DENVER Joe Colborne (Calgary, Alberta) recorded his first career multi-point night to lead the No. 6 University of Denver Pioneers (6-2-1, 4-1-1 WCHA) to a 2-1 victory over the No. 20 Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs (4-3-2, 1-3-1 WCHA) Saturday night before 5,122 fans at Magness Arena.
Anthony Maiani (Shelby Township, Mich.) tallied two assists for DU, while sophomore goaltender Marc Cheverie (Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia) turned aside 27-of-28 shots, including a point blank shot by UMD’s Josh Meyers with 1.7 second remaining, to pick up his sixth victory of the season.
“I have to give our guys a lot of credit,” head coach George Gwozdecky said. “Tonight was a strange game. It was a slow game with a lot of stoppages of play. I thought Marc Cheverie was outstanding tonight. The only goal that got by him was a fluke. Other than that one bad bounce, Marc was flawless.”
The teams skated to a scoreless first period but combined for 14 penalty minutes in the opening stanza, including five penalties for 10 minutes by the Pioneers.
DU took a 1-0 lead at the 14:41 mark of the second period on a power-play goal by Colborne. Maiani centered a pass from the right side and Colborne fired a one-timer past UMD netminder Alex Stalock. Patrick Wiercioch (Maple Ridge, British Columbia) also picked up an assist on the tally.
The Bulldogs netted the equalizer just 3:59 later. Michael Gergen fired a slap shot from just inside the blue line, and the puck deflected into the net off the skate of Cody Brookwell (Calgary, Alberta).
Denver regained the lead with a power-play goal by Tyler Ruegsegger (Lakewood, Colo.) at the 8:16 mark of the third period. Colborne and Maiani assisted on Ruegsegger’s fourth goal of the season.
The Bulldogs outshot the Pioneers 28-20 and went 1-for-8 on the power play. Denver scored on two of its six chances.
Denver takes on St. Cloud State on Nov. 14-15. Puck drop is set for 6:07 MT on both Friday and Saturday night at the National Hockey Center.
Notes: Tyler Bozak leads the Pioneers with 13 points (5g, 8a)... Patrick Mullen (Pittsburgh, Pa.), Luke Salazar (Thornton, Colo.), Wiercioch and Maiani have tallied points in seven of Denver’s nine games this season... Mullen has a team-leading 12 assists...Denver freshmen have recorded at least one point in all nine games this season, led by two three-point efforts from Salazar.
