Photo by: Ryan Lumpkin
After a strong team performance this weekend, the No. 14 Pioneers upset No. 1/2 Minnesota, topping them 5-3 on Friday night and clinching a series sweep with a 4-3 overtime win on Saturday.
The wins advance DU to 17-9-4 overall and 12-6-4 in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. Also, Denver improves to 10-2 in the last 12 meetings with Minnesota.
The Pioneers moved from No. 14 to No. 10 in the USCHO.com poll, while Minnesota dropped from No. 2 to No. 7.
Most importantly, the Pioneers moved from No. 17 in the Pairwise Rankings to No. 7, jumping 10 spots in their pursuit of a bid in the NCAA tournament postseason. With the loss, the Gophers dropped from No. 7 to No. 12.
“I think the Pairwise Rankings tell you so much about parody. I mean, you win two games and you move up 10 spots? That’s never happened before, so it makes you think ‘Okay, you’re never safe,'” said head coach George Gwozdecky. “As soon as you think ‘Okay, we’re number whatever,’ and all of the sudden someone bypasses you because they sweep or you lose a game, or all of a sudden things are completely opposite. There’s no question that with six games left in the season for everybody, it’s going to come right down to the wire. Minnesota is going to try to reel it back in.”
In front of a sellout crowd of 6,030 on Friday night, junior forward Shawn Ostrow led the Pioneers with a goal and two assists. Redshirt senior and co-captain Dustin Jackson and senior Nate Dewhurst, forwards, each tallied a goal and an assist. Sophomore forward Jason Zucker chipped in a power-play goal for the Pioneers and junior forward Chris Knowlton knocked in the final goal. Freshman defenseman Joey LaLeggia also tallied two assists, while sophomore goalie Sam Brittain recorded 31 saves in his third appearance of the season.
On Saturday, Magness Arena reached a new season-high crowd of 6,079 fans. Sophomore forward Nick Shore tallied two goals, including the game winner, and an assist. Knowlton and senior forward Luke Salazar each scored goals and Brittain had 33 saves. LaLeggia tallied two assists for the second night in a row and the Pioneers recorded two power-play goals.
Minnesota opened the scoring on Friday when Nate Condon scored at 9:08 of the first period off a DU turnover, only to be answered by the Pioneers 40 seconds later as Ostrow scored off an assist from Jackson and Dewhurst.
Less than three minutes later, Ostrow assisted Jackson in his first goal of the season, giving the Pioneers a 2-1 lead at the 12:37 mark. Dewhurst netted the Pioneers’ third goal with just over two minutes left in the first period and defensemen redshirt senior John Ryder and freshman Josiah Didier tallied assists on the goal.
Kyle Rau scored a power-play goal for the Gophers at 1:56 of the second period, bringing Minnesota within one goal at 3-2 before Zucker regained the two-goal lead at 4:02 with a power-play goal assisted by freshman defenseman Scott Mayfield and LaLeggia.
Rau, Minnesota’s third best scorer, received a five-minute major and game misconduct penalty for boarding on Zucker at 6:38 of the second period. Zucker was helped off the ice and did not return. Rau was issued a one-game suspension by the WCHA that was determined after a review of the incident under the WCHA’s Supplementary Dicipline Policy and Procedures, which was served on Saturday. Zucker will return for this week’s matchup against Wisconsin.
Knowlton concluded the scoring for the Pioneers at the 11:53 mark in the second period with a backhander assisted by Ostrow and LaLeggia. Zach Budish scored the last goal of the game for the Gophers at 15:19 in the second, making the final score 5-3.
“I thought we were very effective tonight. We got pucks into the paint,” said Gwozdecky about Friday’s game. “But we know Minnesota is not going to go away. I felt that Sam [Brittain] played a good game, but they cashed in on our mistakes. It was an important win for us, a win that our guys feel good about.”
The Pioneers came out Saturday against the Gophers with Brittain in goal, his first back-to-back starts of the season, and without Zucker, who was out on an upper body injury after the hit from Rau on Friday.
Saturday’s game started slowly, with Denver allowing Minnesota to score twice before finally pulling together as a team and scoring.
“The thing that I was really pleased about was that it wasn’t a game where we played really well. It wasn’t a game where we had a lot of continuity in our offensive attack,” said Gwozdecky. “Minnesota did a good job of shutting us down in certain areas, frustrating us and had us pinned in our zone for periods of time, and yet I looked at that last power-play that we had where we tied it up; that was almost symbolic of our game. There wasn’t a lot happening, there weren’t a lot of scoring chances. Yeah, we had possession, but it was just frustratingly ineffective, and yet we didn’t get frustrated.”
The Gophers opened the scoring at 0:38 off an unassisted goal by Erik Haula. Minnesota tallied another goal at 15:17 in the second period after a blown call when Zach Budish scored a power-play goal off freshman forward Ty Loney’s hold-the-stick penalty.
The Pioneers answered the Gophers at 17:37 in the second period when Knowlton scored a goal assisted by Ostrow and junior defensemen Paul Phillips.
“There’s no question that in my mind, without a doubt, the turning point in the game was that fortunate bounce where Chris Knowlton gets his breakaway. To me, that was if Chris [scored], we [had] a chance, if Chris [didn’t] score or Patterson makes the save, that’s a real tall order for us to go into a third period down two,” said Gwozdecky.
Denver added another goal at 2:33 in the third period when senior forward Luke Salazar knocked in a four-on-three goal assisted by Nick Shore and LaLeggia to tie the game 2-2.
Minnesota countered at 10:07 when Nico Sacchetti scored, regaining the lead for the Gophers 3-2.
“Minnesota played hard, they had the lead, it seemed like they were in control, and yet we hung in there, we found a way to win,” said Gwozdecky. “We got some key saves from Sam when he wasn’t at his best, either. I think the thing that I like most about what happened tonight, other than the win, was that I started to see our team really start to come together as a team, that’s what you strive for when the season begins, one of your goals is to develop into a team.”
With under two minutes left in the third period, Nick Shore found the net on a power-play assisted by Mayfield and his brother Drew Shore, who flicked him a behind the back pass, and tied the score 3-3 to move into overtime.
“Mayfield [made] a great pass to Drew Shore, who probably would admit he had one of the biggest struggles in a game he’s had in quite a while, and he makes a great no-look, behind the back pass to his brother, who buries it,” said Gwozdecky. “It just tells you if you hang in there, you work together, you believe and keep working at it, at some point, its going to go for you. You keep pounding against a rock, eventually it’s going to shatter.”
Only 17 seconds into the overtime period, Nick Shore netted another goal, assisted by LaLeggia, giving Denver an overtime win 4-3 against Minnesota.
“I think the wins boost this team morale tremendously. One of the things that you try to do is build a team out of 28 guys, and every year that’s a challenge with a whole new set of guys,” said Gwozdecky. “Especially the second half of the season, even after such a frustratingly disappointing weekend last weekend where we only get one point from our arch-rival, we gave up the gold pan and all the things that we [gave up.] When we met with the team on early Monday afternoon, they couldn’t wait to get back on the ice to get our game plan for Minnesota. That, to me, was a real sign that they don’t feel down in the dumps of losing to their arch-rivals, thats a real positive sign and this team is really evolving into a team.”
Denver will travel to Madison, Wisc. to play Wisconsin on Friday and Saturday at 6:07 p.m M.T.
