Photo by: Greg Lau
Before the near capacity crowds at DU’s Magness Arena, the Pioneers’ hockey team played its homecoming series against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, earning a split of the two games.
The Pioneers struggled to find the back of the net in a hard fought 2-1 loss Friday, before storming back to trounce the Engineers of RPI 5-1 on Saturday night.
In playing in their first home game of the young season, the Pioneers, ranked as high as No. 11 in national polls, outplayed RPI for most of Friday’s game, but failed to finish off a number of great scoring opportunities.
The nonconference match-up started with an early odd-man rush by RPI, resulting in a near goal and a penalty by Pioneer senior defenseman Andrew Thomas.
After killing off the penalty, the Pioneers then dominated the rest of the period, beating RPI to loose pucks and winning nearly all battles in the corners.
As the Pioneers continued to pile on shots, RPI goalie Jordan Alford was the only reason that the game wasn’t turned into an early blow out, as he made many exceptional saves on DU scoring chances.
The Pioneers finally broke past Alford’s wall on a power play with 6:38 left in the period.
After a rocket shot from the left point by DU captain Adrian Veideman, freshman forward Brock Trotter snagged the rebound at the side of the net and fired a turnaround shot in between the near side post and Alford’s outstretched leg pad.
The goal lifted the Pioneers to a 1-0 lead, the only lead they would have in the game.
After the Pioneers owned the first period, in which their shot advantage of 14-5 was an understatement of their dominance, RPI turned the tables, drawing Pioneer penalties and creating odd-man rushes.
The Pioneers, while shorthanded, gave up their lead on a three-on-two break at 12:04 of the second period, as RPI forward Kirk MacDonald rifled a shot over junior goalie Peter Mannino’s shoulder.
The Pioneers were held scoreless for the rest of the period, despite many close chances.
The final period was more of the same for the Pioneers, as they missed several early chances to take the lead.
Then, after a defensive miscue led to an RPI two-on-one break, the Engineers took their first lead of the game on a shot from forward Seth Klerer, who sniped a wrist shot off the upper post and over Mannino’s shoulder.
The 2-1 lead would be all that RPI needed to close out the Pioneers for their first win of the season. Mannino was credited with the loss, despite saving 22 of 24 shots he faced.
The Pioneers outshot the Engineers by a commanding 39-24 margin.
Despite the tough loss, Saturday night’s game was dominated by the Pioneers and DU goalie Glen Fisher.
The Pioneers once again took the first lead of the game, with a goal by junior forward Ryan Dingle, who redirected a quick pass from defenseman Keith Seabrook on a two-on-one at 7:17 of the first period.
Though there was no more scoring for the rest of the period, the game was not lacking in action.Both teams came out with much more feistiness than the night before, leading to many altercations after the whistle and nine first-period penalties.
Fisher was outstanding in the opening period, as nearly all of RPI’s nine shots were from close range on odd man rushes.
The second period continued with end-to-end action, as the Pioneers and Engineers alternated scoring chances, until RPI finally was able to slip a shot past Fisher on a three-on-one.
The goal would be the last that Fisher would allow, as he made amazing save after amazing save to keep the Pioneers in the game.
Then, with 45 seconds left in the period, Trotter feathered a pass from the corner through two RPI defenders to Thomas who one-timed a shot past Alford to give DU back the lead.
The momentum from the late goal carried into the third period, as the Pioneers dominated possession throughout the rest of the game, scoring three more unanswered goals.
The first goal came off a short-sided shot by freshman forward Tyler Ruegsegger, whose third goal of the season gave DU a two-goal lead.
The Pioneers continued to bombard RPI with shots and increased their lead to 4-1 when Veideman blasted a shot from the point past Alford on the power-play.
As it became more apparent that the game was going to be a blowout, the action after the whistles started to intensify.
With under three minutes left in the game, a brawl broke out in front of the DU bench. No punches were actually thrown, but Dingle and teammate Patrick Mullen were given penalties for the altercation, as well as one RPI player.
The Pioneers stayed calm, however, and netted an empty net goal by forward Steven Cook with a minute and a half remaining.
DU closed out the game with a commanding 5-1 victory, improving their record to 3-3 on the year and earning a split for the weekend.
“It was a good win for us,” said Veideman of his team’s play. “We came out with a lot more offense and took control of the game.”
The Pioneers are in action again this weekend as they take on the Bulldogs of the University of Minnesota-Duluth in Duluth, Minn. Both games are scheduled to began at 6:07 p.m. MST.
