Photo by: Jake Rokeach
SOUTH BEND, IND.- Notre Dame University is known as having one of the most famous and legendary college sports programs. To say the least, its campus has seen its fair share of memorable sports moments. The visiting DU hockey team gave Head Coach George Gwozdecky a memorable moment of his own Friday night, as he won his 300th game as a head coach in 14 seasons at DU and 450th overall in his 19-year coaching career.
“In order to achieve any significant milestone you have to be around a long time and people that you are working with and working for have to be patient. They (DU’s administrators) have given us all the tools to recruit some of the finest student-athletes in North America,” said Gwozdecky after achieving the landmark victory.
The celebration followed a hard-fought split of the two-game series. The Pioneers (3-1, 0-0) were defeated by the Fighting Irish 4-3 on Thursday night and then rebounded with a 3-1 triumph on Friday night.
DU started off on the right foot in a rare Thursday night game when freshman Kyle Ostrow converted a perfect pass from Tom May for his second goal of the season. Notre Dame tied the score late in the opening stanza, but Denver answered just a minute later when freshman Tyler Bozak found the back of the net for his first career goal and DU held a 2-1 lead after one period. The Pioneers had numerous chances in the first period but could just not get it done, which has been an early season problem for the team.
In the second period, the Fighting Irish stepped up to the plate as they scored two goals to take a 3-2 lead.
During the second period a tornado warning in the area forced the fans to relocate to a different area of the Joyce Arena and caused an approximate 15-minute delay to the game.
Notre Dame extended its lead to two goals in the third period, but sophomore Brock Trotter cut it back to one with a great steal and fake to beat the Irish goalie.
DU could not bury any of its chances the rest of the way and was handed its first defeat of the season.
“I think we got a little ahead of ourselves. We thought the game was going to be a lot easier than it was, and they battled back hard,” said Trotter.
Denver outshot the Irish 11-to-6 and 6-to-3 in the first and third periods, respectively, but was outshot 9-to-3 in the decisive middle period.
“Notre Dame was able to regroup like a good team. They changed their game and became a lot more aggressive and we did not adjust,” said Gwozdecky. “Our transition game became stagnate.”
On Friday, the Pioneers scored the game’s first goal for the fourth straight contest, thanks to freshman Chris Nutini finishing off a pass from sophomore Rhett Rakhshani.
DU took a 1-0 lead into the second period, but Notre Dame tied it up halfway through the period and the score was knotted at 1-1 going into the final period.
The freshmen once again rose to the occasion in crunch time. This time Anthony Maini netted his second goal of the season. Denver continued to play hard nose defense and got an empty-net goal from senior Tom May to put the icing on a 3-1 DU victory.
“I was really pleased with how our guys battled in that third period, considering how the previous five periods had gone. I thought that last 20 minutes was critical for us to win, period,” said Gwozdecky.
When asked if he was surprised by the team’s 3-1 start, senior goalie Peter Mannino said, “No, you don’t ever want to be surprised, you want to be prepared for anything. So far, things have been good and we just want to continue on.”
Last season the Pioneers started 3-4, with three of those loses coming on the road. Perhaps even more encouraging than this year’s early winning record is the fact that it has come despite considerable room for improvement in the Pioneers’ odd-man situations. Denver went 2-for-8 on the power play in the first game of the season against Maine, but since then has gone 0-for-16 in the last three games.
“I am very disappointed in how our special teams played. The penalty kill was the name of the game tonight. Their special teams completely dominated our special teams, no ifs ands or buts,” said Gwozdecky after the Thursday loss.
Denver will begin WCHA conference play this weekend when it hosts Minnesota-Duluth (3-0-1) on Friday night at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday night at 7 p.m.
Saturday night could be another small home crowd for the Pioneers, what with the hometown Rockies playing host to the Boston Red Sox in their first World Series home game ever.
Intent on keeping his team’s focus on the upcoming WCHA campaign and the remainder of the season, the Gwozdecky paused only briefly to savor his milestone victory. “Thank you very much. I am honored, but the puck I really want to have is puck No. 348. Down the road I want to have the puck that is significant for us in April. We want to keep our eye on the bull’s-eye,” said Gwozdecky, after receiving the game puck from captain Andrew Thomas on Friday night.
The Rockies may own the city now, but if DU’s icemen hit that Frozen Four bull’s-eye, then come springtime the Pioneers and their longtime coach promise to generate a frenzy of their own for the Denver-based championships.
