DENVER – The No. 8 Denver Pioneers (20-10-5, 11-10-3-3) defeated the No. 19 North Dakota Fighting Hawks (18-16-2, 12-11-1-0) 4-2 to advance to the NCHC Frozen Faceoff for the sixth straight year on Saturday at Magness Arena.

Filip Larsson made 40 saves in his second win of the weekend, while Ian Mitchell and Cole Guttman each had multi-point games. Denver's two second-period goals proved to be the difference maker.

"I thought we got better as the game went on," Richard and Kitzia Goodman Head Coach David Carle said. "I did think our talk and our breakouts were better tonight than they were last night, we were able to get up and down the rink a little bit more."
 
"I'm really proud of our group," Carle said. "I think we showed a lot of growth this weekend. We grew together and it should give us confidence that we can win games like that, win games in different ways. It was nice to put the puck in the back of the net a few times as well."

The intensity started only 3:39 into the night when Gavin Hain drove the net and collided with Larsson for a two-minute goaltender interference penalty. The Pioneers took only six seconds to capitalize on the power play with Guttman winning the ensuing faceoff and cutting to the net where Les Lancaster found his stick to make it 1-0. Denver held onto its lead until 14:33 of the period when Nick Jones fired a shot from the top of the left faceoff circle over the left shoulder of Larsson. North Dakota took a 16-3 shot advantage into the first intermission, but the teams were tied 1-1.

After scoring his first goal of the season in Friday's win, Griffin Mendel continued his production in the second period where he setup Colin Staub on the backdoor to make it 2-1 at 1:02 of the frame. The Pioneers extended their lead to two goals at 14:38 as the reunited line of Jarid Lukosevicius, Guttman and Pettersen connected on a passing play to set up Lukosevicius' for his 17th goal of the season.  

Denver survived a penalty kill early in the third period, but failed to find their footing at even strength before North Dakota cut the lead. At 5:32, Jones collected a slow-moving puck in the slot and threw a backhand past the blocker of Larsson to make it 3-2. North Dakota generated momentum from the goal, but was unable to solve Larsson. Jaakko Heikkinen capped the win with an empty-net goal at 18:27 of the third.

The Pioneers finished 1/5 on the power play and 5/5 on the penalty kill.


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