MADISON, Wis. Sophomore Marc Cheverie (Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia) stopped a career-high 45 shots for his third career shutout and Patrick Wiercioch (Maple Grove, British Columbia) tallied a career-high four points as No. 8 Denver completed a two-game sweep with a 5-0 win tonight before a sellout crowd of 15,237 fans at Kohl Center. DU (19-9-4, 15-7-3 WCHA) completes the two-game weekend sweep and four-game season sweep of Wisconsin to stay atop the WCHA with 33 league points. Wisconsin (16-13-3, 13-9-2 WCHA) remains third with 28 points.
Anthony Maiani (Shelby Township, Mich.) added two goals as the Pioneers improved to 13-2-2 all-time at the Kohl Center against the Badgers. DU finishes its five-game road swing with a 3-1-1 mark and looks to lock up home ice for the WCHA playoffs next week against St. Cloud State.
Luke Salazar (Thornton, Colo.) and Rhett Rakhshani (Huntington Beach, Calif.) also scored for the victorious Pioneers, who followed up last night’s 4-3 overtime win with an impressive performance.
“Marc Cheverie was the difference and our team played with better effort and execution tonight,” DU head coach George Gwozdecky said. “We’re happy to end this five-game road stretch and head home for our final three regular-season games.”
DU jumped to a 3-0 lead after the first period and never looked back. Luke Salazar scored first at 8:06 when he was handed a goal by Badger netminder Shane Connelly, who was pulled after the first period. Patrick Mullen (Pittsburgh, Pa.) sent the puck into the Wisconsin zone and the puck bounced off Connelly’s right skate to an uncovered Salazar, who tapped the puck into an empty net. Rakhshani made it 2-0 with a highlight-reel goal on a 360-spin move from the goal line at 16:33 and Maiani followed a rebound on a Dustin Jackson (Omaha, Neb.) breakaway at 19:48.
The Pioneers padded their lead to 4-0 on a power-play goal by Wiercioch at 9:58 of the middle stanza and Maiani scored with a 5-on-3 advantage at 6:13 of the final period.
Cheverie stopped with 16 saves in the first period, 17 in the second and 12 in the third. He bested his career-high of 41 saves against Ohio State on Oct. 24 and improved his record to 19-9-4. DU went 3-for-8 on the power play and 8-for-8 on the penalty kill.
Denver hosts St. Cloud State on Feb. 27-28.
