April 7, 2005

Recap | Box Score | Quotes | Photo Gallery

Semifinal Game One * Thursday, April 7, 2005
Jerome Schottenstein Center * Columbus, Ohio
Denver 6, Colorado College 2
Attendance - 17,116

GENERAL TOURNAMENT NOTES

• Ohio State is the first school to host the Frozen Four on campus, since North Dakota hosted the Frozen Four in 1983 in Grand Forks.
• The last time two teams combined for five power-play goals in a game in NCAA Tournament play was March 23, 2001, Maine vs. Minnesota. Maine was 3-for-7, while Minnesota was 2-for-5. Maine won the game in overtime, 5-4. No team in the last five NCAA Tournaments has scored four or more power-play goals in a game. Colorado College and Denver combined for eight power-play goals today.
• Brett Skinner is the first player since Adam Oates (Rensselaer) to collect four assists in a NCAA Semifinal game. Oates collected four assists against Minnesota Duluth on March 29, 1985. Skinner is the eighth player to record four assists in a NCAA Semifinal game.
• Gerald Tallarie of Lake Superior State was the last player to record four assists in NCAA Tournament play: April 2, 1994 v. Boston University (NCAA Championship game).
• Attendance for Semifinal No. 1 is 17,116.
• The last team to win seven straight NCAA Tournament games was Minnesota, spanning the 2002 and 2003 NCAA Tournaments. Denver is currently on a seven-game NCAA Tournament winning streak. The last time Denver lost in NCAA Tournament play was March 23, 2002, a 5-3 loss to Michigan in Ann Arbor.
• Denver will play in the championship game for the ninth time overall.
• The last team to score six or more goals in NCAA Tournament play was Colorado College over Colgate, 6-5 on March 25. The last time a team scored six or more goals in the Frozen Four was Maine over New Hampshire (NSF), April 4, 2002 XCel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn., 7-2.

DENVER PIONEERS

• Junior forward Gabe Gauthier leads the 2005 NCAA Tournament in scoring with 5-4-9 in three games. He has posted 6-5-11 in seven career tournament games, and he is the leading active scorer in the 2005 NCAA Tournament. Thomas Vanek from Minnesota is the last player to score five goals in a single NCAA Tournament (2003). Gauthier has a four-game point scoring steak in the NCAA Tournament with 6-4-10 in that time. He has notched a point in seven of his last eight games with 9-7-16 during that stretch. Thomas Vanek of Minnesota (2003) and Steve Kariya of Maine (1999) were the last two players to score eight points in the past 10 NCAA Tournaments. Gerald Tallaire of Lake Superior State was the most recent player to post 10 points in Tournament play with 3-7-10 in 1994.
• Senior forward Luke Fulghum scored Denver's first goal in the semifinal game for the second straight Frozen Four. Fulghum scored Denver's first goal in the 2004 semifinal against Minnesota Duluth at 11:40 of the second period. Fulghum has scored three goals in three career Frozen Four games. Fulghum posted his fifth career two-goal game. He leads Denver with five goals in eight tournament games and he is tied with Brett Sterling of Colorado College as the NCAA active goal scoring leader with five goals each.
• Junior defenseman Brett Skinner registered his seventh career assist in the NCAA Tournament with four assists in the semifinal today, a career-mark for points and assists in a game by Skinner. Skinner currently leads the nation among blueliners with 35 assists this season.
• Sophomore defenseman Matt Carle with his goal today is now tied for the national lead among Division I defensemen with 13 goals, along with Reid Cashman (Quinnipiac), Bryan Schmidt (Merrimack) and Brian Yandle (New Hampshire).
• Freshman goalie Peter Mannino made his second career NCAA start today, he posted 31 saves in his first career NCAA start vs. New Hampshire in the Northeast Regional final in Amherst, Mass. In two career NCAA starts, Mannino is 2-0-0 with a 2.00 GAA and a .947 save percentage. It also marks only the second time this season that Mannino has gotten back-to-back starts, the first occurrence came on Nov. 13 vs. Colorado College and Nov. 19 vs. Minnesota. The last time Mannino allowed a goal vs. Colorado College was Nov. 13, 2004 (Aaron Slattengren; 17:27 of the 2nd period, DU W, 6-3). The Tigers goal at 9:49 of the second period snapped Mannino's shutout streak vs. Colorado College at 172:22.
• Denver kept Colorado College scoreless for seven periods of play, which included a shutout streak of 153 minutes and 52 seconds. The last time Colorado College had scored a goal against Denver was March 3rd at World Arena (Marty Sertich; 15:57 of the third period).
• The last time that Denver had scored four power play goals in a game was Feb. 26, 2005 at Minnesota State. It marked the fifth time this season that Denver posted three or more power-play goals.
• Denver is now 29-0-1 when leading or tied after two periods.

COLORADO COLLEGE TIGERS

• Sophomore defenseman Brian Salcido posted his second goal of the tournament with 2-2-4 in three tournament games. Salcido also registered the first CC goal against Colgate at 2:29 of the first period in the opening round of the 2005 NCAA Tournament. Salcido became the fourth Tiger to post 30 points for the season.
• It marks only the second time this season that Colorado College has allowed four or more power play goals, the other occurrences were Dec. 4 vs. Minnesota (4 for 6). Colorado College last allowed 11 power-plays on October 22, 2004 against Air Force.
• The last time the Tigers outshot an opponent and lost the game was March 4, 2005 at Denver a 5-0 loss, CC outshot Denver 31-29. Colorado College outshot Denver 43-29.