Photo by: Michael Furman
The men’s hockey team completed an epic sweep over Wisconsin this weekend, winning 4-3 in overtime on Friday, before shutting the Badgers out 5-0 in Saturday’s rematch.
Sophomore goaltender Marc Cheverie recorded his third career shutout, making a career-high 45 saves, for a total of 77 saves in the series.
This sweep elevates the Pioneers to the No. 4 spot in the ever-important Pair Wise rankings, a comfortable position for their vie for a spot at the Frozen Four.
On Friday, the Pioneers were down 2-0 in the first period when sophomore Kyle Ostrow redirected a shot from senior captain J.P. Testwuide at 13:33. The first goal got the Pioneers back in the game, and they were able to carry the momentum into the second period.
“I didn’t think we played all that well on Friday,” head coach George Gwozdecky said. “That’s when J.P Testwuide really showed some great leadership, stepping forward and [assisting] a big power-play goal to quiet the crowd, get us within one and get us to the intermission where we could regroup.”
And just 21 seconds after intermission, junior Tyler Ruegsegger made it 2-2, assisted by juniors Brian Gifford and Rhett Rakhshani.
“At that point in time the game kind of changed,” Gwozdecky said. “It really became much more of a defensive battle, defensive struggle. The effects of that first period were still there, the crowd was still into it.”
The entire second period was a battle, and the Badgers were able to score a goal in the third period to give them the lead, 3-2.
With a little over one minute remaining, Denver pulled Cheverie, and in a dramatic ending with late game heroics, with only 14.4 seconds left, freshman Joe Colborne scored the game-tying goal for the second week in a row.
The game carried into overtime, and in 41 seconds Gifford backhanded a shot to steal the win.
“I thought that the good thing was that we showed an awful lot of resiliency and courage in hanging in there in a game we were being outplayed, and in a game where it just doesn’t seem that anything other than the score was close and yet we did all the things we needed to do, and when it came to crunch time we were the team that didn’t blink,” Gwozdecky said.
Saturday was a much different story. Denver claimed a 3-0 lead in the first period with goals from freshman Luke Salazar, Rakhshani and sophomore Dustin Jackson.
After the first period, Wisconsin pulled goalie Shane Connelly, but Patrick Wiercioch upped the lead to 4-0 on the power-play.
“It was unreal,” Wiercioch said on his goal in front of a crowd of 15,237 people.
Sophomore Anthony Maiani made it 5-0 with a 5-on-3 man advantage in the final period.
Denver was outshot 80-50 in the series and improved to 13-2-2 all-time at the Kohl center.
The Pioneers will host St. Cloud State on Friday and Saturday, ending their five-game road stretch. The puck is slated to drop at 7:37 p.m. on Friday and 7:07 p.m. on Sunday.
“We feel a lot more comfortable playing at home,” Wiercioch said. “When you play on the road it’s almost like you’re just trying to score, trying just to get points. But we feel we should be winning at home and we should be taking control of the game.”
Denver will conclude the regular season on March 7 against Colorado College.
