Denver Hockey snagged a weekend split against a tough Western Michigan team via a physically demanding weekend for the Crimson and Gold. DU won Friday’s contest 3-2 and lost Saturday’s contest, 2-7. 

Friday night marked the 500th game played at Magness Arena, and the historic night saw a game that did not disappoint. Two experienced teams came out flying, exchanging chances early in the first period.

At the midway point of the first period, sophomore forward Jared Wright got the scoring started with a short-side snipe over the Western Michigan goaltender’s left shoulder. It was a goal scored on a two-on-one from a neutral zone turnover by the Broncos. A great hand-eye bat out of mid-air play by junior forward Carter King gave Wright an odd-man rush goal. 

The bottom-six forward group was the story of the night, as the third line of Wright, King and freshman forward Sam Harris were flying all over the ice, making a difference the whole game. Wright mentioned how his line was working well post-game.  

“We are moving our feet all the time and forcing turnovers and it led to great chances,” Wright said. 

A little over three minutes later, freshman forward Alex Weiermair scored his first collegiate goal for Denver on a tip in front of the net from a point shot giving Denver a two-goal lead in the first frame. 

After the first period of play, Denver was playing with intensity, leading in both goals and outshooting the Broncos 17-12. 

The pace continued into the second period and 40 seconds into the period King was on a breakaway but wired a shot off the crossbar, but the offensive play for Denver did not stall. 

A little past the midway point of the period, Western Michigan’s leading scorer Luke Grainger scored on a loose puck in the blue paint after the initial shot squeaked through junior goaltender Matt Davis’s armpit to bring the game within one for Western Michigan. 

Late in the second period, Denver would have a goal disallowed due to Harris pushing Western Michigan’s goaltender Cameron Rowe’s pad, causing goaltender interference and a no-goal. 

The final period would bring high intensity and more scoring for both teams. Early in the final frame, junior defenseman Shai Buium fired a shot from the point that found its way through and beat Rowe over the blocker to return Denver’s two-goal lead. 

After the Denver goal, Western Michigan started to push back, being physical, finishing every check and playing aggressively, doing what they could to get themselves back into the game. With under five minutes to play, WMU picked up the pace getting more offensive zone time and good scoring chances. 

They would pull the goalie at 3:48 left in the period. At 3:09, a point shot would get through to Davis and a net-front scramble would ensue and Western Michigan’s Alex Bump finished the play with a goal. But the play was reviewed to show Bump pushing Davis’s left pad causing goaltender interference, and the second goal of the game was called back for the same penalty on Denver’s Harris earlier in the game. 

This did not throw off Western Michigan, a minute later, they again pulled the goalie once more to score on the six-on-five advantage. A snipe from Dylan Wendt from the top of the circle caught Denver’s defense standing still and cut the deficit back to one with a little over two minutes remaining in the game. 

The final minute of the game was a tight finish with WMU again having the extra attacker on the ice to try to tie the game up, but Denver came up big with great defense to block shots and keep Western Michigan off the board. The final 16 seconds were tight with WMU firing everything at the net and crashing hard, but Denver stood tall and was able to come out with a big three points. 

A strong defensive period from Denver impressed Head Coach David Carle. “The guys [bore] down and made it interesting in the last 16 seconds but overall did a good job,” Coach Carle said. 

Saturday’s contest was the opposite of Friday’s game, making many scratch their heads as to what changed from Friday night’s contest. 

There were several lineup changes: Senior forward McKade Webster was shifted off the ices with an injury he sustained early in Friday night’s game. Webster was replaced by junior forward Tristan Broz centering junior forward Jack Devine on the right wing and junior forward Massimo Rizzo on the left wing. 

Denver came out strong, and 37 seconds into the game, Buium scored on a rebound in front of the net that he backhanded over Rowe’s shoulder to give Denver the early lead. 

After the Denver goal, Western Michigan took over the game and would score a little over five minutes in with a wrap-around, catching Davis off guard and tying the game. 

With just under five minutes to go in the first period, Denver lost the puck at the offensive blue line, and Wendt picked up the puck to take advantage of a 2-on-1, sniping Davis with a far-side shot giving WMU a one-goal lead. 

Two minutes later, a point shot from Western Michigan’s Cedric Fielder found its way through and gave the Broncos a two-goal lead late in the first period. 

After the first period of play, the Broncos took full control of the game and added to their lead three minutes into the middle period with a shot pass from the WMU defenseman onto the tape of a Broncos forward sitting net-front that Davis had no chance at saving.  

Three minutes later, the Broncos continued their offensive surge with a goal off a rebound from a point shot that a Broncos forward fired into the net. 

The fifth unanswered goal forced Denver to pull Davis and insert freshman goaltender Paxton Geisel who has now appeared in two games this season, both against the Broncos. 

The middle frame ended with a four-goal lead over Denver and Western Michigan would begin to play a shutdown game, cutting off the neutral zone and limiting Denver’s scoring chances. The theme of this game was Western Michigan’s ability to take advantage of their chances, and it would continue later in the third period. 

A positive for Denver was the powerplay which went one-for-one via a goal six minutes into the final period.

A beautiful tic-tac-toe play from Rizzo at the point down to Devine on the goal line led to a spinning backhand pass across the crease to a wide-open streaking Broz on the backdoor who buried the goal to decrease the deficit. Denver picked up the pace around the ten-minute mark of the period. DU found themselves on the rush more often and attacking the middle of the ice more frequently, resulting in some good scoring chances. 

But, just past the ten-minute mark, a bad pinch by a Denver defenseman sprung Bump for a two-on-one opportunity and he would fire a shot short-side blocker to beat Geisel to regain the four-goal lead midway through the final frame. 

A minute later, Anaheim Ducks second-round pick Sam Colangelo wired a top-shelf shot blocker side and scored the final goal of the game giving WMU a 7-2 lead to finish off an offensive surge night for the Broncos. 

Despite the difficult night, Coach Carle was able to reflect positively post-game and pinpoint what exactly went wrong for Denver. 

“They came out and pushed and made us very uncomfortable and unfortunately wasn’t good enough from us from an urgency and execution perspective,” he said.“The PK was good and went three-for-three on the kill, and the powerplay looked good going one-for-one. I appreciated our bench in the third as we were saying the right things and talking about the right things.”

A game that got away from Denver fast showed the difficulty of the NCHC conference that anyone can win on any given night. Denver hockey will get the weekend off and look to bounce back in two weeks when they travel to play the Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs.