ST. CLOUD, Minn. – The No. 5 University of Denver hockey team used six different goal scorers and was led by a 36-save performance from goaltender Matt Davis to earn a 7-2 victory and weekend sweep of the No. 15 St. Cloud State Huskies at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center.
 
Denver won its season-high fourth straight road contest and earned its first road sweep of SCSU in more than 16 years. The last time DU won both games in St. Cloud was Dec. 7-8, 2007 when it had a pair of 3-2 victories.
 
"I'm really proud of our team. We did a little research and this is by far the longest away sweep drought in the league that we've had," said Richard and Kitzia Goodman Hockey Head Coach David Carle. "I remember I was up here for these games as a player still at Shattuck (prep school in Minnesota), and I got to observe the Pioneers and Rhett Rakhshani get a hat trick on Saturday night; that was the last time we swept here. It's a really hard place to play. It's a hard place to split, let alone sweep. I'm really proud of our players. Certainly Matt Davis, arguably his best period and a half of the season to start the game."
 
The victory also moved the Pioneers (23-8-3, 14-6-2 NCHC) past the Huskies (16-11-4, 12-6-4 NCHC) for sole possession of second place in the NCHC standings. DU has 42 points and is two points up on SCSU (40), which dropped to third. North Dakota (49 points) secured the Penrose Cup as conference regular season champions on Saturday with one week remaining in the regular season.
 
Denver also locked up home-ice advantage for the NCHC Quarterfinals in two weeks' time. The best-of-three series is set for March 15-17, with the conference's four winners then advancing to the NCHC Frozen Faceoff at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.
 
"There was a lot on the line this weekend," Carle said. "We clinched home ice (in the NCHC Quarterfinals), which seemed to be in question very much so a few weeks ago. We moved into second place, we're a 1-seed currently in the national picture. A lot on the line, playoff hockey, and the guys showed up and performed without two of our top players as well."
 
Davis was rock solid all night in the DU crease, saving each of the first 31 shots he faced. He stopped all 10 shots in the first period, 14 in the second and 12-of-14 in the third.
 
Six different Pioneers tallied with senior McKade Webster, juniors Sean Behrens and Jack Devine, sophomores Tristan Lemyre and Aidan Thompson, and freshman Alex Weiermair all netting goals in the series finale.
 
Junior forward Tristan Broz led Denver with three assists and was one of five players with multiple points. Devine had two goals on the evening and now has 99 career points, Thompson and Weiermair each added an assist to their scores, and freshman defenseman Zeev Buium registered a pair of helpers.
 
St. Cloud outshot Denver 10-5 in the period, but the Pioneers had the 1-0 lead at the break as Thompson scored an unassisted goal with 20.9 seconds left in the period during a 2-on-1 rush after forcing a turnover in his own end.
 
Lemyre and Behrens added close-in goals in the first half of the second frame, and Devine and Webster did the same in the front half of the third stanza. Weiermair tallied with 7:04 left in regulation to garner his first career multi-point outing and push DU's lead to 6-0, and Devine recorded his eighth two-goal game of the campaign in the final four minutes.
 
Mason Salquist ended Davis' shutout at 13:48 of the third period, and Veeti Miettinen also scored for the Huskies with 2:07 left.
 
St. Cloud State netminder Isak Posch started for the second straight night and finished with 16 saves on 23 shots.
 
Denver outscored St. Cloud by a 13-4 margin over the two games after winning 6-2 on Friday.
 
UP NEXT: DU wraps up its three-game road swing next Friday at No. 11 Colorado College at 8 p.m. MT in a nationally-televised game on CBS Sports Network. DU and CC conclude the regular season against the next night, Saturday, March 9 at 7:30 p.m. MT at Magness Arena.
 
POSTGAME NOTES

• Tristan Lemyre scored his first goal of the season.
• Sean Behrens tallied his third goal of the campaign.
• Aidan Thompson had a goal and an assist for his sixth multi-point performance of the season.
• Alex Weiermair recorded his first career multi-point game and has four points in the last four games (2g/2a).
• Tristan Broz's three assists match a career high.

GOAL SUMMARY
1st Period
19:40 DU (1-0) – Aidan Thompson forced a turnover in his own zone, skated the length of the ice with the puck and buried a wrist shot on a 2-on-1 rush during 4-on-4 play.
 
2nd Period
4:18 DU (2-0) – Tristan Lemyre knocked the puck in from a tough angle after Aidan Thompson's shot went wide and caromed off the end wall.
9:24 DU (3-0) – Sean Behrens tapped the puck into an open net while alone at the top of the crease off passes from Tristan Broz and Zeev Buium.
 
3rd Period
3:51 DU (4-0) – Jack Devine knocked in Shai Buium's pass at the left post.
6:00 DU (5-0) – McKade Webster deflected in Zeev Buium's shot while stationed at the top of the crease.
12:54 DU (6-0) – Alex Weiermair took a pass off the wall from Kent Anderson, split three Husky players in a drive to the net and tallied glove-side with a wrist shot.
13:48 SCSU (6-1) – Mason Salquist scored on a wrist shot.
16:41 DU (7-1) – Jack Devine forced a turnover in the neutral zone and tallied unassisted with a wrist shot during a breakaway.
17:53 SCSU (7-2) – Veeti Miettinen scored from a tough angle along the left boards.
 

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