The No. 10 DU hockey team dropped both of its opening games for the 2016-17 season, losing at home to both Ohio State and Boston College in the 2016 College Hockey, Inc. Ice Breaker Tournament on Oct. 7 and 8.
The unranked Buckeyes overwhelmed the Pioneers 3-2 in the first game of the year. Junior Tanner Jaillet (Red Deer, Alberta) started in goal for DU, but he was only able to save 30 of 33 shots on goal. He allowed a goal on the first shift of the game, as Ohio State’s Matthew Weis scored on a back-door pass only 29 seconds in.
DU got on the board at 14:06 of the first period, with sophomore Logan O’Connor (Calgary, Alberta) forcing a turnover and freshman Tyson McLellan (San Jose, California) firing a spinning, wicked wrister from the bottom of the left circle. It marked McLellan’s first goal as a Pioneer.
Ohio State took the lead back in the second period, tallying two goals. Sophomore forward Jarid Lukosevicius (Squamish, British Columbia) cut the lead to one at 3:32 of the third period by rocketing a wrist shot glove-side after skating into the zone on the powerplay, but it wasn’t enough for the Pioneers, who fell 3-2.
“They out-competed us, they won more one-on-one battles. Early in the year, it’s the teams that win one-on-one battles and play together that are [going to] find a way to win, and we just didn’t,” said head coach Jim Montgomery. “That’s what I’m disappointed in most, that our emotion and our energy wasn’t there tonight [Oct. 7].”
With the Air Force Academy defeating Boston College (BC) earlier in the evening, DU was slotted to face the No. 6 ranked Boston College Terriers on Saturday night, Oct. 8.
Denver failed again to capture the game’s first goal, as senior goaltender Evan Cowley (Evergreen, Colorado) allowed a tally at 11:23 in the first period. Only allowing two goals on the night, Cowley made 19 saves, including a desperate, sliding glove save to keep BC’s lead at one.
Senior defenseman and captain Will Butcher (Sun Prairie, Wisconsin) knotted the game 1-1 when he crept in from the point and lasered home a shot top shelf in the second period. Forward Dylan Gambrell (Bonney Lake, Washington) picked up an assist on the goal. Before the period was over, BC took the lead back at the 14:05 mark, 2-1.
Denver outshot BC 23-5 in the final frame but ran into a red-hot goalie. Freshman Pioneer Henrik Borgstrom (Helsinki, Finland) had two great chances to equalize the contest, but he was unable to capitalize. BC grabbed an empty net goal and the game concluded with a 3-1 score in favor of the Terriers.
The team’s next live-action will see them host Boston University on Oct. 14-15 at Magness Arena.
