ST. CLOUD, Minn. – Freshman Sam Harris scored twice, goaltender Matt Davis made 32 saves and the  No. 5 Denver Pioneers hockey team won 6-2 on Friday night against the St. Cloud State Huskies at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center.
 
Denver (22-8-3, 13-6-2 NCHC) now trails St. Cloud State (15-11-4, 11-6-4 NCHC) by just one point for second place in the NCHC standings (40-39). The Pioneers and Huskies wrap up their weekend series on Saturday at 5 p.m. MT (Stream: NCHC.tv).
 
"I thought our guys had a real committed effort throughout the night," said Richard and Kitzia Goodman Hockey Head Coach David Carle. "It was excellent hockey game for us in a lot of ways. We executed a lot of the things that we wanted to do to try and slow them down in transition. I thought we managed 3-0, 4-0, 4-1, 5-2 leads pretty well … Had a lot of great blocked shots, a lot of selfless hockey. A really good win for us on the road against a really good hockey team in St. Cloud."
 
Harris tallied twice in the first period for his second multi-goal game of his career and stretched his career-long goal streak to four contests. Sophomore Rieger Lorenz and freshmen Miko Matikka and Kieran Cebrian all had multi-point outings as well with a goal and an assist each. Second-year forward Jared Wright also tallied.
 
Davis stopped all 23 shots in the first two periods and 9-of-11 in the third stanza. He had a career-best 105:44 shutout streak end at 3:19 of the third during a scramble in the low slot after the Pioneers had a 4-0 lead.
 
DU scored three times in the first 10:40 of the contest, with Lorenz burying a wrister in-between Harris' two tallies. DU's three markers on its first seven shots ended the night of SCSU starting netminder Isak Posch.
 
Dominic Basse finished the contest in goal for the Huskies and saved 17-of-19 shots
 
Matikka stretched DU's advantage to 4-0 in the middle frame, and Wright went five-hole on a breakaway in the third stanza to put the Pioneers in front 5-1 and extend his own personal-long goal streak to four contests in a row. Cebrian buried an empty-net chance with 28 seconds remaining in regulation.
 
St. Cloud State finished with a 34-27 edge in shots on goal, while DU had a 28-27 advantage in the faceoff circle.
 
The Pioneers went 1-for-2 on the power play and killed 2-of-3 penalties.
 
UP NEXT: Denver continues its three-game road swing on Saturday at St. Cloud State before playing at No. 11 Colorado College next Friday, March 8. DU and CC conclude the regular season against one another on March 9 at Magness Arena.
 
 
POSTGAME NOTES

• Denver improved to 23-24-4 all-time at St. Cloud State and ended a two-game losing streak at the Brooks Center; the Pioneers picked up their first win at the rink since Feb. 29, 2020 (5-2 win). DU is now 5-4-1 in its last 10 games against SCSU.
• Sam Harris recorded his second multi-goal game of the season and extended his goal streak to four games and point streak to five outings in a row (4g/1a).
• Harris' performance was the 22nd multi-goal game of the season for DU and marked the seventh time this season that a Pioneer player scored twice in the same period.
• Jack Devine recorded a helper to extend his assist streak and point streak to six games each, both career longs (1g/6a).
• Matt Davis recorded a career-high 105:44 shutout streak from Feb. 23-March, surpassing his previous long of 92:20 across three games from Oct. 8-23, 2021.
• Pioneers won 76.5 percent of faceoffs in the first period (13-for-17).

 
GOAL SUMMARY
1st Period
3:33 DU (1-0) – PPG, Sam Harris tapped the puck into an open net at the top of the crease following passes from Aidan Thompson and Shai Buium with 17 seconds left on the man advantage.
6:38 DU (2-0) – Miko Matikka sent a cross feed through the zone to Rieger Lorenz, who fired a wrist shot into an open net.
10:40 DU (3-0) – Sam Harris received a pass from Jack Devine and went top shelf, far-side with a wrister during a rush.
 
2nd Period
8:08 DU (4-0) – Miko Matikka went top corner with a wrist shot at the right circle.
 
3rd Period
3:19 SCSU (4-1) – Adam Ingram tallied during a scramble in front of the net
5:39 DU (5-1) – Jared Wright took a stretch pass from Sean Behrens and scored five-hole during a breakaway.
8:10 SCSU (5-2) – PPG, Tyson Gross buried a wrister in the slot.
19:22 DU (6-2) – ENG, Kieran Cebrian whacked at the puck from 170 feet away, and it slid into the open cage.
 
 
QUOTABLES
Richard and Kitzia Goodman Hockey Head Coach David Carle
On the Harris-Thompson-Wright line: "Aidan was possessing the puck very well for a lot of the night. Sammy's goal, he can score in a lot of different ways, as we've seen this year. His stick in the second half of the season has really started to heat up as his overall game continues to grow and fluish. That line was good for us, certainly."
 
On Jared Wright's third period goal: "It was a big goal. It was 4-1, 17 minutes to go. They're (St. Cloud) a good offensive team, they had some pushes certainly in the game. To get it back to 5-1 was a big goal for us."
 

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