ST. CLOUD, Minn. – The No. 6 University of Denver hockey team had five different goal scorers on Friday night to defeat the St. Cloud State Huskies 5-1 in the series opener at Herb Brooks National Hockey Center.
Denver (12-5-1, 8-1-0 NCHC) and St. Cloud State (7-10-0, 2-7-0 NCHC) conclude their two-game set on Saturday at 5 p.m. MT in what will be the Pioneers' final contest before their holiday break. The outing will be broadcast on NCHC.tv.
Freshmen
Clarke Caswell and
Brady Milburn and junior
Sam Harris each scored for DU, as well as Minnesota Wild draft pick
Rieger Lorenz and 2024 Minnesota Mr. Hockey
Hagen Burrows (Orono). Eight different Pioneers registered assists in the contest, including Minnesota natives
Jake Fisher (Woodbury) and
Brendan McMorrow (Lakeville).
"Obviously we were really efficient scoring, three goals in the first period. It was probably a more even game after that," said Richard and Kitzia Goodman Hockey Head Coach
David Carle. "Just proud of our depth. Not an easy place to play on the big ice, guys went out and executed at a high level."
Goaltender
Quentin Miller stopped 37-of-38 shots, including all 28 he faced in the first two periods as Denver built a 4-0 advantage. Fellow freshman keeper
Johnny Hicks played for the second straight game at the end of the third stanza, finishing off the final 2:29 of regulation in the DU crease.
The Pioneers had a 3-0 lead at the first intermission as Lorenz scored at 4:13, Caswell at 9:40 and Milburn netted his first career tally with 2:27 left in the period. Harris buried his eighth marker of the year with 5:23 left in the second stanza to stretch his point streak to nine games, tying a career long.
Tyson Gross netted the only goal of the evening for St. Cloud State 4:56 into the third period before Burrows pushed DU's lead back to four less than eight minutes later.
SCSU split its netminders with Yan Shostak getting the start and allowing three goals on 11 shots in the first period before Patriks Berzins played the final 40 minutes and stopped 22-of-24 pucks faced.
The Huskies outshot the Pioneers 38-35.
Neither team scored on its lone man-advantage chance. St. Cloud State entered the contest with the sixth-best power play in the NCAA.
UP NEXT: The Pioneers wrap up the first half of the season on Saturday at St. Cloud State before going on their Holiday Break. They return to action after the New Year at home against Maine on Jan. 2-3.
POSTGAME NOTES
- Denver is now 62-53-7 all-time against St. Cloud State and is 6-1-1 in the last eight games of the series.
- DU is 25-24-4 all-time in St. Cloud against the Huskies and have won three straight games at the Brooks Center after sweeping its last series in the city on March 1-2, 2024. The Pioneers' three-game win streak in St. Cloud is their longest since winning four in a row from Dec. 12, 2003-Jan. 22, 2005.
- Friday's game marked the official mid-point of the season with DU owning a 12-4-1 record (.694).
- Senior captain Kent Anderson played in his 125th career game.
- Freshman Brady Milburn scored his first collegiate goal and fired a season-high four shots on goal.
- Sam Harris scored for the second straight game and stretched his point streak to nine games (5g/5a), tying a career long (Oct. 18-Nov. 16, 2024).
- Boston Buckberger (2g/3a) and Clarke Caswell (1g/4a) are both on four-game point streaks. Buckberger is also on a three-game assist streak.
- Kyle Chyzowski is on his first three-game point streak of his career (2g/0a).
- Brendan McMorrow recorded points in consecutive games for the first time in his career (1g/1a).
- The Pioneers' one power-play chance tied for the fewest in a game this season (Oct. 17 at Lindenwood), while they held an opponent to just once opportunity themselves for the fifth time.
- Denver held an opponent to one goal or fewer for the 10th time this season.
- DU's senior class won its 105th career game, tying the 2018 and 2019 classes for the third-most in program history.
GOAL SUMMARY
1st Period
4:13 DU (1-0) –
Brendan McMorrow won a puck battle behind the net and sent a centering feed to the slot for
Rieger Lorenz, who went top shelf with a wrist shot.
9:40 DU (2-0) –
Clarke Caswell gathered a bouncing puck in the slot after
Boston Buckberger sent a high pass through the neutral zone and scored five-hole.
17:33 DU (3-0) –
Brady Milburn redirected
Jake Fisher's point shot into the back of the net from the slot.
2nd Period
14:37 DU (4-0) –
Sam Harris went low and to the far-side with a shot from the mid-slot after
James Reeder fed him the puck from the corner.
3rd Period
4:56 SCSU (4-1) – Tyson Gross flipped a shot through the DU goalie at the low slot after Barrett Hall passed the puck from behind the goal line.
12:38 DU (5-1) –
Hagen Burrows went high, far-side with a shot from the right side after
Reid Varkonyi dished him the puck.
QUOTABLES
Sophomore Forward Hagen Burrows
On playing in his home state of Minnesota: "I have some family [here tonight]. It's obviously a great feeling being back in my home state. All of the Minnesota guys on our team were pretty happy; there was some positive energy there. It's always great to play in the home state in front of family."
On goaltender Quentin Miller: "Bringing in two freshmen goalies, we didn't know what that would look like. Quentin has been unbelievable for us this year. Having him in the back in net gives us confidence, lets the team play how we want to play, and he's been unbelievable so far this year."
Richard and Kitzia Goodman Hockey Head Coach David Carle
On the win: "It was probably the first time this year where we had a goal from every line on the night. The other major factor was of the 38 shots we did give up, only one came when we were on the (penalty) kill. We took only one penalty, which was a huge key. The majority of the game was played at 5-on-5, which is immensely important for us. The one power play they did have, I thought we did an excellent job executing what we wanted to do."
On the team's goals: "[Rieger] Lorenz, [Hagen] Burrows and [Sam] Harris goals, all kind of those F3 pocket-type goals in the middle of the rink that we want to be connected in the offensive zone. That was a big part of playing on the big ice, I there's times where you can feel like you need to be in open ice all the time. Were we open in those areas? Yes, but we also made the effort to get to the inside and win the races to that area … All five goals are really inside the dots, but really inside the hash marks, and then on top of the blue paint for the Milburn goal. We got to the right areas tonight, got the puck to that area with bodies there and obviously executed at a high level from that area."
On slowing downing St. Cloud State's top line: "Yeah, if we force them to break it up—they tried a new look in the third. It obviously worked with [Tyson] Gross, [Barrett] Hall and [Noah] Urness were able to put one in the back of the net against us. I didn't think [Austin] Burnevik was quiet tonight by any means. Faceoffs, a lot of pucks came to him, they were running some set plays to him, ends up with six shots on the night. A really dangerous player and have to be aware when he's out there. He ends up even in a 5-1 loss; other guys had tougher nights on their end. I didn't think he was one of them. He was very noticeable all night long."
On the team's defense: "I thought our sticks were really good all night long on our reloads and our zone entries. A lot of the stuff they had felt like it was from the outside and when it did get to the inside, Q (goaltender
Quentin Miller) was there, but we collapsed well to him and helped limit some of those second and third chances, which is so critical against St. Cloud—a team that is very good around the nets and certainly likes to put the puck there. Kent [Anderson], I thought him and Cale [Ashcroft] in that third pairing, they were excellent tonight. They were out against the Burnevik like on a couple of occasions as well and did a really nice job. It was a full team effort tonight, all four lines, all three D-pairs."
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