Oct. 13, 2006

Box Score

ST. CLOUD, Minn. - Sophomore Patrick Mullen's (Pittsburgh, Pa.) goal at 2:50 in overtime lifted the No. 11/12 Denver Pioneers to a 4-3 win over No. 16 St. Cloud State in WCHA play tonight before 5,986 fans at National Hockey Center. Senior Glenn Fisher (Edmonton, Alberta) stopped a career-high 47 shots and junior Andrew Thomas (Bow, N.H.) tallied a career-best two-point effort in the win. Redshirt freshman Brock Trotter (Brandon, Manitoba) and Tyler Ruegsegger (Lakewood, Colo.) added one goal each, and freshman Rhett Rakhshani (Huntington Beach, Calif.) and senior J.D. Corbin (Littleton, Colo.) added two assists each. With the win, DU improves to 2-1 overall and 1-0 in the WCHA. SCSU falls to 0-1 overall and 0-1 in the WCHA.

"Glenn gave us a tremendous effort in goal tonight," DU head coach George Gwozdecky said. "I am pleased with the win, but there's a ton of room for improvement."

SCSU outshot the Pioneers, 50-23, and battled came back from a 3-1 deficit to send the game to overtime. After SCSU killed off a DU power-play at 2:37 of overtime, Mullen one-time a feed from Corbin from the right faceoff circle past SCSU goaltender Bobby Goepfert (19 saves) 13 seconds later for his second consecutive game-winning goal. Mullen also extended his goal scoring streak to three games.

Fisher stopped 17 shots in the first period, 14 shots in the second and 16 shots in the third to improve to 2-0 this season. He bested his previous career high by eight saves with the stellar effort.

DU weathered a fast start by the Huskies and took a 1-0 lead when Trotter scored at 12:48 of the first period. Trotter deaked Goepfert in the low slot and tucked in his first goal of the season through the five-hole. Ruegsegger tallied his first goal of the season when he netted a rebound off a Rakhshani shot at 17:05. The Huskies outshot DU, 17-8, in the period, but Fisher kept the home team off the scoreboard with several big saves.

Thomas made it 3-0 when he fired a shot off of Goepfert's leg and into the net at 6:58 of the second period. SCSU made it 3-1 when Andrew Gordon solved Fisher 24 seconds later. The Huskies cut the lead to one goal when John Swanson scored at the end of a 5-on-3 advantage at 18:19. SCSU outshot DU, 16-7, in the period and carried a 33-15 shot advantage into the third period.

SCSU took advantage of a checking-from-behind and game misconduct penalty on Ruegsegger when Andreas Nodl tipped a Justin Fletcher blast past Fisher high to the stick side at 12:17 of the third period. The Pioneers burned off a SCSU 5-on-3 advantage for 1 minute and 48 seconds, but Fletcher's power-play goal tied it at 3-3.

DU went 0-for-2 on the power play in the game, while SCSU was 2-for-8.

The teams play game two of the series tomorrow night. Puck drop is set for 6:07 p.m. MT.