Photo by: Jacob Rokeach
MINNEAPOLIS- “This is what college hockey is all about,” uttered Denver Post writer, Mike Chambers after I asked him one word to describe the weekend of hockey between Denver and Minnesota. It could not be closer to the truth. On Friday night, the raucous crowd of over 10,000 inside Marucci Arena witnessed a brilliant display of defense and goaltending in DU’s 1-0 victory. On Saturday it was the opposite, with abundance in goals and penalties throughout the game as the Pioneers lost 5-4. One thing was constant throughout the weekend and that was the level of intensity and heart that the Pioneers played with.
“You got to love it. This is what hockey is about. This is a blast. No matter how hectic it got out there, this is what hockey is about and I don’t know one guy in our locker room that did not have a good time tonight,” said junior Ryan Dingle.
This was the weekend that all the players circled on their calendar. The Pioneers took on the number one team in the country Minnesota and left Minneapolis with a well-deserved series split.
“I think that one thing you look for on a road series is a split and we got it. Obviously we would like to win every game, but it is not in the cards. The younger guys showed a lot of character, it was a good weekend for our team,” said Dingle.
The series could not of gotten off to a better start on Friday night as DU senior goaltender Glenn Fisher and the Gopher’s senior and Colorado native Kellen Briggs played a magnificent game in goal stopping 31 and 22 shots respectively. The game was scoreless until junior Geoff Paukovich redirected a shot by freshman Keith Seabrook for his fifth goal of the season and a 1-0 Pioneer lead.
DU had a few chances in the third period including a Dingle breakaway, but both goalies were stellar and Denver ended Minnesota’s 21-game home winning streak.
“We had opportunities to build on the lead, obviously Ryan Dingle had the breakaway. I thought we played pretty well,” said coach George Gwozdecky. “I thought it was kind of the game it was going to be, hard fought, feisty, good goaltending and special teams were the key. We got a goal on our power play and our penalty killing did their job.”
Saturday night made up for the lack of goals and penalties on Friday as the teams combined for 37 penalties and 9 goals.
“The officials realized that they had the tiger by the tail. They had to make sure that they clamped down as best they could. Two teams that really wanted it and were not going to give an inch,” commented Gwozdecky on Saturday’s officiating.
Minnesota had a 3-0 lead seven and half minutes into the second period until DU sophomore Brock Trotter scored his 12th of the season assisted by freshman Tyler Ruegsegger and senior Adrian Veideman to put Denver on the board. Five minutes later, freshman Keith Seabrook fired a shot into the back of the net for his first career college goal, making it a one goal game.
“Both teams were really concentrating on getting to the net and taking-away the eyes of the goaltender. I think both teams made a conscious effort to take away the goaltender’s eyes tonight,” said the 13th year coach on the amount of scoring.
The second period ended in a flurry when the Gopher’s senior captain Mike Vanelli scored two goals to give himself a hat trick for the game and extend the lead to 5-2. Sophomore Chris Butler ended the period on a bright note for the Pioneers as he slipped in a goal with four seconds remaining to make it a 5-3 game.
Halfway through the third period, Paukovich quieted the crowd as he found the back of the net and cut the lead to 5-4. DU pulled Fisher in the final minutes, but they couldn’t get a shot past Jeff Frazee and the Gophers held on for the win and series split.
“They’re a great team. There is a reason they are number one and have been number one for the past seven weeks. They got strong goaltending, extreme depth and I think it shows our team’s character that we can play with the big boys,” said Dingle.
Denver is currently ranked number five in both the USCHO.com and USA Today polls and will play their fourth straight ranked opponent this weekend when they host no. 4 St. Cloud State.
“A win on the road is always good, but we got to move on and look to next weekend against St. Cloud and we got to put this loss behind us,” said Trotter.
Denver moved back to third place in the WCHA standings and will be able to make up ground this weekend against the Huskies, who are in second.
“We know the second half of the year we are going to have to play good teams the whole way. This is the first big task of many coming up for us. We want to start off on the right foot and just play a simple and smart type game,” said Paukovich.
