Box Score

DENVER – Riding 27 saves from sophomore goaltender Sam Brittain (Calgary, Alberta), No. 3 seed Denver forced game three in its WCHA playoff first round series against No. 10 seed Wisconsin with a 3-1 win over the Badgers Saturday night at Magness Arena.

Nate Dewhurst (Johnston, Iowa), Luke Salazar (Thornton, Colo.) and Nick Shore (Denver, Colo.) scored for the Pioneers (22-12-4), while Justin Schultz scored the lone goal for Wisconsin (17-17-2) and Joel Rumpel had 39 saves.

The winner of tomorrow night’s game three gains a berth to the WCHA Final Five set for March 15-17 in St. Paul, Minn.

“There are certain landmark games you look back at throughout the season and think about how well your team played despite adversity and we certainly had some things going against us tonight,” DU head coach George Gwozdecky said. “I was really proud of our team, we were not going to be denied. We continued to put pressure on them and played as best as we can to our system.”

Denver caught a break in the opening stanza when a Wisconsin goal was disallowed, but lost junior captain Drew Shore (Denver, Colo.) for the rest of the game on a contact to the head major penalty at 13:27.

Dewhurst scored Denver’s first goal of the weekend and broke the scoreless tie at 4:04 of the final stanza, burying a Dustin Jackson (Omaha, Neb.) rebound. John Lee (Moorhead, Minn.) also picked up an assist on Dewhurst’s goal.

Schultz took advantage of a DU turnover and tied the score at 1-1 less than three minutes later.

Salazar regained the Denver lead, and netted the game-winner, on a 2-on-1 rush with Jason Zucker (Las Vegas, Nev.) to put the Pioneers up 2-1 with 7:07 remaining in the game. Nick Shore added an assist on the goal.

After Wisconsin pulled Rumpel for an extra attacker, Nick Shore sealed the victory for the Pioneers with an empty net goal at 19:04.

Denver outshot Wisconsin 42-28 and went 0-for-3 on the power play. The Badgers were 0-for-2 on the man-advantage.

Puck drop for Sunday night’s game at Magness Arena is set 7:07 p.m. MT.

Notes: DU is 12^th in the latest PairWise Rankings. The Pioneers are 2-10 all-time in the WCHA Playoffs against Wisconsin. The major penalty was the first for Drew Shore during his stellar three-year career. Brittain improved to 5-2 in the postseason.