St. Paul, Minn. – The No. 5 Denver Pioneers (22-11-5) routed the Colorado College Tigers (17-19-4) in a 6-1 victory to secure third place in the NCHC Frozen Faceoff on Saturday at the Xcel Energy Center.

Ian Mitchell had two goals and two assists, while Liam Finlay and Tyson McLellan each had three-point games. Devin Cooley finished with 22 saves.

"It was a good game for us," Richard and Kitzia Goodman Head Coach David Carle said. "I liked our execution offensively. It was the first time in awhile we've been able to execute like that. I thought everybody was talking with and without the puck and it made our ability to execute with it a lot easier. Hopefully it allows us to build some offensive confidence as we go into the tournament."

Emilio Pettersen helped the Pioneers take an early lead, creating a turnover at Denver's blue line before carrying the puck up the ice and setting up Jarid Lukosevicius on the backdoor. Lukosevicius finished the play in one motion, putting his shot over the glove of Alex Leclerc to make it 1-0 at 5:49 of the first period.  Colorado College tied the game at 15:01 on a five-on-three power play. Seconds after Cooley denied a backdoor one-timer, he lost his stick and could not defend against Trey Bradley's wrist shot from the bottom of the right circle.

Special teams allowed Denver to gain separation in the second period. Mitchell scored from the point in the Pioneers' second power play of the game at 8:29 and, only 59 seconds later, Michael Davies used the momentum from the go-ahead goal to set up Finlay at even strength. Finlay's tap-in made it 3-1 at 9:28 and the two-goal lead held at the second intermission.

Mitchell's second goal of the game came only 27 seconds into the third period. McLellan started the play by winning the draw, then Mitchell worked off a give-and-go with Finlay and rifled a wrist shot past Leclerc. Five minutes later, Mitchell and Finlay connected again as Mitchell worked the puck to McLellan, who found Finlay for a similar goal to his first of the game to make it 5-1 at 5:37 of the third period. McLellan extended the lead to 6-1 at 12:11 after Mitchell fed Brett Stapley, who slid a pass across to McLellan for the goal.

The Pioneers finished 1/5 on the power play and 3/4 on the penalty kill.

Denver's opponent, seed and location in the NCAA tournament will be announced the selection show on Sunday, March 24 at 5 p.m. MT.

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