Feb. 13, 2004

Box Score

Freshman Matt Carle (Anchorage, Alaska) scored two goals and added two assists for a career-high four points to lead the 12th-ranked Denver Pioneers to a convincing 7-1 win over Minnesota State, Mankato in WCHA action tonight at Magness Arena. Senior Adam Berkhoel (Woodbury, Minn.) stopped 22 shots for his 45th career win at Denver, and juniors Jon Foster (Suffern, N.Y.) and Jeff Drummond (Leduc, Alberta) scored two goals each as Denver improves to 17-10-4 overall and 7-10-4 in the WCHA. Minnesota State falls to 6-18-5 and 5-14-4.

"We really earned this win tonight," head coach George Gwozdecky said. "I liked our approach to the game. We played with a great deal of intensity. We didn't get careless or lazy. We have struggled to put pucks in the net, but tonight it was refreshing to see us score seven goals."

Carle assisted on two goals in the second period and scored two goals in the third as Denver recorded its most dominating WCHA win of the season. Foster scored Denver's first goal at 13:45 of the first stanza and added his second tally of the night in the second. Drummond recorded his second two goal game of the year, including the game winner on the power play at 7:20 of the first period.

Freshman Adrian Veideman (Sicamous, British Columbia) added one goal and one assist for his second career multi-point game. Minnesota State denied Berkhoel his fifth shutout of the season when Kyle Peto scored on the power play with just 16 seconds left in the game.

Denver outshot Minnesota State, 41-23, and converted two-of-seven power-play opportunities. Denver held Minnesota State to just one power-play goal on nine opportunities.

Berkhoel (22 saves) improved his record to 14-9-3 and moved into sole possession of eighth place on Denver's career wins list. Minnesota State's Jon Volp made 34 saves in the loss.

The teams will play game two of the series tomorrow night at 7:05 p.m. MT.