Dec. 16, 2005

Box Score

DULUTH, Minn. - Junior Glenn Fisher (Edmonton, Alberta) stopped a career-high 39 shots and co-captain Matt Carle (Anchorage, Alaska) tallied one goal and two assists to lead the No. 13 Denver Pioneers to a 4-2 victory over Minnesota Duluth before 4,895 fans tonight at the DECC. Sophomore Paul Stastny (St. Louis, Mo.) recorded three assists and freshman Chris Butler (St. Louis, Mo.) chipped in one goal and an assist as the Pioneers (10-7-2, 7-4-2 WCHA) earned two important league points against Minnesota Duluth (7-9-3, 5-5-3 WCHA).

"Glenn Fisher was outstanding tonight," head coach George Gwozdecky said. "A team needs great goaltending on the road and Glenn gave us that tonight. We made a couple of mistakes, but I'm pleased with the win. We'll need a more complete effort tomorrow night."

UMD outshot DU, 41-23, but Fisher continued his hot play with his third consecutive win. He stopped 14 shots in the first and second periods, and completed the win with 11 saves in the final stanza. Fisher keyed DU's 6-for-6 effort on the penalty kill by stopping nine Bulldog shots with the man-advantage.

After surrendering a shorthanded goal to Matt McKnight, the Pioneers scored the next three goals to take a two-goal lead after the first period. Carle one-timed a feed from Butler on a 5-on-3 advantage at 6:57 and Tom May (Eagan, Minn.) wristed a beauty past UMD goalie Josh Johnson at 12:56. Butler's power-play goal from Stastny and Carle at 17:36 closed-out the scoring. UMD outshot the Pioneers, 15-11, as Fisher stopped 14 UMD shots.

UMD's Jason Garrison cut the DU lead to 3-2 at 3:18 of the second period, but the Pioneers regained the two-goal lead on Ryan Helgason's (Woodbury, Minn.) seventh goal of the season. The Bulldogs outshot DU, 15-8, but Fisher turned in another stellar period with 14 saves. Fisher stopped a point-blank breakaway Mike Curry at 18:58 to preserve the two-goal lead.

The teams played a scoreless final period as Fisher made 11 saves. UMD pulled goaltender Isaac Reichmuth, who replaced Josh Johnson at the start of the second period, for most of the final 2 minutes and 25 seconds, but couldn't slide the puck past Fisher. The Pioneers finished 2-for-5 on the power play.

DU and UMD play game two of the series tomorrow night at 6:07 p.m. MT. The game will be broadcast live on KCKK AM 1600 and DenverPioneers.com.