Ohio State ended Denver’s five-game winning streak on Saturday with a 4-3 win, after the Pioneers defeated the Buckeyes 3-1 on Friday.
DU is now 4-1-0 in the season and dropped down two spots in the ranking to No. 4.
On Friday, sophomore Kyle Ostrow scored two goals and tallied an assist and sophomore goaltender Marc Cheverie stopped 42 of 41 shots, helping Denver to its 3-1 victory.
In the end of the first period, freshman Joe Colbourne believed to have scored his first collegiate goal but the goal was disallowed after review due to interference.
“We didn’t react well to that,” Ostrow said. “I think we thought it was a goal and I guess when a goal gets taken away like that, they get a little more momentum because they think they’re down 1-0, but it’s back to 0-0.”
After the scoreless first period, sophomore Anthony Maiani recorded a 5-on-3 power-play goal midway through the second period that was assisted by freshman Luke Salazar and Ostrow.
Six minutes later, Ostrow upped DU’s lead to two with assists from junior Brian Gifford and senior Patrick Mullen.
Ohio State notched its lone goal of the game in the third period with 14 minutes remaining in the game, but just two minutes later Denver rounded out the game 3-1as Ostrow netted a pass from Maini.
“I think we battled back though I think we battled the whole game to get that win it wasn’t like a win the last few weeks where we were dominating the play,” Ostrow said.
On Saturday’s rematch, the Buckeyes got off to an early start with a power-play goal just five minutes into the game.
Denver was unable to score in the first period, but Maiani recorded his second goal of the weekend just under two-minutes into play with a power-play goal assisted by sophomore Jesse Martin and Ostrow.
Moments after the goal was scored, senior captain J.P. Testwuide rang the puck off the glass on Denver’s end, shattering the glass and delaying the game nearly 15 minutes.
When the game resumed, Colbourne was able to score his first goal of the season off a pass from freshman Luke Salazar and junior Cody Brookwell making it 2-1.
Freshman Patrick Wiercioch rounded the score to 3-1 just minutes later during a 5-on-3 power-play.
Taking advantage of the power-play late in the third period, Ohio State made the game 3-2 going into intermission.
Denver lost its momentum and the Buckeyes were able to score two unanswered goals in the third period.
With 30 seconds remaining in play junior Tyler Ruegsegger tried to tie the game, but the shot rang off the pipe.
Commenting on Cheverie’s first loss of the season, Cheverie said, “We’re trying to take the positives from it and it’s a bit of a wakeup call. You get off for a bit of a high there, what we had, and then a loss. You can lose to anyone in college hockey. We certainly didn’t take this game lightly, but it’s certainly a wakeup call.”
“I think that if there’s a silver lining, it’s that it’s Oct. 25,” head coach George Gwozdecky said. “It’s still a very young season. I think we got humbled. It’s a disappointing performance. I have no problems handling defeat, it’s when you don’t play your best that it’s difficult to swallow. Our effort at times was substandard, our decision making was substandard. A good team beat us tonight.”
No. 4 Denver will take on arch-rival No. 1 Colorado College on Halloween night.
“We’re ready to move on and make a statement,” Testwuide, said.
The Tigers are currently 4-0-2 after two ties to No. 14 Clarkson over the weekend.
The home-and-home series will continue on Sunday in Colorado Springs. The puck drops at 7:37 p.m. on Friday.
