South Bend, Ind. - The University of Denver Pioneers (0-0-1, NCHC 0-0-0-0) and the University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish (2-0-1, Big Ten 0-0-0-0) skated to a 2-2 tie in the Compton Family Ice Arena on Friday night.

Henrik Borgström scored twice for the Pioneers and Kohen Olischefski scored the shootout winner in a game that will be officially recorded as a tie.

Despite Denver controlling the majority of the first period, Notre Dame was first on the scoreboard at 14:01 of the opening frame. Cam Morrison helped set up the opening goal with a long wrist shot that resulted in a rebound for Jake Evans, who scored to make it 1-0 for the Irish. Justin Wade also picked up an assist on the goal. 

The Pioneers responded to Notre Dame’s goal only 15 seconds later when Henrik Borgström rushed along the right-wing boards, played a pass to Adam Plant, then set up for a one-timer from the right circle to tie the game, 1-1, until midway through the third period. Ryan Barrow had a secondary assist on the play for his first career point.

The Pioneers fired nine (9) shots on their first power play of the game at 9:33 of the third, then, less than one (1) minute after the power play expired, the Pioneers were awarded another opportunity and capitalized with one (1) second remaining on the man advantage. Troy Terry found Borgström with a cross-crease pass to give Borgström a tap-in for his second goal of the night. Ian Mitchell had a secondary assist on the play for his first career point.

Less than two (2) minutes after Denver took its second lead of the game, Notre Dame went on its first power play of the night. Pioneers goalie Tanner Jaillet made a point-blank stop on Andrew Oglevie early in the power play, but the Irish forward was able to notch a power-play goal later on the same shift to make it 2-2 at 16:11 of the third. Bobby Nardella and Jordan Gross had assists on the Irish goal.

Jaillet made seven (7) saves in overtime and finished with 27.

Borgström scored in the second round of the shootout, then Kohen Olischefski recorded the shootout winner in the fourth round.

Jim Montgomery Post-Game Transcript

Q: Were you happy with your team’s effort through three periods?

A: I was really happy. I thought that was by far the best first game, in my five years here, that this Denver team has played. I thought we played fast and possessed pucks. In the second period, you know, you’re playing a top-five team. They came back and they got into the game and then it was a really…for the first game of the year..that was a great hockey game. The exciting part is that hopefully we can grow from this and get better. There’s a couple areas we weren’t great at, but overall I was really happy with our effort and our execution.

Q: We went two and a half periods without a penalty being called…

A: Yeah, you know what, I thought the referees were terrific. I didn’t think there were any penalties, to be honest, and then they did call two penalties. I’m not sure ours was, I have to review it on film (because) I thought our defenseman did a great job, but they called interference on it and Notre Dame executed…they made a great play. That wasn’t a breakdown on our penalty kill, that was Notre Dame making a good play and when you play good teams and you take penalties, they are going to make you pay. I like the way our power play competed. I thought our second (power play) unit did a great job on the first (power play) and on the second (power play) Terry made a great play to Borgstrom.