldogs by a final a dominating tally of 40-25, while converting two of their eight power-play chances. Junior goalie Peter Mannino earned his first win of the season after stopping 23 shots.
The win moves the No. 13/14 Pioneers back to the .500 mark at 4-4 overall and 2-2 in the WCHA.
The Pioneers are in action next Nov. 10-11 when they head up to Madison, Wis. to take on the Badgers of the University of Wisconsin. Opening face-off is scheduled for 6:07 p.m. MT both nights.
