DENVER - Five players scored as No. 10/11 Denver earned a series split against Alabama-Huntsville with a 5-2 win Saturday night at Magness Arena.

Nick Shore (Denver, Colo.), Drew Shore (Denver, Colo.), John Lee (Moorhead, Minn.), Scott Mayfield (St. Louis, Mo.) and Shawn Ostrow (Calgary, Alberta) all lit the lamp as the Pioneers avenge last night's disappointing 3-2 loss and improve to 11-8-3.

 

Joey LaLeggia (Burnaby, British Columbia) and Ty Loney (Valencia, Pa.) tallied two assists each and junior Adam Murray (Anchorage, Alaska) returned from injury to stop 22 shots.

Justin Cseter and Michael Webley scored for the Chargers, who fall to 2-22-1. Clark Saunders took the loss with 21 saves.

"I thought we played very well in the first 40 minutes," said head coach George Gwozdecky. "There was an awful lot of pressure on our team tonight and we had to have this game. We need to be able to build off this win, and prepare for a big two-game series next weekend."

Nick Shore staked DU to a 1-0 lead with a goal from Ostrow and LaLeggia at 1:55 of the first stanza. Drew Shore banged in a power-play goal from Loney and LaLeggia at 9:44 to give DU a 2-0 lead.

Cseter ripped a loose puck past Murray at 16:27 to cut the DU lead to 2-1 after the first.

Lee's unassisted wrister from center ice trickled past Saunders at 12:50 of the second period to give DU a 3-1 lead.

Mayfield danced around Saunders and stuffed in a backhanded goal at 16:04. Luke Salazar (Thornton, Colo.) and Loney earned assists on Mayfield's second goal.

Ostrow scored with two seconds left in the second period to give DU a commanding 5-1 lead heading to the third.

Webley closed out the scoring with a goal at 2:05 of the third period. 

Denver dominated the shot battle 34-24 and went 1-for-3 on the power play. Alabama-Huntsville finished 0-for-3 with the man-advantage.

The Crimson and Gold host Bemidji State on Jan. 13-14.

Notes: DU is 18th in the latest PairWise Rankings. The Pioneers improved to 5-1 all-time against the Chargers. Nick Shore and LaLeggia have four-game point streaks. Alabama-Huntsville assistant coach Gavin Morgan played at DU from 1995-99.