The freshmen were on fire during the official hockey season opener on Saturday night, netting three goals and one assist to fuel the No. 6 Pioneers to a 5-2 win over No. 4 Notre Dame in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Game.
Freshman Luke Salazar scored two goals and recorded one assist breaking the tight 1-1 tied game open early in the third period.
“It was a huge game and I think that it put us off to a great start,” Salazar said. “It was definitely a dream come true for me.”
Sophomore goalie Marc Cheverie blocked 23 of the 25 shots on goal.
“I thought at times I was watching either Peter Mannino or Andrew Berkhoel and I mean that In the highest of compliments,” head coach George Gwozdecky said. “I thought he was efficient. He was composed and he was poised. He made the saves he had to make, and then he made some spectacular saves. In my mind he was a star.”
The Fighting Irish returned to Denver after ending their 2007-2008 season in April at the Pepsi Center during the NCAA National Championship game, losing 4-1 to Boston College.
Although it was the season opener, it’s not too early to start thinking about the importance of this win, and the role it will play throughout Denver’s season and post-season and a hopeful NCAA tournament berth .
“There’s no question that this was a big game for both teams,” Gwozdecky said. “A quality win against a tremendous opponent, tonight was the first game of probably six or seven games that are crucial for us, and those six or seven games I’m talking about are non-conference games. We all know that within the conference is a separate thing and what happens outside of conference really affects what happens in postseason.”
“Playing quality opponents and beating quality opponents is crucial to be able to put yourself in the position to be invited if you can to win a championship. Yeah, tonight was Oct. 11 and it was big,” Gwozdecky said.
The Fighting Irish scored the first goal just 3:30 into the first period. Nearly 10 minutes later, junior Tyler Ruegsegger tied the game on the power play with an assist from sophomore Tyler Bozak.
Despite a scoreless second period, the student section was roaring as the fans chanted, “Bring back Boone,” following the pre-game pep rally held at Spanky’s Bar & Grill.
Going into the third period the Pioneers had a considerable change in momentum.
“We just feel like the longer we went the better we got tonight,” assistant captain Ruegsegger said. “It was a rough start. We didn’t think we came out very strong, but we stayed focused and tried to calm down a little bit and then tried to build on that.”
Salazar recorded the first of the four straight goals on a shot from senior Patrick Mullen 4:35 into the period.
Less than three minutes later, Salazar notched another goal off a pass from sophomore Kyle Ostrow.
Freshman defender Patrick Wiercioch helped Denver to a 4-1 lead a little over one minute later as he fired a low wrist shot off a pass from junior Rhett Rakhshani.
With seven minutes left of play, sophomore Anthony Maiani scored DU’s final goal of the evening, assisted by Bozak and Salazar.
Notre Dame scored one last goal with under a minute remaining in the game, ending it 5-2.
The Pioneers begin WCHA conference play as they take on No. 13 Wisconsin on Friday in the first of the two game series in Magness Arena over the weekend.
“They (Wisconsin) ended our season last year and we remember that very well,” Gwozdecky said. “Wisconsin is a quality team. They’re a marquee program, and it really gets serious next weekend because it’s our first conference series and we’re excited to play them and this building should be rockin’.”
The puck is scheduled to drop at 7:37 p.m. on Friday and 7:07 p.m. on Saturday.
