Dec. 16, 2006

Box Score

ANCHORAGE - Junior All-America candidate Ryan Dingle (Steamboat Springs, Colo.) netted the game-winning goal and freshmen Brock Trotter (Brandon, Manitoba) and Rhett Rakhshani (Huntington Beach, Calif.) tallied one goal and one assist each as the No. 12 Denver Pioneers earned a hard-fought 4-2 victory over Alaska Anchorage before 3,372 fans tonight at Sullivan Ice Arena. Freshman Tyler Ruegsegger iced the win with a late third period goal and senior goaltender Glenn Fisher (Edmonton, Alberta) added 26 saves as DU improves to 11-6-2 overall and 7-4-2 in the WCHA. UAA falls to 8-7-2, 6-7-0.

"Our guys really earned this win with a total-team effort," DU head coach George Gwozdecky said. "We battled back in the second and third periods to earn a nice road win. Steven Cook changed the momentum with his effort on our first goal and the Trotter, Dingle and Rakhshani line was really clutch tonight."

Dingle banged in his fourth game-winner of the season after his shot went off the chest of UAA goaltender Jon Olthuis (28 saves) at 14:35 of the third period. Chris Butler (St. Louis, Mo.) started the play and found Rakhshani who slid a pass to a wide open Dingle for the game-winner from the high slot. The deciding goal came 8 minutes and 10 seconds after UAA tied the game on a goal from Mat Robinson at 6:25.

Ruegsegger netted the insurance goal at 18:16 with assists going to Brian Gifford (Moorhead, Minn.) and Tom May (Eagan, Minn.) as the Pioneers extend their unbeaten streak to three games.

The second period featured three goals after a scoreless opening stanza. UAA struck first at 4:38 of the second period on a power-play goal by Luke Beaverson. Justin Bourne intercepted a DU clearing pass and slid the puck to Beaverson who beat Fisher high to the short side from the left faceoff circle.

Trotter tied it at 1-1 when he tucked in a goal past Olthuis at 17:49. Trotter followed his own rebound and Cook was credited with the single assist after a strong second effort to track down the puck deep in the UAA zone.

Rakhshani scored 37 seconds later on the power play when he beat Olthuis in the slot. Trotter and Butler were credited with assists as DU stormed back to take a 2-1 advantage after two periods.

Butler added two assists as DU outshot UAA 32-28 and went 1-for-4 on the power play. The Seawolves went 1-for-3 with the man-advantage.

DU and UAA play game the series finale tomorrow night at 9:07 p.m. MT.

Notes: Six UAA skaters served mandatory one-game suspensions after receiving game disqualification penalties following its 4-3 overtime loss at Colorado College on Dec. 9...A goal by Tom May at 11:55 of the first period was disallowed due to goaltender interference...Freshman forward Brian Gifford and senior forward Mike Handza received a 10-minute misconduct penalties in the second period...DU senior captain Adrian Veideman (concussion) and senior forward Ryan Helgason (hand) missed their third consecutive games with injuries.