DENVER – The No. 6 Denver Pioneers (19-9-5, 11-9-3-3) could not recover from two first-period goals in a 2-1 loss to the Colorado College Tigers (14-17-4, 8-12-3-0) on Friday at Magness Arena.
 
The loss moved Denver's record to 1-1-1 in the season series, requiring the Pioneers to win or tie the Tigers on Saturday to retain the Gold Pan for the record-setting fifth straight year. Denver also remains on the cusp of its 18^th consecutive 20-win season. 
 
"We had a lot of puck possession, so I thought we could have put more to the net," Richard and Kitzia Goodman Head Coach David Carle said. "We were able to create some turnovers at times, but we didn't do it consistently or with enough urgency over the 60 minutes. We need to respond and we need to do it together."
 
Mason Bergh's power-play goal at 1:26 of the first period forced the Pioneers to play from behind early in the night. After failing to respond on their own man advantage midway through the period, Denver went down 2-0 at 18:21. Trey Bradley, who assisted on Bergh's goal, scored on the rebound to give Colorado College a two-goal lead before the first intermission.
 
The Pioneers scored midway through the second period with Colin Staub sprawling out to slip the rebound from Slava Demin's shot past Alex Leclerc. Staub's fourth goal of the season appeared to galvanize Denver, but the momentum never translated to a game-tying goal.
 
Denver applied pressure throughout in the third period. At 5:18, Ryan Barrow appeared to tie the game as he batted the rebound from his own shot past Leclerc, but the goal was disallowed as Barrow's stick was determined to be above the crossbar when he made contact with the puck. Despite the offensive surge, the Pioneers managed only eight shots in the third period to finish with a slight 27-24 lead in the shot margin.
 
The Pioneers went 0/3 on the power play and 2/3 on the penalty kill. Filip Larsson made 22 saves.
 
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