The No. 6 Denver Pioneers kicked off their 60th season of varsity hockey tonight with a 5-2 win over the No. 3/4 Notre Dame Fighting Irish before 6,066 fans at Magness Arena in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Game.
Luke Salazar (Thornton, Colo.) scored his first two collegiate goals and added an assist to lead the Pioneers. Tyler Ruegsegger (Lakewood, Colo.), Patrick Wiercioch (Maple Ridge, British Columbia) and Anthony Maiani (Shelby Township, Mich.) also scored for DU, which improved its all-time record to 1,207-821-109 (.590) with the victory.
“It was an interesting game, because I thought they really carried the play and gave us all kinds of problems in the first period,” Denver head coach George Gwozdecky said. “We were fortunate to come out of the first period with a tie. The thing I liked was that I really thought we got better as the game went on.”
The teams headed into the first intermission tied 1-1. Billy Maday beat DU netminder Marc Cheverie (Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia) at 3:30 of the opening frame, but Ruegsegger notched a power-play tally at 13:57 to even the contest.
“We just wanted to come out and work hard. We worked on some things in practice, getting some rebounds and things like that,” said Ruegsegger. “It was a tough start to the game, so I think to get that first goal on the board was important to us.”
Both Cheverie and Notre Dame netminder Jordan Pearce stood tall during a scoreless second period. Pearce totaled 11 stops in the frame, while Cheverie had seven - including a spectacular sliding stop on Kevin Deeth with 1:50 left in the period.
The Pioneers scored four straight goals to open the third period.
Salazar gave DU a 2-1 lead at 4:35 on his first collegiate goal. The freshman worked a give-and-go with senior defenseman Patrick Mullen (Pittsburgh, Pa.) before putting a low shot on net that trickled underneath Pearce.
Salazar notched his second marker of the game at 7:15 to extend the Pioneers’ lead to two goals. After a Jesse Martin (Edmonton, Alberta) point shot and a Kyle Ostrow (Calgary, Alberta) rebound attempt were both stopped by Pearce, Salazar knocked the puck home from the edge of the crease.
Wiercioch and Maiani added goals later in the third period, tallying at 8:39 and 12:53, respectively, while Notre Dame’s Justin White rounded out the scoring at 19:07.
Cheverie finished with 23 stops for DU, while Pearce turned aside 26 shots for Notre Dame.
Tonight’s game was the first of DU’s six-game homestand to start the season. Next weekend, the Pioneers will host the Wisconsin Badgers for a pair of contests on Oct. 17-18.
Notes: During the first intermission, the University of Denver recognized the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame class of 2008 Cammi Granato, Brett Hull, Brian Leetch and Mike Richter... The four were enshrined into the Hall during a ceremony Friday night right here at Magness Arena...Hull was in attendance at last night’s ceremony, but wasn’t able to be present tonight, as he was fulfilling his duties as Co-General Manager of the NHL’s Dallas Stars...Denver (1-1) made its second appearance in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Game tonight, while Notre Dame (1-3) was making its fourth...The Pioneers are now 7-1 in their last eight season openers...DU is 55-16 in non-conference action since 2001-02.
