HOUGHTON, Mich. Marc Cheverie (Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia) recorded his second shutout with 25 saves and six players scored as the No. 7/8 Denver Pioneers routed Michigan Tech, 6-0, tonight at MacInnes Student Ice Arena. DU increased its winning streak to four games with its first road win of the season.
Anthony Maiani (Shelby Township, Mich.), Tyler Ruegsegger (Lakewood, Colo.), Patrick Mullen (Pittsburgh, Pa.), Brandon Vossberg (St. Paul, Minn.), Luke Salazar (Thornton, Colo.) and Jesse Martin (Edmonton, Alberta) scored for the Pioneers, who improved to 10-5-1 overall and 6-4-1 in the WCHA. Michigan Tech falls to 2-12-1 and 1-9-1 with its sixth consecutive loss.
“Our second goal gave us some real life tonight,” DU head coach George Gwozdecky said. “We wanted to establish some consistent play on the road tonight and a number of guys played really well for us. We did a nice job of finishing around the net.”
Maiani buried the lone goal of the first period, DU tallied four goals in the last nine minutes of the second period and DU added its sixth goal in the final stanza to improve to 1-3 on the road this season.
Ruegsegger started the scoring binge in the second stanza at 11:06 with his WCHA-leading seventh power-play goal. Mullen scored shorthanded at 13:16 and Vossberg tapped in a pass from Martin at 16:10. Salazar netted his team-leading ninth goal at 19:20 in the four-goal period.
Martin capped the scoring with his second goal of the season 45 seconds into the final stanza. DU outshot Michigan Tech 28-25 and went 2-for-7 on the power play.
Cheverie set the tone with 12 stops in the opening stanza and guided DU’s penalty-kill unit to a 6-for-6 effort.
“Cheverie played really well for us, especially in the first period,” Gwozdecky added. “He’s been a rock for us in net during our four-game winning streak.”
The teams will play the series finale tomorrow night at 5:07 p.m. MT.
Notes: DU’s first period goal was its first in four road games. The Pioneers have outscored their opponents 20-2 during its four-game winning streak. DU is 8-0 when scoring four or more goals. Maiani has 2-7--9 and Bozak has 2-68 during their five-game point streaks. Colborne has 0-7--7 during his four-game point streak.
