photo courtesy of Shannon Valerio
American hero Troy Terry returned to Magness Arena for his first collegiate game since championing USA to gold at World Juniors. Terry crafted a career-high two-goal, three-assist night to lead the University of Denver Pioneers to a 6-1 victory over the Arizona State University Sun Devils (ASU) on Saturday, Jan. 7.
Terry, scored the lone shootout goal in the final against Canada and stunned Russia with a hat trick in the semifinal game scoring all three shootout goals five-hole. After returning from Montreal, Terry rested in absence during Friday’s game where the Pioneers won 5-1, before he made his debut on Saturday.
“He was dancing out there,” Head coach Jim Montgomery said. “You could tell the game was really easy and fluid for him. Obviously a five point night, it’s a career night for him as a Pioneer. Hopefully, he can go five-points every night for the rest of the year and I like our chances there.”
Freshman forward Henrik Borgstrom mirrored his performance from Friday’s game scoring two goals and one assist on Saturday night. Senior goaltender Evan Cowley replaced junior Tanner Jaillet between the pipes.
Denver’s scoring run began as sophomore forward Dylan Gambrell backhanded the puck low in the slot to Borgstrom at 6:46. Borgstrom lofted his shot the puck over ASU goaltender Ryland Pashovitz’s left shoulder to put the Pioneers on the board first. Denver continued to dominate the first period outshooting ASU 22-3.
The Pioneers momentum carried over into the second period, just 1:23 in Borgstrom setup up Terry in the slot. Terry finished shortside over Pashovitz, doubling Denver’s lead. Senior forward Emil Romig was also credited with an assist on the play.
2:29 later, sophomore forward Jarid Lukosevicius converted on the powerplay. After ASU’s Brett Gruber was assessed with slashing, Gambrell found Terry behind the cage. Terry fed Lukosevicius low in the slot; Lukosevicius drilled his eighth of the season to tally a 3-0 lead.
Just over eight minutes later, Denver went on another powerplay. 50 seconds into the man advantage, Borgstrom dangled past ASU’s blueline and slipped his shot past Pashovitz to extend the Pioneers’ lead 4-0.
The Sun Devil’s hindered Denver’s success in the attacking zone for the first half of the third period until freshman Kevin Conley broke through with 10:40 remaining in regulation. Senior center Matt Marcinew and Lukosevicius drew helpers on Denver’s five goal of the evening.
2:13 later, Gambrell fed a rushing Terry down the right faceoff circle. Terry sniped his sealing Denver’s lead 6-0.
At 16:29, Conley was assessed with slashing, the Sun Devils’ Brett Gruber converted on the powerplay to earn their first goal.
Terry was briefly honored with a highlight video during the first period, “It was awesome, pretty special. To see how much support I have back here for what happened over there was pretty awesome. There’s really nothing like putting on a Pioneer jersey and playing with these guys,” Terry said.
Denver travels to Lawson Arena to face Western Michigan for a conference series beginning Friday, Jan. 13. Puck-drop is scheduled for 5 pm MT.
A fun night at Magness tonight. Great to see Borgstrom, Terry and Gambrell working so well together on the most skilled line in the country, at least for my money. The downside of putting all those great eggs in one basket is that it puts a lot of pressure on the other lines to step up or DU becomes a one-line team. You can get away with it against a fledgling, young ASU team, but it would be interesting to see stacking the lines works in the NCHC, where teams tend to balance their lines.
Don’t read too much into the results this weekend – that’s a pretty unskilled ASU team that DU just played, and it is full living up to it’s #49 PWR. The Sun Devils will become quite competitive once they get an arena commitment.
Great tribute to Terry, and great game from him. Borgstrom looked like a man against boys tonight. But it was ASU…so have to temper the enthusiasm just a bit. Overall, good effort this weekend. Fun stuff with all the well-deserved Terry hoopla.
