Dec. 17, 2005
Box Score
DULUTH, Minn. - Sophomore Peter Mannino (Farmington Hills, Mich.) made 30 saves and freshman Chris Butler (St. Louis, Mo.) and sophomore Paul Stastny (St. Louis, Mo.) tallied one goal and one assist each as the No. 13 Denver Pioneers completed a two-game road sweep with a 3-1 win over Minnesota Duluth before 4,645 fans tonight at the DECC. Junior Mike Handza (Glenshaw, Pa.) broke a personal 36-game scoring drought with the game-winning goal late in the second period as the Pioneers (11-7-2, 8-4-2 WCHA) recovered from a fast start by Minnesota Duluth (7-10-3, 5-6-3 WCHA) to complete its first WCHA road sweep of the season.
"We are really proud of our team," head coach George Gwozdecky said. "We treated this weekend like it was playoff hockey and our team really responded. Our goaltenders were on their game and the rest of our players fed off of their play."
UMD led 1-0 in the opening stanza after outshooting the Pioneers 10-5. Michael Gergen's blast beat Mannino glove side at 4:49, but Mannino made several key stops to keep it a one-goal game and finished the period with nine saves.
DU took a 2-1 lead after two periods after goals from Butler and Handza. DU scored a goal on a 5-on-3 advantage for the second consecutive game when Butler rattled in a wrist shot from Dingle and Carle at 10:35 of the second period. Handza broke out of his scoring slump with a one-timer from Butler and Stastny at 19:30. DU closed the gap in shots by outshooting the hosts 15-12 in the period.
Stastny iced the game at 6:02 of the third period when he ripped a shot by Isaac Reichmuth (28 saves) at 6:02 of the third period. J.P. Testwuide (Vail, Colo.) dug the puck out of the neutral zone and feed Stastny who fought off a Bulldog defender to beat Reichmuth. Mannino took over the rest of the way and earned his sixth win of the season and third win in his last four games. The Pioneers killed off a late UMD power play to earn their sixth win in seven games.
DU and UMD each finished with 31 shots on goal, but the Pioneers finished 1-for-4 on the power play while UMD finished 0-for-6.
DU returns to action at the 14th Annual Wells Fargo Denver Cup on Dec. 30-31. Boston College, Ferris State and Princeton join DU in the four-team field. The Pioneers host Princeton at 7:07 p.m. MT on Dec. 31 in the second semifinal.
