Box Score Pioneers are unbeaten in five straight
DENVER-Sophomore goaltender Wade Dubielewicz (Invermere, B.C.) made 28 saves to record his fourth victory of the season and senior Bjorn Engstrom (Delta, B.C.) scored two goals to help the University of Denver hockey team defeat No. 7 Minnesota 4-1 Saturday night in a WCHA battle at Magness Arena. With the win, Denver earns its first regular-season sweep over Minnesota since the 1994-95 season, and first regular-season home sweep of the Gophers since the 1978-79 season.
Minnesota came out in the first period and took control of the game early, dominating the Pioneers in the offensive zone and shutting down Denver's attack in the neutral zone. The Gophers celebrated an early goal when forward Stuart Senden chipped in a loose puck from the left side of the crease after Dubielewicz made an initial save to give Minnesota a 1-0 lead at 3:52. Denver was unable to put much of an offensive attack together in the frame and ended the period being out-shot 12-5.
The Pioneers turned the tide early in the second stanza on a man-advantage opportunity when Engstrom fired a one-timer from inside the blue-line that beat Minnesota net-minder Adam Hauser in the five-hole to knot the game 1-1 at 2:23. Denver continued to attack the Gophers and broke the tie midway through the period when Engstrom and senior Kelly Popadynetz (Calgary, Alberta) skated into the zone on a 2-2 break. Popadynetz fed a wide-open Engstrom who slapped a one-timer into the top right corner of the net over Hauser's glove to give the Pioneers a 2-1 lead at 10:45.
Minnesota opened the third period by peppering Dubielewicz with shot after shot but was unable to capitalize on scoring chances. Denver, on its third power play of the game, scored again when freshman Connor James (Calgary, Alberta) found a loose puck on the left side the net and flipped it over the stick of a diving Hauser to tally his first career goal and extend Denver's lead to 3-1 at 7:43. The Gophers pulled Hauser late in the contest and suffered another blow after freshman Matt Weber (Binghamton, N.Y.) added an empty net goal at 18:40 to ice the weekend sweep and give the Pioneers their final margin of victory.
Denver's special teams were spectacular again against Minnesota's power play unit, ranked No. 2 in the nation. The Pioneers killed three man-advantage tries and allowed only three shots in the game and successfully killed off all 12 power play tries in the series. The Gophers extended their scoreless power play streak to 18 straight attempts over the last five games. Denver capitalized three times on twelve attempts in the series and added short handed goal. In addition, Dubielewicz lowered his goals-against average to 2.33 for the season and made 61 saves over the weekend. He has 118 in his last three starts.
"In my mind, there is no question that the person who was the difference this weekend was Wade Dubielewicz," said head coach George Gwozdecky. "He was calm, efficient and confident with his play. Minnesota came at us really hard in the first period but Wade kept us in the game. We came out in the second and negated all of their hard work. That's what a quality goaltender can do; no matter how hard they worked, he was solid as a rock."
"We weren't pleased with how well we played the last 20 minutes of last night (Denver's 4-0 weekend-opening win). We were reckless last night, but tonight we did a great job of building and protecting our lead. This was a great weekend for us. I think we're starting to jell, but we have a tough weekend coming up at a place in which we haven't had a lot of success. But we're obviously happy with the way things went this weekend."
The Pioneers will travel North to battle WCHA foe Alaska-Anchorage in a two-game weekend series this Friday and Saturday, December 8th and 9th. Face off is slated for 9:35 p.m. MST both nights.
DENVER HOCKEYat Denver, Colo. (Magness Arena)DENVER 4, No. 7 Minnesota 1Goals by Period 1 2 3 - FNo. 7 Minnesota (9-5-2, 7-3-2 WCHA) 1 0 0 - 1DENVER (6-7-1, 5-5-0 WCHA) 0 2 2 - 41st period - 1, MINN, Senden, Stuart 2 (Westrum, Erik, Koalska, Matt) 03:52. Penalties - Angell, Nick, MINN (HOLDING) 16:16.2nd period - 2, DENVER, Engstrom, Bjorn 4 (Caldwell, Ryan, Paradise, Chris) 02:23 (pp). 3, DENVER, Engstrom 5 (Popadynetz, Kelly) 10:45. Penalties - Martin, Joey, MINN (HOLDING THE STICK) 01:43; Bianchin, Jordan, DENVER (CONTACT WITH GOALIE) 03:15; Caldwell, Ryan, DENVER (TRIPPING) 11:46; Vines, Bryan, DENVER (INTERFERENCE) 18:31.3rd period - 4, DENVER, James, Connor 1 (MacKenzie, Aaron, Dora, Lukas) 09:36 (pp). 5, DENVER, Weber, Matt 7 (Engstrom, MacKenzie) 18:40 (empty net). Penalties - Westrum, Erik, MINN (SLASHING) 00:29; Tharp, Ben, MINN (BOARDING) 07:43; Potulny, Grant, MINN (SLASHING) 12:45; Westrum, MINN (CROSS-CHECKING) 13:03.Shots on goal - MINN 12-7-10-29; DENVER 5-10-5-20.Power plays - MINN 0 of 3; DENVER 2 of 5.Goalies - MINN, Hauser, Adam 9-5-2 (19 shots-16 saves); DENVER, Dubielewicz, Wade 4-3-1 (29-28).Att. - 4275. T - 2:18. Three stars: 1. Engstrom; 2. Dubielewicz; 3. James. Win - Dubielewicz (4-3-1). Loss - Hauser (9-5-2).
