DENVER – Sophomore Jack Devine scored four goals on Friday night at Magness Arena, and the No. 1 seed Denver Pioneers hockey team defeated the No. 8 Miami RedHawks 6-2 in Game 1 of the NCHC Quarterfinals.
 
DU takes a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three series and goes for the first-round sweep and a berth into the NCHC Frozen Faceoff on Saturday at 6 p.m. MT. Game 2 will be broadcasted on NCHC.tv.
 
"It was a total team effort," said Richard and Kitzia Goodman Hockey Head Coach David Carle. "It certainly wasn't easy, and they made it hard. The special teams were huge. Matt Davis was excellent again. Just a lot of guys stepping up and contributing in big time ways and in different ways."
 
Devine picked up his first career hat trick, which was also a natural hat trick as he scored each of his first three markers consecutively after Miami led 1-0 early in the contest. The forward scored at 7:38 and 15:00 of the first period, 12:03 of the second stanza and 2:18 of the third.
 
"It's obviously a big accomplishment," Devine said. "I thought it was big that it happened in the playoffs and we got the win here."
 
It is the second, four-goal game by a Pioneer this season, as sophomore Tristan Broz also scored four goals against Miami on Jan. 14—which marked the first four-goal game at Denver since Kevin Doell on Feb. 21, 2003. Four different DU skaters have hat tricks on the campaign, and all have come against the RedHawks as Carter Mazur (Oct. 28) and Carter King (Jan. 13) also had three-goal performance versus the team from Ohio.
 
Broz, senior Casey Dornbach and freshman Aidan Thompson all recorded two assists in the game, and Tristan Lemyre also had a multi-point performance with a goal and a helper. Connor Caponi scored DU's other goal into an empty net with 1:07 remaining.
 
Goaltender Matt Davis made his third consecutive start in net for Denver and stopped 30 shots.
 
The Pioneers led 3-1 in the second off Devine's trio of markers, but Joe Cassetti scored on the power play at 18:39 to cut the RedHawks' deficit to one heading into the third period.
 
Denver didn't let the game get any closer, as it added three more markers to pull away for the victory.
 
PJ Fletcher scored the game-opening goal for Miami at 3:52 of the first period, and Hawks goaltender Ludvig Persson finished with 28 saves.
 
The Pioneers finished 3-for-5 on the power play, the fifth game this season they have scored that many times with the man advantage.
 
 
POSTGAME NOTES

• Denver and Miami are meeting for the second straight season in the NCHC Quarterfinals.
• DU has won 11 straight games over Miami dating back to the start of last season.
• The Pioneers have scored at least four goals in all five matchups this year against the RedHawks.
• Fifth-year senior Kyle Mayhew appeared in his 150th career game.
• Jack Devine scored three of his four goals on the power play, the most man-advantage markers in a single game by a player this season. He is just the third player in program history to score three power-play goals in a game and the first since Oct. 28, 1983 when Dwight Mathiasen did it vs. Colorado College. Perry Schnarr scored three man-advantage markers vs. Michigan Tech on Jan. 21, 1977.
• Devine is the 32nd player in school history to tally four or more goals in a game.
• Tristan Lemyre recorded his first career multi-goal game (1g/1a) and scored his second goal in the last three games. He is now on his first three-game point streak (2g/2a) of his career.
• Carter Mazur had an assist and is now on a nine-game point streak (5g/8a), tying a career long he set from Nov. 12-Dec. 31, 2021 (7g/8a).
• Goalie Matt Davis has started three games in a row for the first time in his career.
• Massimo Rizzo missed his first game of the season with an injury. Sean Behrens, McKade Webster, Jared Wright and Magnus Chrona are also out with minor ailments.

 
GOAL SUMMARY
1st Period
3:52 MU (0-1) – PJ Fletcher scored on a one-timer from the right side.
7:38 DU (1-0) – PPG, Jack Devine tallied in front off a feed from Casey Dornbach.
15:00 DU (2-1) – Jack Devine's shot from the slot deflected off a Miami player, fluttered over the goaltender and into the net.
 
2nd Period
12:03 DU (3-1) – PPG, Jack Devine kept the puck in at the blue line and then knocked it into the goal at the top of the crease after receiving a pass from Carter Mazur.
18:39 MU (3-2) – PPG, Joe Cassetti took a pass across the slot from Hampus Rydqvist and scored.
 
3rd Period
2:18 DU (4-2) – PPG, Jack Devine's shot went off a Miami player's skate and redirected into the net.
9:50 DU (5-2) – Tristan Lemyre took a pass from Tristan Broz and tallied with a backhand shot in front.
18:53 DU (6-2) – ENG, Connor Caponi deposited the puck into an open net.
 
 
QUOTABLES
Richard and Kitzia Goodman Head Coach David Carle
On Matt Davis' play after allowing the first goal: "The glove save he made shortly after that was point-blank in the slot. He gets out, he squares, feet are set, tracks it well under the glove. I didn't think his game, getting out, playing pucks, I didn't think that was affected. Those are things you start to notice if a guy is losing confidence. It kind of was what it was. He put it in the rear-view mirror, just looked forward and was great the rest of the evening."
 
On going for the series sweep on Saturday: "You are trying to end a team's season and that is the hardest thing to do in sport. It doesn't matter if it's a best-of-three, a single-elimination, a best-of-seven, we know that that's the hardest game. We are going to get their best tomorrow night. We got to be ready to give it all we can to try and secure the sweep and the victory."
 
Sophomore Forward Jack Devine
Playing with center Carter King instead of Massimo Rizzo: "They are all great players. I think just trying to build chemistry with guys and build off them. Carter [King] and Massimo [Rizzo] are a little bit different players, but I played with Carter earlier in the year. We kind of built some chemistry early on in the year."
 
On freshman vs sophomore year: "I think that it is just a maturity thing. Last year, obviously I was the youngest guy on the team. I think for myself just having a whole another year of development. A whole another year of just being able to work with the coaches, they have done a great job and the strength coach just working with me. I've been able to learn a lot and improve and develop my game, so I think that just trusting in their process has been one of the keys."
 
Sophomore Goaltender Matt Davis
On preparing for playoff game: "I'm just trying to do my job. I prepare the same way I always would. With my position (as a backup goalie) you  always got to be ready. I feel like I've done a good job so far in [Magnus Chrona's] absence, and I just want to keep that going."
 
On his confidence with playing more games: "It's a big deal, I haven't done it since junior. I've been going into it feeling confident and practicing well. It really doesn't come too much of a surprise, I know I can do it and I know I will do it."
 
 
TICKETS: Tickets for the NCHC Quarterfinals came be purchased here.
 
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