The No. 3 Pioneers split the weekend series with St. Cloud State at home after being blanked 3-0 Friday for the first loss of the season before rallying to a decisive 6-1 win on Saturday.
Denver, now 5-1-0 overall and 3-1-0 in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, came out flat in Friday’s contest, allowing SCSU to score two goals in the opening period. This was only the second time the Pioneers have allowed two goals in a period this season, and they were unable to find the net themselves.
“St. Cloud has a terrific team. They have great skill, great speed and, to top it off, great desire to win all the battles that ultimately helped them win the game tonight,” said head coach George Gwozdecky after Friday’s stunning loss. “We struggled to match their pace, and we started off slowly tonight. Certainly, St. Cloud was the better of the two teams tonight, and they proved it time and time again.”
Despite the 3-0 loss, junior goaltender Sam Brittain recorded 23 saves in his third start of the season. On the other end of the ice, Huskies’ goaltender recorded his third career shutout with 28 saves.
The No. 18 Huskies (5-3-0, 3-1-0 WCHA) opened the scoring at the 12:09 mark in the first period, when junior forward Nic Dowd slid one past Brittain on the power play from sophomore forward Daniel Doremus’ tripping penalty.
The goal brought the Huskies to a 1-0 lead, marking the first time the Pioneers have trailed an opponent in a game this season.
The Huskies found the back of the net again to stretch the lead to 2-0 at 15:21 in the first off a goal from freshman forward Kalle Kossila, assisted by junior defenseman Nick Jensen and senior forward Drew LeBlanc.
After a scoreless second period for both sides, junior forward Nick Shore almost found the goal in the third period after skating past the SCSU defense on a breakaway, but missed, hitting the right pipe.
This shot marked one of Shore’s five shots on goal, while senior forward Chris Knowlton led the Pioneers with seven shots on goal.
The Huskies sealed Denver’s fate for the night with their third goal at 11:39 in the third, when Dowd found the net again for his second goal of the night, assisted by sophomore forward Joey Holka and junior defenseman Kevin Gravel.
“Like Coach said in the locker room, when you’re working hard and you come ready to play, those bounces tend to go your way, so it just showed that we weren’t really ready to go from the drop of the puck,” said senior defenseman and captain Paul Phillips.
“They took advantage of us; they were all over us on our break-out and it just went from there. They popped one in and deflated us. They were going to the net hard all night, and we’ve just got to be ready to go tomorrow.”
Denver’s scoreless first period of the game ended the team’s 11-straight scoring periods streak, and the team also failed to score in back-to-back periods for the first time all season.
The Crimson and Gold came out Saturday seeking redemption after Friday’s loss and found just that, scoring early and often with goals from four different Pioneers and recording a season-high six goals.
“We came out in a bad mood, and that’s exactly right,” said Gwozdecky. “We knew that we embarrassed ourselves. That is a good team that we played against this weekend, but we certainly used last night as a teaching moment.”
Knowlton led the team with his first career hat trick, finding net once each period and also chipping in an assist. This hat trick marks the second for Denver this season. Also scoring for the Pioneers were Shore, junior defenseman David Makowski and sophomore forward Matt Tabrum.
“Of the six games we’ve played, we’ve played hard and we’ve played well together. We can be a tough team to compete against when we play like that,” said Gwozdecky. “We have to be emotionally ready to play with intensity, discipline and eagerness to win those battles, and tonight we wanted to win the fight.”
In goal for the Pioneers and making his first start of the season was sophomore goaltender Juho Olkinuora, who made 20 saves and allowed only one goal in the win.
“I thought [Olkinuora] played a very good game after that first one, and it was a good one to start,” said Gwozdecky. “His teammates supported him with the number of goals. We didn’t play great in front of him at times, but we scored enough goals that we built that lead. That was a good way to finish.”
Knowlton kicked off both his hat trick and the scoring for the Pioneers early in the game, finding the back of the net at 3:48 in the first, off a pair of freshman assists from defenseman Nolan Zajac and forward Gabe Levin.
The Huskies answered less than two minutes later at the 5:01 mark with a goal from junior forward Cory Thorson, assisted by sophomore forward Nick Oliver and freshman defenseman Ethan Prow, levelling the score for the lone time in the contest.
Twelve seconds later, Shore regained the lead for the Pioneers, which they would keep for the remainder of the game, beating SCSU’s sophomore goaltender Ryan Faragher on a breakaway goal. Sophomore defenseman Joey LaLeggia and Knowlton were credited with assists on the play.
The second period began for the Pioneers on the power play, when Makowski took advantage of the man-up opportunity and knocked in the rebound of Shore’s blocked shot just over a minute into the period.
After coming off a seven-shots-on-goal second period on Friday, the Pioneers forced a goaltender change in the second period, placing 11 shots on goal and resulting in freshman goaltender Rasmus Reijola’s collegiate debut for the Huskies. With Reijola taking the goal, there were Finnish goaltenders on both ends.
Knowlton extended the Pioneers’ lead to 4-1 with his second goal of the evening when he stole the puck at 13:22 above the left circle and found the back of the net.
Sophomore forward Ty Loney was whistled at 8:32 on a questionable game misconduct call for checking from behind, which put the Pioneers on a five-minute penalty kill. Despite playing a man-down for five minutes, the Pioneers were able to successfully kill the lengthy penalty and limit SCSU to nine shots on goal in the period, one of which resulted in a crucial stop by Olkinuora on a breakaway in the 17th minute of the period.
Tabrum netted his first career goal at the 6:51 mark in the third period after junior forward Jarrod Mermis stole the puck and sent it down the ice.
Knowlton sealed the game and his hat trick at 11:37 in the period when he beat Reijola one-on-one off a pass from sophomore defenseman Scott Mayfield.
“Last night, they embarrassed us on home ice, and we haven’t really experienced that this year, so it’s a wake up call,” said Knowlton. “We came out tonight and really took it to them.”
At the close of the game, the Pioneers recorded two goals per period, increasing their number of multi-goal periods to 10 this season. Denver has also increased their goals-per-game average to 4.33.
“Tonight, we had a completely different mind frame, and a mind frame that not only helped us to start on a good note, but respond to a very unusual first goal to tie it up,” said Gwozdecky. “I don’t think anybody expected that shot to get past [Juho], but I think we responded very well on a good shot from Nick Shore.”
With the loss of the top three scorers from last year and the Pioneers seeing goals from four different players this weekend, the depth and scoring opportunities from the team across the board are clear, according to Knowlton.
“It’s different every year; it’s two different teams. You get new guys, lose good guys. You bring in new faces, and I think since the beginning we realized we were going to be more by committee this year,” said Knowlton.
“It’s four lines hockey and just trusting everybody. Everybody can put the puck in the net, and everybody wants to put the puck in the net. We aren’t counting on two or three guys; everyone can score, and I think this year everyone is getting the chance to show that.”
The Pioneers hit the road for their first away contest this weekend for a two-game series at Minnesota State. The puck is set to drop at 6:37 p.m. Friday and 6:07 p.m. Saturday.
