The DU hockey team faced off against Omaha for their second weekend series in a row with the Mavericks. This comes after last week’s scheduled series against Colorado College was postponed due to positive coronavirus tests within the opposing organization. DU played the Mavericks in Magness Arena this time around and picked up a dominating 3-1 win on Friday before falling 4-5 on Saturday. The team now sits at 7-10-1 and is currently unranked in the NCAA polls.
On Friday night, Denver outshot Omaha 11-8 in the first period, but neither team was able to get on the scoreboard. In the second period, freshman forward Carter Savoie (St. Albert, Alberta) found the net off a drive down the right-wing side and opened up for a one-timer off a pass from junior forward Cole Guttman (Los Angeles, Calif.). The goal marked Savoie’s tenth of the season.
In the final period, Guttman picked up a goal early on, fed by sophomore forward Bobby Brink (Minnetonka, Minn.). Omaha’s Chayse Primeau got on the board for the Mavericks at 8:17. But with under a minute-and-a-half remaining, junior forward Hank Crone’s (Dallas, Texas) tap-in off a pass from Guttman on a power-play sealed the victory for Denver.
“I liked, for the most part, our pace and intensity…it looked like Denver hockey tonight from our defense,” head coach David Carle said.
On Saturday night, DU opened the scoring right out of the gate with a goal from senior transfer Steven Jandric (Prince George, B.C.) 26 seconds into the game. This was Jandric’s first goal of the season. Omaha responded less than a minute later. A contact to the head call on the Mavericks’ Nolan Sullivan sent DU on a five-minute power play. Though DU was unable to capitalize on the play, Denver outshot Omaha 24-5 in the first period.
In the second period, DU was able to get into a scoring kick after an early Maverick goal with two back-to-back goals from sophomore defenseman Justin Lee (Waskada, Manitoba). Lee pulled off a fake shot to get an open lane at 3:25 and scored again at 15:15 to give Denver a one-point advantage. Brink added cushion to the lead in the final seconds of the period with a backdoor pass on an odd-man rush.
Denver began to lose control in the third period with two unanswered Omaha goals that sent the game into overtime. A goal from the Maverick’s Tyler Weiss less than two minutes into overtime secured a Maverick win.
“[Omaha] pushed in the third and made us uncomfortable, but the way we lost the hockey game was not good enough,” Carle said. “It was embarrassing.”
Next, Denver will travel to Grand Forks, N.D. this weekend to play No. 3 North Dakota.
