Tom May (Eagan, Minn.), Anthony Maiani (Shelby Township, Mich.) and Tyler Ruegsegger (Lakewood, Colo.) recorded a goal apiece as the No. 2/3 Denver Pioneers (17-4-0, 12-3-0 WCHA) earned a 3-2 victory over No. 17 University of Wisconsin (8-10-3, 4-8-1 WCHA) Friday night before 6,114 fans at Magness Arena.

The Badgers rallied from a 3-0 deficit and nearly tied the game in the waning seconds, but a Matthew Ford shot crossed the goal line shortly after time had expired, giving the Pioneers their seventh consecutive win.

“We played extremely well in the first two periods. There were a lot of unknowns with so much time off, but I was very pleased with our transition game, intensity and relentlessness on the puck,” Denver head coach George Gwozdecky said. “Give full credit to Wisconsin, they battled like crazy and did everything they needed to do.”

May opened the scoring at 7:20 of the opening frame after skating past Wisconsin defenseman Ryan McDonagh and putting a wrist shot over Shane Connelly’s (24 saves) left shoulder.

The Pioneers took a 2-0 lead heading into the first intermission when Maiani redirected a feed from Kyle Ostrow (Calgary, Alberta) past Connelly at 9:58.

Ruegsegger made it a three-goal game at 4:28 of the second period when he tipped in a pass from Ostrow with DU on the power play. Brock Trotter (Brandon, Manitoba) was also credited with an assist on the play, extending his point streak to five games (5-7--12).

Wisconsin got one back before the end of the second as Aaron Bendickson redirected a Kyle Turris shot from the high slot past Peter Mannino (Farmington Hills, Mich.) at 18:34 with the Badgers on the power play.

Sean Dolan scored for Wisconsin 1:55 into the third period, but Mannino (23 saves) and the Pioneers shut the door down the stretch.

DU outshot UW, 27-25, while both teams went 1-for-3 on the power play.

Notes: Tonight marked the 69th consecutive regular season sellout at Magness Arena...Ruegsegger and Rhett Rakhshani (Huntington Beach, Calif.) returned to the lineup after helping Team USA to a 4-2 mark and fourth-place finish at the 2008 IIHF World Junior Championship in the Czech Republic...Denver (2004 & 2005) and Wisconsin (2006) have captured three of the last four NCAA National Championships...The Pioneers improved to 12-1-0 when scoring first and 15-0-0 when holding its opponents to two goals or less.