Box Score ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Freshman
Jason Zucker (Las Vegas) scored two goals, including the game-winner on the power play, and added an assist as No. 9/10 Denver rallied for a 5-3 win over Alaska Anchorage in WCHA action tonight at Sullivan Arena.
Denver improves to 12-5-2, 9-3-1 WCHA with the win, while Alaska Anchorage falls to 5-10-2, 4-8-1.
Drew Shore (Denver), Chris Knowlton (Colorado Springs) and Luke Salazar (Thornton, Colo.) added goals for Denver and Anchorage native Adam Murray got the win with 24 saves in his first start since Oct. 15.
Tommy Grant scored two goals for Alaska Anchorage and Rob Gunderson made 22 saves in the loss.
"We once again showed the ability to find a way to win when Alaska Anchorage battled back to take the lead," DU head coach George Gwozdecky said. "It was also great to see Adam back in the net and give us a strong performance."
Denver jumped to a 2-0 lead before Alaska Anchorage scored three unanswered goals. Knowlton tied the score at 3-3 before Zucker won it with a one-timer off a pass from Nick Shore (Denver) on the power play at 13:21 of the third period.
Zucker gave DU a 1-0 lead with a backhanded goal 48 seconds into the game off a good outlet pass from William Wrenn (Anchorage, Alaska). Salazar earned the second assist on Zucker's 13th goal.
Shore's tap-in shorthanded goal off a shot by Zucker on a 2-on-1 rush gave the Pioneers are 2-0 lead at 19:07 of the first period.
Grant redirected a Wes McLeod shot past Murray at 4:57 of the second period and Matt Bailey tied the game at 2-2 at 6:16 with a goal in the slot from Alex Gellert and Nick Haddad.
Grant gave Alaska Anchorage a 3-2 lead with a power-play goal at 2:02 of the third period. Scott Warner and Jordan Kwas earned assists on the goal.
Knowlton buried his first goal of the year off a pass from David Makowski (Wildwood, Mo.) at 10:06 of the third period. Matt Donovan (Edmond, Okla.) earned the second assist.
Salazar iced the win with an empty-net goal with 1:31 left in the game. Each team had 27 shots on goal and one power-play goal.
Denver and Alaska Anchorage play game two of the series tomorrow night at 9:07 p.m. MT.
Notes: Shore increased his point streak seven games. Zucker has scored all 14 of his goals in WCHA games.
Beau Bennett (Gardena, Calif.) missed his second game with a right knee injury. DU has four shorthanded goals. DU's top line of Zucker, Drew Shore and Salazar tallied four of DU's five goals.
