April 8, 2004
Box Score?|? Quotes
BOSTON - Senior forward Lukas Dora (Lednice, Czech Republic) scored the game-winner with 11:35 left Thursday as the University of Denver Pioneers rallied from a two-goal deficit to beat Minnesota Duluth 5-3 in the NCAA hockey semifinals and advance to the Frozen Four championship game.
Denver trailed 2-0 and 3-1 before getting four consecutive goals - the first two when Sophomore forward Gabe Gauthier (Buena Park, Calif.) and senior defenseman Ryan Caldwell (Deloranie, Manitoba) scored 34 seconds apart to tie it just 3:04 into the third period. Five minutes later, Dora skated across the ice and fought off a defender to slip the puck between Isaac Reichmuth's pads.
Senior goaltender Adam Berkhoel (Woodbury, Minn.) stopped 26 shots for the Pioneers (26-12-5), which will play for their first championship since 1969 on Saturday night against the winner of the late semifinal between Boston College (29-8-4) and Maine (32-7-3).
The Western Collegiate Hockey Association foes had already played twice this season, with Duluth winning both games back in January.
Junior Lessard scored two power-play goals, and Reichmuth made 25 saves for Minnesota Duluth (28-13-4). He was pulled for the last 1:25; Duluth knocked one in with 32.2 seconds left, but the goal was disallowed because Tyler Brosz was in the crease before he barreled into the goaltender and dislodged the puck.
Senior forward Greg Keith (Delta, B.C.) added an empty-netter with 7.8 seconds left to clinch it.
The leading scorer in the nation with 32 goals and 63 points, Lessard is one of three finalists for the Hobey Baker Award that will be given to college hockey's top player Friday. He is the only one of the three who made it to the Frozen Four as a player, too.
Lessard opened the scoring just 1:09 into the game when he took a pass from behind the net and - with one skate on the goal line - two-handed into the upper corner of the net to make it 1-0. Brosz made it 2-0 just 3:25 later when he got a pass from the face off and wristed it under the leg of a defender, off the post and into the net.
Denver didn't muster much offense until junior forward Luke Fulghum (Colorado Springs, Colo.) poked a rebound through Reichmuth's pads with 8:20 left in the second period to make it 2-1.
But Lessard made it a two-goal game again after Tim Stapleton stole the puck at center ice and fed it to Brian Schwabe. He brought it down the left side before sending it across the ice to Lessard, who beat Berkhoel with 4:25 left in the second period.
Then the Pioneers came back.
Sophomore defenseman Brett Skinner (Brandon, Manitoba) took a pass off a faceoff and slid over to his right before wristing the puck toward the net. It hit Gauthier's stick on the way into the goal.
Just 34 seconds later, Fulghum outraced Schwabe to a loose puck that was rolling slowly toward the Duluth goal. He swatted it over to Caldwell, who was all alone in front of the net and beat Reichmuth to tie the game with 16:56 left in the third.
JIMMY GOLEN AP Sports Writer
For Starters
* Denver will appear in the NCAA national championship game for the eighth time in school history. The Pioneers are 5-2 in seven title games with five national championships.
* The Pioneers have captured NCAA titles in 1958, 1960, 1961, 1968 and 1969.
* Denver will appear in the NCAA national championship game for the first time since 1969 when the team defeated Cornell, 4-3, in Colorado Springs, Colo.
* Head coach George Gwozdecky will appear in his first NCAA championship game as a head coach. He captured NCAA titles as a player in 1977 at Wisconsin and as an assistant coach at Michigan State in 1986.
* Gwozdecky has led the Pioneers to the NCAA Tournament five times in 10 seasons. Gwozdecky is 5-5 in 10 career NCAA tournament games at Miami (Ohio) and Denver. The Pioneers advanced to the NCAAs in 1995, 1997, 1999, 2002 and 2004 under Gwozdecky, while Miami qualified in 1993. on March 27.
* Denver is 5-10-0 all time against Maine.
* Five different players scored in Denver's 5-3 win over Minnesota-Duluth in the NCAA semifinal game.
* Denver scored four unanswered goals in the third period to rally back from two two-goal deficits in the first two periods.
* The last time Denver came back to win after a trailing by two or more goals was March 1, 2003 when the Pioneers defeated North Dakota, 4-3, in overtime to clinch the MacNaughton Cup.
* Denver is 15-8 (.652) all-time at the Frozen Four, including a 4-3 mark in Boston.
* The Pioneers 5-3 win over Minnesota-Duluth snapped a five-game losing streak in the Frozen Four.
* Denver is 20-13 (.606) all-time in 17 NCAA tournament appearances.
