DENVER – The University of Denver has had its fair share of success in the third period this season, but the Pioneers needed to play maybe their best hockey of the year in the final regulation stanza against a rival and in a top-10 conference matchup at North Dakota.
On a six-game winless streak (0-5-1), Denver entered the third on Saturday in Grand Forks tied 2-2, and it's safe to say the squad won the frame to help it get back in the victory column. The Pios came out of the intermission by outshooting the then-No. 5-ranked Fighting Hawks 9-8 in the period, scored a power-play goal midway through the stanza and held off UND during a 6-on-5 man disadvantage in the final 1:27 to earn a 3-2 win and series split.
"I love that the best part of our game was the start of the third period," said Denver Richard and Kitzia Goodman Hockey Head Coach
David Carle. "We were really good, and we were able to buckle it down and was obviously able to kill off the 5-on-6. Proud of guys through this stretch, and it's not like it's over—we have a lot of tough games coming ahead. They found a way to stay positive and block out some outside noise and found a way to win a game tonight for each other."
The power-play marker by
James Reeder was especially key as the Pioneers went 0-for-3 with the man advantage the previous night in a 5-0 loss. DU had chances to take the early lead or close the gap when the score was 1-0 and 2-0 in the first and second periods on Friday but couldn't beat North Dakota netminder Jan Spunar, who finished with the shutout.
Reeder's sixth goal of the season came with 8:41 remaining in the third period. DU did a good job of cycling the puck around the zone to get a quality shot on net, and Reeder picked up the rebound after teammate
Sam Harris tied up a NoDak D-men in front of the crease.
"Luckily I was able to pick it up and put it in the net for the big goal and help the team win," said Reeder.
"Huge power-play goal," noted Carle. "Another thing that we felt that was lacking throughout this time here was our power play stepping up in big moments."
Denver goaltender
Quentin Miller finished Saturday by making 33 saves on 35 shots faced and got help from his teammates as the unit in front of him played solid defensively to clear out pucks and not allow too many quality scoring chances.
The Pioneers produced season-high blocks both nights at Ralph Engelstad Arena, denying 19 shots on Saturday after sacrificing their bodies on 18 pucks on Friday. Harris and
Eric Pohlkamp had two key defensive stands in the final 90 second when NoDak had the extra attacker on the ice.
"Miller really bounced back tonight, had a heck of a game," Reeder said. "We really needed him to be big and make some saves, and he did exactly that. Our defense was much more connected in our D-zone, taking away their chances and led to a smoother transition and much better team game tonight."
Statistically speaking, the third period has been one of DU's best this season. The Pioneers had scored most of their goals (33), owning a plus-12 margin in the final frame, and had outshot opponents 282-222 entering Saturday. Denver also has a 10-1-0 record when holding the lead entering the final 20 minutes.
The victory was the Pios' fourth comeback of the season, as they trailed 2-1 in the second stanza before Pohlkamp evened the score with his 14th goal of the season before the intermission.
"Going into today, we knew we had to flush what happened yesterday and just come to work," said Reeder postgame. "Today is a new day and earn the split and get back on the right track heading into next weekend."
Every team goes through rough patches throughout a season, and while the margins are small and every game means so much in college hockey with the NPI rankings, it's not necessarily the end of the world if a group falls consecutively in a few contests.
DU dropped four games in a row in 2021-22 and lost three of four in 2023-24, and each campaign had the team finish as national champions. The Pios' last six-game winless drought was in 2015-16 (0-4-2), and they went on to reach the Frozen Four that season.
Despite Denver's recent tough stretch, the team stayed positive through it, knowing it had played good enough to win many of those defeats and ultimately a few plays here and there decided the outcome.
Still getting the win felt really good.
"A lot of resiliency showed by our guys tonight," Carle said. "We're proud of them and looking forward to getting home."
POHLKAMP & DU D-MEN CONTINUE TO SCORE
Junior
Eric Pohlkamp scored his 14th goal of the season on Saturday in North Dakota to take sole possession of ninth place for the most tallies by a defenseman in a single season in program history.
Mike Benning was the last Pioneer defender to tally more than 14 goals in a season when he netted 15 in 2021-22. Benning and
Ryan Caldwell (2003-04) are currently next on the list for Pohlkamp to chase in a tie for seventh place.
Pohlkamp has led a Denver defensive corps that has recorded 33.7 percent of the team's goals this season (29-of-86), with 27 coming from the trio of
Boston Buckberger (7),
Eric Jamieson (6) and Pohlkamp (14).
The Pioneers are the only program in the country with three rear guards with six or more goals, and only three other programs have multiple D-men with five or more tallies: Air Force (3), Minnesota Duluth (2), St. Thomas (2).
POWER UP THE PP
Despite going 0-for-3 on the power play on Friday, Denver had been performing better with the man advantage recently.
James Reeder's goal marked the squad's sixth man-up tally in the past seven games.
"We were struggling early on in the season, and we're starting to score some more goals on the power play," said Reeder when reflecting on his power-play tally. "Any goal at that point of the game is big, so it all feels good."
DU owns a 25-percent success rate on the power play in its last seven games and has 10 power-play goals in its past 11 contests dating back to Nov. 29 against Minnesota in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Game at Ball Arena.
The Pioneers scored with the man advantage in five straight outings from Dec. 13-Jan. 10 for the team's longest streak of the season and its longest since also scoring in five consecutive contests from Jan. 3-24, 2025.
MORE NOTABLES
- Denver recorded season highs in blocked shots in both games last weekend at North Dakota. After blocking 18 shots on Friday, the Pioneers got in front of 19 on Saturday—the program's most in a regular-season contest since blocking 20 vs. NoDak on Jan. 17, 2021.
- Eric Pohlkamp blocked four shots on Friday night, while Reid Varkonyi (3) and Clarke Caswell recorded career highs in the game. On Saturday, Eric Jamieson (4), Boston Buckberger (3-tied) and Jake Fisher (2-tied) each set or matched personal bests in blocks.
- Defenseman Boston Buckberger has registered 10 points in the past 11 contests (4g/6a) and recorded points in 13 of the last 18 games dating back to Nov. 1 (7g/11a).
- Denver is now 4-2-0 in its last six games against UND and 9-5-0 in the past 14 contests in the series. The Pioneers are 5-3-0 in their past eight games in Grand Forks.
- North Dakota was the third NCHC squad that Denver concluded its season series with (Western Michigan, four games; Miami, two games).
- Kristian Epperson recorded his second multi-point game of the season on Saturday (Nov. 1 vs. Alaska Anchorage).
- Goaltender Johnny Hicks played on Friday, marking the second time this season that he has played in back-to-back contests (also Dec. 6-12, 2026).
- Hicks made a career-best 15 saves after coming in relief in the third period on Friday. He had his career-long shutout streak end at 50:20 that dated back to Dec. 6 (four games).
- Senior forward Rieger Lorenz played in his 150th career game on Friday, while junior defenseman Eric Pohlkamp played in his 100th career NCAA contest the same night.
- Denver was shutout on Friday for just the second time this season (1-0 loss on Oct. 25 at Northeastern).
- DU went 4-for-4 on the penalty kill on Friday and 3-for-3 on Saturday and has now gone perfect in man-disadvantage situations in 15 contests this season.
- The Pioneers ended a six-game winless streak, their longest since Dec. 4, 2015-Jan. 2, 2016 (0-4-2)—the program went on to reach the NCAA Frozen Four that season.
- Denver improved to 10-2-0 when scoring first, 4-5-1 when tied after the first period and 2-2-1 when tied at the end of two periods this season.
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