A fun night at Magness tonight. Great to see Borgstrom, Terry and Gambrell working so well together on the most skilled line in the country, at least for my money. The downside of putting all those great eggs in one basket is that it puts a lot of pressure on the other lines to step up or DU becomes a one-line team. You can get away with it against a fledgling, young ASU team, but it would be interesting to see stacking the lines works in the NCHC, where teams tend to balance their lines.
Don’t read too much into the results this weekend – that’s a pretty unskilled ASU team that DU just played, and it is full living up to it’s #49 PWR. The Sun Devils will become quite competitive once they get an arena commitment.
Great tribute to Terry, and great game from him. Borgstrom looked like a man against boys tonight. But it was ASU…so have to temper the enthusiasm just a bit. Overall, good effort this weekend. Fun stuff with all the well-deserved Terry hoopla.
I also LOVED the tribute to Terry. So many times in the past, DU will do a tribute between periods, where half the crowd is out of their seats to buy food, take a bio break, check their snapchats or talk with friends. By staging the tribute in the middle of the game, it allowed the entire DU crowd to stand and really appreciate what Terry (and his USA teammates) accomplished in Montreal. Even some of the ASU players were banging their sticks on the ice for him.
Finally, with Terry being a Denver-area native, the tribute took on a special patina. Many local fans came out to the game especially to see and applaud him that might not have bothered to come out to a DU/ASU game – Monty estimates 1,500 of the 6,000 people came for the Terry tribute, and he’s probably right. We’re good at bandwagons in Denver, and this one is welcome. Let’s hope some of those fans come back to Magness for the second half of what may be shaping up to be a special season for Terry and his Pioneers…
I also LOVED the tribute to Terry. So many times in the past, DU will do a tribute between periods, where half the crowd is out of their seats to buy food, take a bio break, check their snapchats or talk with friends. By staging the tribute in the middle of the game, it allowed the entire DU crowd to stand and really appreciate what Terry (and his USA teammates) accomplished in Montreal. Even some of the ASU players were banging their sticks on the ice for him.
Finally, with Terry being a Denver-area native, the tribute took on a special patina. Many local fans came out to the game especially to see and applaud him that might not have bothered to come out to a DU/ASU game – Monty estimates 1,500 of the 6,000 people came for the Terry tribute, and he’s probably right. We’re good at bandwagons in Denver, and this one is welcome. Let’s hope some of those fans come back to Magness for the second half of what may be shaping up to be a special season for Terry and his Pioneers…
The tribute came across great on TV back in NJ. Cute aside: In a supermarket check-out line yesterday sporting DU Hockey final 4 hat. ( I live in a huge hockey/lacrosse hotbed) 10 year old kid poking his father in line right behind me:Look at his hat, kid says to dad. Wonder if he knows Troy Terry. Dad and I spoke for a few minutes and kid smiled. Dad knew his college and World Junior hockey. Kid was impressed how tight I am with TT.
CC/UND guy here…my wife took me to the DU/ASU game on Saturday and we both wore our Team USA jerseys in honor of Troy Terry. Those semi-final as well as gold medal games were among the best hockey I’ve ever witnessed. We LOVED the tribute they did for him during the first period, very classy. DU fans, enjoy him while you got him, he is a truly talented, gifted player.
The tribute came across great on TV back in NJ. Cute aside: In a supermarket check-out line yesterday sporting DU Hockey final 4 hat. ( I live in a huge hockey/lacrosse hotbed) 10 year old kid poking his father in line right behind me:Look at his hat, kid says to dad. Wonder if he knows Troy Terry. Dad and I spoke for a few minutes and kid smiled. Dad knew his college and World Junior hockey. Kid was impressed how tight I am with TT.
CC/UND guy here…my wife took me to the DU/ASU game on Saturday and we both wore our Team USA jerseys in honor of Troy Terry. Those semi-final as well as gold medal games were among the best hockey I’ve ever witnessed. We LOVED the tribute they did for him during the first period, very classy. DU fans, enjoy him while you got him, he is a truly talented, gifted player.