Box Score DENVER - Michigan Tech scored three times in the first period and added three empty-net goals in the third period to upset No. 2 Denver, 7-2, in WCHA action Friday night at MacInnes Student Ice Arena.
Joey LaLeggia (Burnaby, British Columbia) and Paul Phillips (Darien, Ill.) scored for Denver (3-2-0, 2-1-0 WCHA) and starting goaltending Adam Murray (Anchorage, Alaska) left the game with an injury after surrendering three Husky goals in the first 9:38 of the game. Juho Olkinuora (Helsinki, Finland) made 18 saves in relief of Murray.
Milos Gordic led the way for Tech with a hat trick, and Tanner Kero, Ryan Furne, Brett Olson and Dennis Rix added goals for the Huskies (5-2-0, 3-2-0 WCHA). Josh Robinson earned the win with 38 saves.
"We got embarrassed by the better team tonight," DU head coach George Gwozdecky said. "I was extremely disappointed by the way we started. Our poor start in the first period set the tone for the rest of the game. Michigan Tech played hard and smart. Our team needs to prepare for Oct. 29 starting now."
The Huskies started fast by scoring three times in the first period. Kero scored 1:53 into the game, but LaLeggia answered for Denver at 4:23 with his third goal from Drew Shore (Denver, Colo.) and Luke Salazar (Thornton, Colo.).
Gordic scored at 10:06 to make it 2-1 and Furne scored 16 seconds later to give the Huskies a 3-1 lead. Murray exited the game with an injury after a collision with Tech's Furne. Olkinuora stopped the bleeding with five saves as DU killed off a 5x3 Husky power play.
Gordic made it 4-1 with a power-play goal at 3:17 of the second stanza and Robinson dominated DU by stopping all 21 Pioneer shots in the period.
Gwozdecky pulled Olkinuora at 12:54 of the third period looking for a spark, but Gordic, Olson and Rix scored empty-net goals in a 31-second span before DU's Phillips closed the scoring with his first career goal with 56 seconds left in the game.
DU won the shot battle 40-28, but went 0-for-3 on the power play. Tech converted 2-of-5 power-play opportunities.
Game two of the series is tomorrow night at 5:07 p.m. MT.
Notes: Beau Bennett (Gardena, Calif.) missed the game with a right wrist injury. Bennett needed seven stitches after cutting his wrist on Larkin Jacobson's (Sioux City, Iowa) skates during practice on Oct. 26. Drew Shore extended his point streak to five games with an assist. Ty Loney (Valencia, Pa.) tallied his first career point with the lone assist on Phillips' goal.
