Last night, the top-ranked University of Denver Pioneers rebounded after a frustrating tie on Friday night to top the Lake Superior State University Lakers 5-1 on Saturday. It was exactly the performance the Pioneers needed. On Friday, the Pioneers had 66 shots through the first overtime and last night, they sent another 54 on net. Over the course of the weekend, DU outshot LSSU 120-33 but scored just eight goals. There is room for improvement and head coach Jim Montgomery knows it.
Watch last night’s media scrum with Jim Montgomery below:
Monty post LSSU victory https://t.co/zXBNZMmJxu
— LetsGoDU (@LetsGoDU) October 22, 2017
There won’t be a lot more 120-shot weekends this season, so the offensive emphasis needs to be for everyone to increase shooting efficiency and rebound readiness/positioning. Burying chances is the best way for this offense to reach a 5 GPG potential.
Monty is still mixing lines looking for chemistry. He only had two left shot forwards in the lineup on Saturday — Heikkinen and Borgstrom, so that may be a factor in line composition decisions. Personally, I’d love to see the two Finns play together on a line to see what they can do, especially with Finlay on the right, who is becoming a very good college player. But I also understand that Monty may want to spread his two left shots on different lines to create more options/depth.
I liked Staub with Gambrell and Terry, since Staub is a pretty skilled banger who can create space and open things for the super-high skills of Terry and Gambrell.
Logan O’Connor is the best PK guy on the team, and I’d like to see him in a third line role creating havoc with his speed- he’s too good for the fourth line
Special teams looked better on Saturday, but I am hoping that the first PP unit can really become a dominant PP unit. With Terry, Borgstrom, Gambrell, Mitchell and Lukosevicius, the talent level is certainly there.
Defensively, it was good to see guys like Fear, Mendel and Mostrom get ice time this weekend, with Hammond still out. While mistakes were made with these inexperienced guys, none of them were really glaring. The defense certainly misses Butcher’s first pass out of the zone to start breakouts, and it’s nice to see Adam Plant and Michael Davis stepping into more prominent offensive roles, along with Mitchell, to patch the activation/jump into the play hole that Butcher left.
Going on the road to Boston is exactly what this team needs right now – more cohesion, more camaraderie and good opponents should help accelerate the gelling process, leading toward league play looming in November.
There won’t be a lot more 120-shot weekends this season, so the offensive emphasis needs to be for everyone to increase shooting efficiency and rebound readiness/positioning. Burying chances is the best way for this offense to reach a 5 GPG potential.
Monty is still mixing lines looking for chemistry. He only had two left shot forwards in the lineup on Saturday — Heikkinen and Borgstrom, so that may be a factor in line composition decisions. Personally, I’d love to see the two Finns play together on a line to see what they can do, especially with Finlay on the right, who is becoming a very good college player. But I also understand that Monty may want to spread his two left shots on different lines to create more options/depth.
I liked Staub with Gambrell and Terry, since Staub is a pretty skilled banger who can create space and open things for the super-high skills of Terry and Gambrell.
Logan O’Connor is the best PK guy on the team, and I’d like to see him in a third line role creating havoc with his speed- he’s too good for the fourth line
Special teams looked better on Saturday, but I am hoping that the first PP unit can really become a dominant PP unit. With Terry, Borgstrom, Gambrell, Mitchell and Lukosevicius, the talent level is certainly there.
Defensively, it was good to see guys like Fear, Mendel and Mostrom get ice time this weekend, with Hammond still out. While mistakes were made with these inexperienced guys, none of them were really glaring. The defense certainly misses Butcher’s first pass out of the zone to start breakouts, and it’s nice to see Adam Plant and Michael Davis stepping into more prominent offensive roles, along with Mitchell, to patch the activation/jump into the play hole that Butcher left.
Going on the road to Boston is exactly what this team needs right now – more cohesion, more camaraderie and good opponents should help accelerate the gelling process, leading toward league play looming in November.
Monty has the luxury of being able to experiment with mix and match combinations in Nov. and Dec. then start jelling his final combos and bringing them up to max around late Feb. He can sacrifice some scores and probably lose a game or two that he could have won.
We’ll make the playoffs for sure but the important point is that the team is playing it’s best game in March and April.
Monty has the luxury of being able to experiment with mix and match combinations in Nov. and Dec. then start jelling his final combos and bringing them up to max around late Feb. He can sacrifice some scores and probably lose a game or two that he could have won.
We’ll make the playoffs for sure but the important point is that the team is playing it’s best game in March and April.