Rivalry Weekend started out with a bang for the Denver Pioneers as they won their fourth straight Gold Pan trophy in their historic rivalry with Colorado College. The Pioneers were in the absence of star forward Troy Terry who is currently competing for Team U.S.A. in South Korea. On Friday night in Colorado Springs, DU’s clinching of the trophy started midway through the first period as sophomore Henrik Borgsrtom (Helsinki, Finland) took a shot from behind the net off of Tigers goalie Alex Lecurc to give the Pioneers the first goal. That was followed by a goal by DU’s Colin Staub in front of the net.
The Tigers managed to narrow the deficit in the second period on a wrist shot from Brian Williams. However, the Pioneers were quick with their responses as they have been all season as Rudy Junda responded on a puck from Griffin Mendel. The Pioneers would go on to score two more goals in the game, making the final score 5-1.
DU Head Coach Jim Montgomery was proud of his teams performance Friday night stating that, “I thought we were relentless, I thought we never stopped pressuring.” Denver continued their dominant penalty kill going five for five on penalty kills despite failing to score on five power play opportunities.
Denver looked to capitalize on their success the next night at Magness Arena. Denver looked aggressive near the goal in the first period but couldn’t find the back of the net off of Colorado College’s goaltender. In the waning seconds of the first period when Colorado Colleges Nick Halloran delivered a slapshot that found its way in the back of the net.
That would be the lone goal of the hockey game despite outshooting Colorado College 40-22. The second period looked especially promising for the Pioneers as they had several deflections off Colorado College’s Alex Leclerc that failed to go in. Denver’s power play struggles continued as the Pioneers went 0-4 on power plays as they fell to the Tigers 1-0 on Saturday night.
“I think you saw that they were a pretty determined team coming off of last night’s game,” said sophomore Erich Fear (Winnetka, Ill.), “we did have a little bit more desperation to get to their front to finish off some of our plays and it’s a good learning experience at this point of the year.”
This year’s rivalry with Colorado College ended with a 2-2 tie and due to the tie, Denver maintains the Gold Pan trophy, a trophy the two teams have competed for since 1992 that DU has held the past four years. The Pioneers have a difficult matchup ahead in these next couple of weeks as they travel to Minnesota to take on No. 1 ranked St. Cloud State before returning to Magness in a couple of weeks to take on Miami University at Ohio.
