Oct. 27, 2001
Box Score
Sophomore Greg Barber's (Delta, British Columbia) third-period goal with 15 minutes remaining lifted the fifth-ranked University of Denver hockey team to a 3-2 win over Alaska Anchorage in Western Collegiate Hockey Association action Saturday night at Magness Arena. Denver (4-0-0, 2-0-0 WCHA) begins the season with four wins for the first time since 1998, while the Seawolves fall to 1-4-1, 0-2-0.
As they did in Friday's win, the Pioneers started the scoring early when senior center Chris Paradise (St. Paul, Minn.) took advantage of a misplayed clear attempt by Anchorage goaltender Kevin Reiter for his first goal of the season. The Seawolf netminder went behind his own goal to clear the puck out, and fell down after being challenged by sophomore winger Connor James (Calgary, Alberta), who fed Paradise in front of a virtually open net. Then with less than seven minutes to play, the Pioneers thought they had extended that lead to two goals when sophomore Max Bull (Faribault, Minn.) redirected a shot from senior Erik Adams (Thunder Bay, Ontario). The puck appeared to have beaten Reiter, but popped out on the opposite side. Less than two minutes later, the Seawolves notched the equalizer when Petr Chytka beat Denver's Adam Berkhoel (Woodbury, Minn.) to knot the contest at 1-1.
"I really liked the way we played the first 10 minutes, and the third period," said head coach George Gwozdecky. "Tonight was a tough game, we made it a little more exciting than I would have liked, but the team did a great job with their shot selection and on the power play. We fiddled with the line of Matt Weber, Chris Paradise and Connor James, and that kind of ignited all three of them."
Alaska Anchorage took its first lead of the series - and first overall against the Pioneers since Jan. 29, 2000 - when Chytka notched his second marker of the night at 2:51 of the second period. James tied the score at 2-all with 9:09 left in the second when he took a centering pass in the zone from junior Matt Weber (Binghamton, N.Y.), tried a low shot under Reiter's right side and went top-shelf on his own rebound for Denver's first power-play tally of the night.
Denver went back on top just 5:31 into the third period when sophomore winger Lukas Dora (Lednice, Czech Republic) sent a behind-the-back pass to his right at the blue line, where a streaking Barber fired a slap shot through Reiter's five-hole for his second goal of the season.
The Pioneers return to action next weekend (Nov. 2-3) with a home-and-home weekend series against in-state rival and WCHA foe Colorado College. Denver will battle CC in Colorado Springs on Friday at 7:35 p.m., and host the Tigers on Saturday at 7:05 p.m. at Magness Arena. All times are Mountain Time.
