Box Score DENVER - Kenny Reiter made 29 saves as No. 14 Minnesota Duluth shut out No. 8 Denver 4-0 on Saturday night at Magness Arena.
Senior Travis Oleksuk scored two goals, Jack Connolly and Brady Lamb had one goal each and Reiter recorded his eighth career shutout as defending NCAA champion Minnesota Duluth improves to 5-3-2, 3-2-1 WCHA.
Freshman Juho Olkinuora (Helsinki, Finland) stopped 21 shots as the Pioneers fell to 3-3-2 overall and 2-2-2 WCHA. DU is winless at 0-2-2 in its last four contests.
"Duluth's playing extremely well - playing with confidence - and their top players are very dangerous and tough to defend," DU head coach George Gwozdecky said. "On the other hand, we're battling one of those rare times of your season where you've got a lot of guys really struggling with confidence. It's no excuse, but we're going to come back on Monday and were going to get back to work and get through it together."
After a scoreless first period, Oleksuk fired a shot past Olkinuora at 8:26 of the second period. Sophomore Jason Zucker (Las Vegas, Nev.) was dragged down by the Bulldog's Tim Smith during a Denver odd-man rush at 15:30 of the middle frame, but Reiter came up big on the ensuing penalty shot, saving Zucker's attempt and maintaining the Bulldogs 1-0 lead.
Connolly made it 2-0 less than a minute later at 16:07 of the second and Oleksuk gave UMD a commanding 3-0 lead with a bar-down goal at 17:43.
Lamb tacked on a fourth UMD goal at 8:51 of the final frame for his second point of the night.
The Pioneers outshot the Bulldogs 29-25, but went 0-for-4 on the power play. Denver's penalty kill unit stopped all five Bulldog power plays.
Denver looks to end its winless streak next Saturday night against in-state rival Colorado College. Puck drop is set for 7:07 p.m. MT.
Notes: Former Pioneer All-Americans Dallas Gaume and Chris Butler attended tonight's game. Gaume amassed 266 career points from 1982-86. Joey LaLeggia's (Burnaby, British Columbia) point streak ended at four games. Beau Bennett (Gardena, Calif.) missed his fourth game with a right wrist injury.
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