Photo by: Andrew Fielding
When the Pioneer hockey team took the ice last Friday night it wasn’t the first time they were playing against a team ranked No. 1 in the nation.
Instead of getting swept like they did on Oct. 15-16 by then-No. 1 Boston College, the Pioneers were able to earn a much-deserved split against Minnesota-Duluth.
After a 5-4 overtime win on Friday over the UMD, No. 9/10 Denver (11-5-2, 8-3-1) could not sweep the top-ranked Bulldogs, dropping the second game 2-1.
The loss on Friday night was enough to drop the Bulldogs (12-2-2, 9-2-1) to No. 2 in both national polls even though UMD sits atop the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) standings.
“Winning on the road, especially on their ice which they [UMD] are extremely good at playing, is huge for us and it was a good challenge for us,” said head coach George Gwozdecky. “Our league is very tight as always and we are pleased to have put ourselves in position for a very interesting second half.”
The game was the final game at the Duluth Entertain Convention Center (DECC), an arena that hosted the Bulldogs for 45 seasons.
As for the Pioneers, they conclude the first part of their regular season with another road series against Alaska Anchorage this weekend.
“We play another strong home team this week in Anchorage,” said Gwozdecky. “They have great forwards and can play with anybody in our conference and they’ve proven that.”
The Seawolves (5-9-2, 4-7-1) have earned key wins over Colorado College and Wisconsin in recent weeks. Last year, the Seawolves ended the Pioneers five-game win streak with a 7-3 win on Nov. 7.
“Our conference is always a difficult fight,” said Gwozdecky. “The biggest challenge for us is that we can certainly lose it by the half way point, however we have improved throughout the course of this first part of our season and our in good position to contend [for the conference title] in the second half of the year.”
Sophomore forward Drew Shore carries a six-game point streak into this weekend’s series. Shore was named the Hockey Commissioners’ Association National Division I Player of the Month in the month of November after he led the Pioneers with seven goals and assists.
“[Drew] has been the major catalyst on the offensive end,” said Gwozdecky. “Our question marks on offense have been answered by Drew and he is off to a great start.”
Currently the Pioneers are behind Duluth and North Dakota in the conference standings. DU has split road series with each club and does not face either team for the rest of the regular season.
“We are not a dominant team, but we are finding ways to win games, which is all we can ask for as a coaching staff,” said Gwozdecky. “The key word we keep mentioning to our guys is ‘survival’ and we have done just that with a brutal first half schedule and have shown great confidence.”
