Despite scoring 11 goals in two games, and an impressive 6-2 win on Friday, the 6-5 Saturday night loss is bound to leave a bad taste in the mouth of DU men’s hockey Head Coach David Carle and his team. Especially with a road series coming up against Western Michigan, a sweep against Duluth would have been important to expanding their NCHC lead. However, even with the split, they still control their own destiny for the Penrose Cup.

Game one on Friday night was a positive performance, workmanlike for DU, particularly in the last two periods where they took over the game. The start of the first game was sluggish and for most of the first period, neither team was able to take the initiative. 

However, things heated up when Minnesota Duluth took advantage of a breakaway on a Denver power play to give the Bulldogs the early advantage 15 minutes into the first period.

With DU still on the power play after the shorthanded goal, Duluth would commit another penalty to make it a five-on-three advantage for Denver. After some uncharacteristically sloppy play at the beginning of the two-man advantage, the Crimson and Gold would find the equalizer when sophomore defenseman Shai Buium (San Diego, Calif.) won a board battle and found freshman forward Aidan Thompson (Fort Collins, Colo.) who had plenty of time and space to fire a one-timer into the back of the net. 

After DU controlled the opening exchanges of the second period, Duluth would strike on a counterattack where they broke into the Denver zone. Duluth Forward Dominic James would hit the crossbar before Luke Loheit would collect the rebound to give the Bulldogs the lead.

After the Loheit goal, DU would dominate the game, scoring five unanswered goals to end the game. Denver’s second goal looked a lot like its first, with DU winning a board battle on the power play and sophomore forward Carter Mazur (Jackson, Mich.) found junior defenseman Mike Benning (St. Albert, Alberta) who fired a shot past the goalkeeper. 

“Mazur gave me a puck right in the slot and I had a whole bunch of net to shoot at, so I just picked a spot,” said Benning. 

Duluth responded well after the Benning goal, putting DU under pressure, but at the end of his shift, Mazur floated a beautiful long pass to sophomore forward Jack Devine (Glencoe, Ill.) who took advantage of the breakaway opportunity to give Denver the lead. 

Denver would be put to the test late in the second period when senior forward Casey Dornbach (Edina, Minn.) committed a major penalty which gave Duluth a five-minute power play. However, DU’s penalty kill, which has been maligned for much of the season, held strong, which is indicative of that unit’s recent uptick in performance. Head Coach David Carle attributes this improvement to, “more confidence in our in-zone play, Magnus [Chrona] making big saves and making big clears when we have the opportunity.”.

While the game was still close after the first two periods and would remain a one-goal game for the first 12 minutes of the third period, DU would pull away late. Devine added the first insurance goal when he found himself in open space. Sophomore forward Massimo Rizzo (Burnaby, B.C.) spotted and delivered him the puck, which Devine slotted into the back of the net to make it 4-2 for the Crimson and Gold.

Finding open pockets of space on the ice is a skill, and it was something DU did consistently in the game. Devine said finding those spaces is both practiced and a natural instinct for him. 

“It is a little bit of both, it is about working with your teammates and building chemistry. Me and Rizzo haven’t played a lot this year, but over the past couple weeks we have gotten to know each other’s game,” he said. 

Devine, who has been on the top line with Rizzo and sophomore forward Tristan Broz (Bloomington, Minn.) has seen an uptick in his production, especially this weekend when he scored seven points in two games.

The dagger for Duluth would come a few minutes later when speedy freshman forward Jared Wright (Burnsville, Minn.) was released from the penalty box and found himself on a breakaway, where he slipped the puck between the goalie’s legs and into the back of the net. When asked about Wright, the first thing coach Carle said was “speed kills.” That captures the essence of Wright’s game, who’s speed is on display almost every night.

DU would put the finishing touches on the game with an empty net goal to make it a 6-2 final.

The Saturday night game would be a different matchup and Duluth made that apparent from the outset, scoring just over two minutes into the game. Senior goaltender Magnus Chrona (Stockholm, Sweden) had his vision blocked by a good screen in front of the net and a shot from the point went past the blinded Chrona.

Denver would get a five-minute power play and take advantage quickly thanks to a gorgeous passing sequence between Mazur and Thompson. Mazur found Thompson in space, who then passed it back to Mazur who put it in the back of the net. It was the kind of play where Mazur deserved both a goal and an assist. 

Just when it looked like the game would be tied after the end of the first period, Duluth forward Quinn Olson would redeem himself after committing the major penalty, scoring a powerplay goal with 15 seconds left in the period. Olson would score on a rebound after Chrona failed to control a shot from the point.

Despite the demoralizing goal to end the period, Denver would respond quickly, with Devine scoring yet another goal just over a minute into the second period. However, this is where things would go south for Denver, with Duluth scoring three unanswered goals in the second period to give Duluth a 5-2 lead after the second stanza.

Despite the deficit, DU refused to go away quietly, with Benning scoring a spectacular wrap-around goal less than a minute into the third to give the Crimson and Gold life. 

A Rizzo goal seconds after that sent Magness Arena into an uproar. It looked like DU was going to mount a memorable comeback, as they did so many times in their national championship-winning season a year ago. Coach Carle said, “he loved our third period”, noting the team’s “competitiveness and fight.”

However, a lot of that momentum was sapped when DU would commit a penalty that led to a Duluth power play goal. The Crimson and Gold would fight back, cutting the lead to one again after another Rizzo goal, but they couldn’t find the equalizer, losing 6-5 in a thrilling game.

Denver travels to Kalamazoo to take on Western Michigan for a two-game series on Feb. 24 and 25 in what is a pivotal series for the NCHC title race, with the Broncos being their nearest opponent in the NCHC standings.