Jan. 28, 2005
Box Score
DENVER - Senior forward Luke Fulghum (Colorado Springs, Colo.) tallied his second career hat trick to lead the fifth-ranked Denver Pioneers to an 8-4 win over Alaska Anchorage tonight in WCHA action in front of 6,105 fans at Magness Arena. With the win, Denver improves its record to 17-6-1 overall and 12-4-1 in the WCHA, while the Seawolves drop to 7-13-3, 5-12-2.
"This team was finally ready to play on a Friday night," head coach George Gwozdecky said. "We came out strong in the first shift and had great scoring chances. We had 10 players share in the scoring effort which says a lot about our team."
After allowing an early goal to the Seawolves, the Pioneers bounced back to score two even-strength goals and two power-play goals for a 4-2 first-period lead. Fulghum led the effort with two goals, while sophomore Matt Carle (Anchorage, Alaska) added a goal and three assists and senior Kevin Ulanski (Madison, Wis.) tallied a goal for Denver.
Denver scored three more goals in the second and one in the third to solidify the victory and extend its winning streak to four games. The Pioneers are the highest scoring team in NCAA Division I play with an average of 4.33 goals per game.
The Pioneers outshot the Seawolves, 47-27, and went 4-for-6 on the power play. Denver limited Anchorage to a 1-for-6 effort with the man-advantage.
Ten Denver players tallied points in tonight's win. Carle lead the pack with four, while Paul Stastny (St. Louis, Mo.) tallied a career-high three assists. Fulghum, Gabe Gauthier (Buena Park, Calif.), and Brett Skinner (Brandon, Manitoba) each marked three points. Ulanski added two points while Jon Foster (Suffern, N.Y.), Ryan Dingle (Steamboat Springs, Colo.), Jeff Drummond (Leduc, Alberta) and Geoff Paukovich (Englewood, Colo.) each tallied one.
The Pioneers welcomed Olympic Gold Medalist Rulon Gardner into the locker room following their impressive victory. Gardner capturd Gold in Greco-Roman wrestling at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia. He was a special guest of current Pioneer Danny King (Colorado Springs, Colo.).
The Pioneers and Seawolves will play game two of the series tomorrow night at 7:07 p.m. MT.
