The No. 3 ranked Pioneers opened up their 2019 campaign on the right foot in Magness Arena as they swept the University of Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks in a National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) conference game. This was the 14th consecutive win over the Mavericks for the Pioneers.
On Friday night, the Pioneers won 1-0 with the help of senior alternate captain Jarid Lukosevicius (Squamish, B.C.), the lone goal scorer for the Pioneers, and freshman goalkeeper Filip Larsson (Stockholm, Sweden), who helped the Pioneers secure the shutout. It was the first of Larsson’s career with a total of 21 saves.
The Pioneers and Mavericks would go scoreless in the first period as both teams shared chances on either side of the ice. The closest chance for the Pioneers was from a late power play when a back-door pass from freshman Cole Guttman (Los Angeles, Calif.) almost connected with freshman Emilio Pettersen (Manglerud, Norway). The second period consisted of a fairly similar story until Pettersen would slip the puck to the trailing Lukosevicius who would send the puck past the right arm of the Maverick goalkeeper and into the back of the net. This was Lukosevicius 18th career game-winning goal for the Pioneers. In the third period, Omaha would push late to find the equalizer with the best opportunity coming from a breakaway that was smothered by Larsson in the end.
On Saturday night, the Pioneers, determined to getting their winning streak to 7 consecutive games, fought back against the Omaha Mavericks to win 3-2 in overtime. In a complete 360 of Friday’s nights game, this game was filled with action.
The Pioneers would get their best chance of the first period when senior Colin Staub (Colorado Springs, Colo.) and sophomore Jaakko Heikkinen (Helsinki, Finland) nearly converted a two-on-one rush. The Mavericks would get a flurry of chances on the goal of Larsson with back-to-back power plays. In the second, the Mavericks broke the deadlock at the 9:58 mark. Less than three minutes later, the Pioneers were able to level the score at one each when Staub sent a pass to junior Liam Finlay (Kelowna, B.C.). Later in the period, a Omaha power play resulted in another goal for the Mavericks recapturing their lead 2-1. The third period demonstrated the reasons why the Pioneers are ranked third in the nation. Sophomore alternate captain Ian Mitchell (Calahoo, Alberta) sniped the goal from downtown to tie the game at 2-2 with 1:21 left in regulation, taking the game to overtime. In overtime, Lukosevicius drove towards the net, leaving the puck for Guttman to finish off the Mavericks. Larsson would end the game with 29 saves.
The Pioneers will take on NCHC and state rivals Colorado College on Jan. 19 in Magness Arena with puck drop at 7:07 P.M. MST.
