The struggles continued for Pioneer hockey this past weekend as they were defeated 5-1 and 3-2 at the hands of Minnesota State with the schedule just getting tougher.
Entering this weekend DU was coming off a bye-week and before that two straight weekends of one solid win and one solid loss.
This weekend Denver decided to make things more consistent. Whether it was no Brock Trotter or the history of struggling in Mankato or the excitement of the Super Bowl, the Pioneers are facing the reality that they have lost four of their last five games and are suffering through some troubling times.
“It is a bit of a surprise. We are in a place right now that we have got to take small steps out of and it will not come overnight,” said sophomore Rhett Rakhshani.
On Friday night the opposition struck first for the third straight time as the Mavericks’ Geoff Irwin netted a goal at 11:39 of the first period. DU was held scoreless in the period and on the power play going 0-for-2.
Denver came out with some fire in the second period as Rakhshani scored his ninth goal of the season on a DU power play four minutes into the period off assists from juniors Patrick Mullen and Chris Butler to tie the game. The tie would not last for long, because five minutes later Mankato’s Jason Wiley re-directed a shot past senior goalie Peter Mannino. Minnesota State would extend its lead to 3-1 when Andrew Sackrison lit the lamp at 13:12 of the period.
The Pioneers could not get much going in the third period as Ben Youds scored his first career goal and gave the Mavericks a controlling 4-1 lead. Mankato would score one more goal late in the third period and skate to an easy 5-1 victory.
“Friday was a pure lack of effort, they are a different team than we played earlier this season and we didn’t show up,” said senior captain Andrew Thomas.
The Mavericks five-goal evening was even more impressive since they were 0-for-8 on the power play and all the goals were even strength. Mannino continues to face problems in the net as he has now given up 14 goals in his last three games.
The Pioneers looked to fare better on Saturday night, but once again fell behind early and were defeated 3-2 for their third straight WCHA loss.
Sackrison netted his fourth goal of the season on the power play to get the Mavericks off on the right foot with just over two minutes remaining in the first period. Mankato increased that lead just a minute into the second period when Joel Hanson fired a shot past Mannino. Freshman Tyler Bozak responded five minutes later for the Pioneers with his 12th goal of the season off assists from Rakhshani and Butler to cut the lead to 2 – 1. Any momentum DU might have gained from the goal quickly went away as the Mavericks Jon Kalinski scored to close out the second period.
The Pioneers battled back in the third period as freshman Kyle Ostrow found the back of the net for his 10th goal of the season and the lead went back down to one. Denver pulled Mannino for the final minute and a half of the game, but it didn’t lead to a goal as DU fell 3-2.
Denver is now 1-8 on the season when trailing after two periods and the weekend’s total of just three goals is the lowest of the season for the Pioneers.
The Mavericks took revenge on DU this weekend as the Pioneers had skated past Mankato 2-1 and 7-0 earlier in the season at home.
After having a commanding lead in the WCHA standings with Colorado College to start the season, Denver is now seven points back of the Tigers although they have played two fewer conference games.
The Pioneers had two bye weeks in the month of January which could be part of the reason they are off their game, but will now have five straight weekends of hockey to close out the season.
Denver will host Minnesota this Friday at 7:37 p.m. and again on Saturday at 7:07 p.m.
DU is now struggling in the second-half of the schedule for the third straight season and the Pioneers are still trying to figure out why it is happening.
“Not sure, I think every team reaches a point in the season where they face a lot of adversity and we have got to figure out how to deal with it, so that we don’t have to deal with it for the rest of the season,” said Thomas.
