DENVER – Nick Shore’s (Denver, Colo.) late-game heroics muscled No. 14 Denver past No. 1/2 Minnesota 4-3 to complete the Pioneers’ sweep in front of a sellout crowd of 6,079 Saturday night at Magness Arena. Shore tallied goals at 18:34 of the third period and 17 seconds into the extra frame to win the game.

Chris Knowlton (Colorado Springs, Colo.) and Luke Salazar (Thornton, Colo.) also scored for Denver and goaltender Sam Brittain (Calgary, Alberta) recorded 33 saves as the Pioneers improve to 17-9-4, 12-6-4 WCHA. The Gophers fall to 19-11-1, 15-7-0 WCHA, and remain first in the WCHA standings with 30 points. Denver vaults to third with 28 points after the four-point weekend.  

 

“Tonight we were fighting from behind for the majority of the game, there was not a lot of continuity,” DU head coach George Gwozdecky said. “But, you have to be able to dig deep, work with each other, stay together and find that resiliency to hang in there and perhaps make a big play when the time comes. Our guys did that in the third period and overtime.”

Erik Haula capitalized on a Denver turnover to give the Gophers a 1-0 lead just 38 seconds into the opening stanza. Zach Budish made it 2-0 Minnesota with a power-play goal at 15:17 of the middle period.

Knowlton brought the Pioneers within one, at 2-1, with a breakaway snipe that beat Kent Patterson (37 saves) glove-side at 17:37 of the second. Matt Tabrum (Colorado Springs, Colo.) and Paul Phillips (Darien, Ill.) recorded the assists.

Salazar knotted the game at 2-2 just 2:33 into the final period with a backdoor tap-in from Nick Shore on the power play. Joey LaLeggia (Burnaby, British Columbia) also picked up an assist.

Nico Sacchetti gave the Golden Gophers a 3-2 lead at 10:07 of the third.

A Justin Hall penalty at 16:51 gave DU its golden chance to tie the game and Nick Shore didn’t disappoint the hometown crowd. He accepted a beautiful backhand pass from his brother Drew Shore (Denver, Colo.) and slammed the puck past Patterson to tie the game at 3-3. Scott Mayfield (St. Louis, Mo.) also recorded an assist on the game-tying goal.

Nick Shore wasted no time in overtime, scoring just 17 seconds into the extra session to complete DU’s fourth WCHA sweep of the season.

The Pioneers outshot the Gophers 41-36, and went 2-for-6 on the power play. Denver killed 4-of-5 penalties.  

Denver travels to Wisconsin for a two-game WCHA tilt on Feb. 17-18.

Notes: DU is eighth in the latest PairWise Rankings. Denver is 10-2 against Minnesota in the last 12 meetings. Denver has three wins against top-ranked opponents. Jason Zucker (Las Vegas, Nev.) missed tonight’s game with an upper-body injury.