DENVER – The No. 2 Denver Pioneers hockey team played the Augustana University Vikings to a 5-5 tie in its home opener on Friday night at Magness Arena.
 
After the scoreless five-minute, 3-on-3 overtime period, the game went to a shootout where Augustana's Jack Jensen tallied the game-ending goal in the fourth round. Despite the shootout loss for DU, the game still goes down as a tie for both teams.
 
"Giving up 3-0, 4-2, 5-4 leads at home is not a recipe for success or something that is up to our standard and what we want to be doing," said Richard and Kitzia Goodman Hockey Head Coach David Carle. "We certainly need to defend better, harder, manage the puck better. We turned over a lot of pucks that led to the puck coming back our way. This was not a Denver Pioneer hockey game."
 
Denver junior Jack Devine had three points on one goal and two assists to stretch his season-opening, multi-point streak to five games. Fellow forward Massimo Rizzo also contributed a multi-point performance (one goal, one assist), and sophomore Rieger Lorenz and freshmen Boston Buckberger and Kieran Cebrian also scored for the Pioneers.
 
Chase Brand tallied the game-tying goal to knot the score at 5-5 while Augustana had the extra attacker and a power play with 21 seconds remaining in regulation. The Vikings tallied three goals in the third period.
 
DU tallied the first three markers of the game in the opening 8:04 of the first period before the Vikings answered with two scores of their own to make it a 3-2 contest going into the intermission. Following a scoreless middle frame, Cebrian extended the Pioneers' lead to 4-2 at 6:43 of the third, but AU rallied to knot the outing at 4-4 with two goals in a matter of 24 seconds.
 
Rizzo scored for the third straight game to give Denver a 5-4 advantage with 9:52 left in regulation before Brand's late tally.
 
Augustana's goaltender Zach Rose made 30 saves, including three in overtime and all four in the shootout. DU netminder Matt Davis finished with 27 stops.
 
UP NEXT: The Pioneers continue homecoming weekend on Saturday as they host the Air Force Falcons at 6 p.m. MT at Magness Arena. The game will be broadcasted on Altitude Sports and NCHC.tv.
 

POSTGAME NOTES

• Denver and Augustana were playing in their first-ever game, as the Vikings are in their first season of NCAA Division-I hockey.
• Jack Devine's five-game point streak is a career high (6g/7a)Th, and his five-game multi-point run is the longest stretch by a Pioneer since Massimo Rizzo also had a five-game multi-point streak last season from Oct. 21-Nov. 4, 2022 (4g/9a).
• Massimo Rizzo also stretched is season-opening point streak to five games (3g/9a) and is on a three-game goal streak.
• Sean Behrens recorded his 50th career assist and is on a four-game assist/point streak (0g/6a).
• Freshman defenseman Garrett Brown had an assist for his first career point.
• DU is now 52-18-5 all-time in home openers and owns a 18-5-2 mark in the opening game at Magness Arena.
• Denver's tie ended a five-game winning streak in home openers, as its last non-victory in the first home game was a 3-3 tie to Lake Superior State on Oct. 20, 2017. 

GOAL SUMMARY
1st Period
1:35 DU (1-0) – Boston Buckberger grabbed a loose puck in the slot, turned, shot and scored.
3:48 DU (2-0) – Rieger Lorenz scored from the mid-slot
8:04 DU (3-0) – Off a faceoff, Jack Devine whacked in a loose puck at the bottom of the left circle.
9:37 AU (3-1) – Owen Bohn scored off a centering pass and his ensuing shot went off the post and bounced into the net.
18:21 AU (3-2) – Hunter Bischoff knocked in a loose puck in the crease.
 
2nd Period
No Scoring
 
3rd Period
6:43 DU (4-2) – Kieran Cebrian knocked in a cross pass from Jack Devine
7:26 AU (4-3) – Arnaud Vachon tallied on the stick side
7:49 AU (4-4) – Hayden Hennen outside shot went off the DU goaltender and into the net.
9:52 DU (5-4) – Massimo Rizzo skated into the slot and buried a wrist shot top shelf.
19:39 AU (5-5) – PPG, Chase Brand evened the score in the close seconds during a 6-on-4 with an extra attacker on the ice.
 
Overtime
No Scoring
 
Shootout
R1 – AU Ryan Naumovski, missed
R1 – DU Jack Devine, missed
R2 – AU Owen Bohn, missed
R2 – DU Massimo Rizzo, missed
R3 – AU Luke Mobley, missed
R3 – DU Aidan Thompson, missed
R4 – AU Jack Jensen, score
R4 – DU McKade Webster, missed
 

QUOTABLES
Richard and Kitzia Goodman Hockey Head Coach David Carle
On what the defense needs to do better at 5-on-5 going forward: "Closing plays quicker, getting out of our zone cleaner. Managing pucks comes with that. A lot of their transition offense came of us turning pucks over. You have to give them credit. They were coming into our building trying to have their marquee moment, and they did. That's embarrassing for us in that we allowed that to happen, but we also give credit to our opponent who was very well prepared and did an excellent job and earned everything tonight as well. We were not ready to the play to the level we needed to for a full 60 minutes. After we went up 3-0, I think we thought it was going to be easy and give them credit, they didn't go away. They continued to come and were able to execute and take advantage of our looseness with our puck management and with our rush D and our D-zone coverage."
 
On Jack Devine's Improvement: "Confidence, strength. He's at the level for a third year. I think it's those two things. He's doing a great job being productive early in the season."
 
Junior Forward Massimo Rizzo
On what improvements need to be made going into Saturday's game vs. Air Force: "Just intensity, everyone's going to bring it. You can't take anyone lightly in college hockey, no matter who we get. So I think overall the team just has to be better."
 
On having chemistry with linemate Jack Devine: "He's a really good player. We played a bit last year so we were just building off that throughout the summer. Then coming in we're fortunate to have a good start. He is a great guy and he works hard and we always seem to connect really well."
 
Junior forward Jack Devine:
On his recent play: "I think it's just trusting my teammates. I think my teammates have put me in really good positions to succeed, and I think it's just working with them. Tonight, it's one of those things where we still got to find a way to win and still have to find a way to succeed as a team. So I think that's the focus moving into tomorrow."
 
On what needs to change in the game on Saturday vs. Air Force: "I think we can stick to our game a bit more. I think for us, we kind of got away from it after a hot start. I think for our team, when we're playing our team game and we are playing fast, I think we have success. So I think it's come tomorrow ready to work."
 

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