The DU men’s hockey team defeated Michigan Tech 1-0 on Friday night and was defeated 2-1 on Saturday in Houghton, Mich., this past weekend.
Senior goaltender Peter Mannino highlighted the weekend with his 14 career shutout on Friday night to make him the all-time shutout leader in Pioneer history, passing Gerry Powers (1966-69).
“I think the biggest thing we wanted to accomplish is to wrap up third place in the WCHA and we did that, I will be honest with you, we played better on Saturday night than Friday night,” said Head Coach George Gwozdecky.
Both the Huskies and Denver put seven shots on goal in the first period of the opening game, but neither could light the lamp.
Freshman Dustin Jackson finally broke the scoreless tie on the power play with just 13 seconds remaining in the second stanza as he put a rebound into the net for a 1-0 lead. It was his second goal of the season and career for Jackson, with both turning out to be game-winning goals.
The Pioneers outshot Tech 8-6 in the third period and Mannino helped Denver hold onto the 1-0 victory and extend DU’s winning streak to three.
That winning streak quickly came to an end on Saturday night as the Huskies held off DU 2-1.
Michigan Tech lit the scoreboard for the first time 13 minutes into the first period when Alex Lord found the net off a pass from Bennett Royer.
After a scoreless second period, Tech extended its lead when Geoff Kinrade went stick side on Mannino to make it 2-0.
With two minutes remaining and the Pioneers on the power play, Gwozdecky pulled Mannino to make it 6-on-4 and sophomore Rhett Rakhshani capitalized to cut the lead to 2-1. The Huskies then committed another penalty to make it a 6-on-3 advantage for Denver in the final 90 seconds, but DU couldn’t get one past goalie Michael-Lee Teslak and fell 2-1.
“It was a good effort both nights. As happens this time of the year, goaltending was crucial, disappointing result. I was happy with the way we played. We are getting back to the way we played at the beginning of the season,” said Gwozdecky.
Mannino not only climbed to the top of the shutout list, but is now tied for third all-time on the wins list with Stephen Wagner at 59. Mannino is a candidate for the Hobey Baker Award and this past week got selected along with senior defenseman Andrew Thomas to compete in the skills challenge during the Frozen Four weekend in Denver in April.
It has been a second-half far from kind to DU, especially on the offensive end where Denver averaged 3.3 goals a game in the first 20 games of the season and just 2.3 a game in the last 14. An offense struggle that can be due in part to the departure of leading scorer Brock Trotter before the Minnesota State series and offensive threat and assistant captain Tyler Rugsegger, who has been sidelined with an abdominal injury since the final game of the Minnesota State series.
Denver is currently sixth in the latest pairwise rankings and will play a home and home series with in-state rival Colorado College this weekend for the final two games of the season. DU lost 5-1 at CC earlier this season and then came back for a 3-2 win at home the next night. The first game is slated for a 7:37 pm start at Magness Arena on Friday night and a 7:07 pm start at World Arena on Saturday night.
