DENVER - The Denver Pioneers earned its first win of the season, outlasting Western Collegiate Hockey Association opponent St. Cloud State, 3-1, in St. Cloud, Minn. Saturday (Nov. 28) night. It was a solid defensive effort from the entire Denver squad, as freshman goaltender Adam Berkhoel (Woodbury, Minn.) earned his first career victory in front of 5,000 Husky fans at the National Hockey Center.

"This was a typically WCHA weekend," said Denver head coach George Gwozdecky. "I am proud of our team and thought they played well. It was not the greatest start, giving up the early goal. But, we came back well and really dominated at times."

The Huskies (4-1-1, 1-1-0 WCHA) opened the scoring just over one minute into the game as SCSU1s Joe Motzko took a cross-ice feed from teammate Mark Hartigan and beat Berkhoel. Denver answered four minutes later as junior defenseman Jesse Cook (Englewood, Colo.) took a shot from the blue line on Husky goaltender Scott Meyer. Meyer made the initial save, but senior forward Kelly Popadynetz (Calgary, Alberta) stuck home the rebound to notch his first goal of the season and tie the game, 1-1. The first period would end just as it did last night, with the two teams skating to a 1-1 tie.

The Pioneers (1-3-0, 1-1-0 WCHA) came out fired up for the second period and broke the 1-1 tie when sophomore Matt Weber (Binghampton, N.Y.) set up junior David Neale (Victoria, British Columbia), who beat Meyer to post his first goal of the season and give Denver its first lead of the series, 2-1 at the 5:09 mark. The Pioneers had a great opportunity to take a two-goal lead with less than seven minutes to play in the second. Skating four-on-four, Denver put great pressure on the Husky defense and Meyer. Popadynetz made a great play to beat three Husky defenders and centered the puck to a wide-open Bryan Vines (Oakville, Ontario) . Meyer slide across the goal, stacking the pads to rob the Pioneer defenseman. The second period would end with the Pioneers taking a 2-1 lead into the locker room, as both teams traded opportunities but could not notch another tally. After the teams combined for just three penalties in the first period, the teams were called for 10 penalties in the second, resulting in four power-play opportunities for the Pioneers and three for St. Cloud State.

St. Cloud State opened the third period with 1:24 remaining on a power-play. Denver killed that penalty to hold the 2-1 lead. The penalty kill seemed to energize the Pioneers as the defense tightened up and held the Huskies in check. With the one goal lead and 2:23 remaining, Neale was called for a two-minutes penalty for holding. That penalty gave SCSU the power-play chance and the opportunity to pull even. Just ten seconds into the power-play, St. Cloud centered the puck to an open teammate who wristed a shot on goal. Berkhoel slide across the net to make a tremendous save and hold the Pioneer lead. Just as the penalty ended to Neale, sophomore Kevin Doell (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan) iced the game with an empty net goal to seal the Pioneers first victory of the season.

Denver forced Husky netminder Scott Meyer to make 32 saves, while Berkhoel was not nearly as tested, seeing 21 SCSU shots, stopping 20.

3We needed a big game out of our goaltender and Adam gave that to us,2 said Gwozdecky. 3I couldn1t be happier for him. He is going to have one great career for the Pioneers. This is a tough place to play and he did a great job tonight.2

Denver will host the defending national champions, North Dakota, at Magness Arena next Friday and Saturday (November 3-4). The puck is slated to drop at 7:35 p.m. Friday and 7:05 p.m. Saturday.