DENVER – Freshman netminder Juho Olkinuora (Helsinki, Finland) stopped 38 shots for his first career win and shutout to propel the No. 9/10 Denver Pioneers to a 3-0 victory over the Princeton Tigers Friday night at Magness Arena in the second game of the Denver Cup Classic.

Nick Shore (Denver, Colo.), Drew Shore (Denver, Colo.) and Joey LaLeggia (Burnaby, British Columbia) scored as Denver remains unbeaten in its last four games and improves to 6-3-3 overall, knocking the Tigers to 2-7-1.

“Juho was outstanding in net for us tonight,” DU head coach George Gwozdecky said. “I was disappointed with our careless play with the puck in the first period, but it was encouraging to see our power play convert on a couple of chances. I expect a much better all-around effort tomorrow night against a very good Miami team.”

Nick Shore put the Pioneers up 1-0 early after receiving a feed from a falling Zac Larraza (Scottsdale, Ariz.). Drew Shore followed suit with a power-play goal at 8:29 of the opening frame on a pass from Jason Zucker (Las Vegas, Nev.) to give the Pioneers a 2-0 lead.

Olkinuora was outstanding in the first period, stopping every shot he faced as DU was outshot 16-5.

LaLeggia gave the Pioneers a 3-0 lead on the power play with 20 seconds remaining in the middle frame. Nick Shore and Beau Bennett (Gardena, Calif.) tallied assists on LaLeggia’s sixth goal, which leads NCAA rookie blueliners.  

The third period was scoreless and Olkinuora held on for the shutout despite a 6-on-4 Tiger advantage during most of the last 4:24.

Princeton outshot Denver, 38-28, but Denver went 2-for-5 with the man-advantage. Olkinuora led DU’s penalty-kill unit to a 6-for-6 effort.

The Pioneers meet Miami in the Denver Cup Classic championship game Saturday at 7:07 p.m. MT.

In the first game Friday night, Miami co-captain Alden Hirschfeld and freshman Blake Coleman recorded two goals each to propel the RedHawks (7-6-2) to a 6-2 win over Providence (6-5-1). 

Notes: The Shore brothers have scored goals in the same game three times this season. Beau Bennett has two goals and eight assists during his six-game point streak. Drew Shore is on a four-game point streak. Adam Murray (Anchorage, Alaska) and John Ryder (Colorado Springs, Colo.) are out indefinitely with lower-body injuries.