DENVER Tournament MVP Reilly Smith scored two goals to lead the Miami RedHawks to a 4-2 victory over the No. 9/10 Denver Pioneers in the championship game of the Denver Cup Classic Saturday night at Magness Arena.

Ty Loney (Valencia, Pa.) scored his first collegiate goal and Chris Knowlton (Colorado Springs) added another as Denver falls to 6-4-3 overall and has its four-game unbeaten streak snapped. The RedHawks improve to 8-6-2 overall and remain unbeaten in their last eight games. Juho Olkinuora (Helsinki, Finland) played well in net and made 24 saves in the loss.

“We had a good start and all of the sudden, Miami got the goal that tied the game and it took the wind out of our sails,” DU head coachGeorge Gwozdecky said. “We started getting pushed around a little bit, but we started pushing back, and at that point I saw us take over the game. In the last 30 minutes in my mind, it was us against Cody Reichard, and he won the battle, he was terrific.”

Knowlton put the Pioneers on the board first 11 seconds into the game after Denver co-captain Dustin Jackson (Omaha, Neb.) and Miami co-captain Will Weber were both sent to the box for roughing. Shawn Ostrow(Calgary, Alberta) picked up an assist on the 4-on-4 goal by winning the draw to Knowlton.

The RedHawks responded at 4:41, tying the game at 1-1 on a power-play goal by Smith. Austin Czarnik converted a Paul Phillips (Darien, Ill.)turnover and put Miami up 2-1 on an unassisted goal at 12:09 of the opening frame.

In the second period, Smith made it 3-1 for the RedHawks at 10:48. Less than two minutes later, Loney notched his first career goal to bring the Pioneers within one. Drew Shore(Denver, Colo.) and Jason Zucker (Las Vegas, Nev.) tallied assists on the goal.

The Pioneers had a chance to tie the game in the third period on a Zucker penalty shot, but he was stopped by Miami netminder Cody Reichard (32 saves).

Denver outshot Miami, 34-28, but went 0-for-5 with the man-advantage. Miami was 1-for-4 on the power play.

The Pioneers head to Colorado Springs to take on the Colorado College Tigers on Friday, Dec. 2 at 8:07 p.m. MT for the second game of the Gold Pan quest. DU won game one, 5-4, on Nov. 12.

Notes: Miami’s claimed its second Denver Cup championship in the tournament’s 20-year history. Drew Shore and Joey LaLeggia (Burnaby, British Columbia) joined Smith, Czarnik, Cameron Schilling and Reichard on the all-tournament team. Drew Shore has eight points (3g, 5a) during his five-game point streak.