After a 20-day break, Denver (9-4-2) jumped out to a quick lead over the Merrimack Warriors (4-13-1) and controlled play the rest of the way in a 3-1 win Friday night at Lawler Rink in North Andover, Massachusetts.
The Pioneers grabbed an early lead just 16 seconds into the game for the only goal of the period. Michael Davies gathered the puck at the left wing wall and sent a shot through traffic from the right point that found the lower right corner of the net.
Denver made it 2-0 on the power play from Liam Finlay early in the second. The score remained unchanged until midway into the third period. Ryan Barrow made it 3-0 at the 9:18 mark of the third. Tyson McLellan cleared the puck out to the neutral zone from the right wing boards of the Denver zone. Then, Jake Durflinger tapped the puck up to Barrow to start a 2-on-1 opportunity and Barrow snapped a shot from the near circle through the five-hole. Tyler Drevitch finally scored for the Warriors at 18:37 of the final period to seal the final score of 3-1. Denver got off 46 shots for the game to Merrimack’s 44 and won 31 of 56 faceoffs. Devin Cooley was the winning goalie.
Cooley makes 23 saves in the win #PioneerTogether https://t.co/msb0rvDqud
— Denver Hockey (@DU_Hockey) December 29, 2018
Denver faces UMass-Lowell at 5:00 MT on Saturday in Lowell, Massachusetts.
DU got what needed to get the road win against a Merrimack team that skates pretty well, but just does not have the kind of high-end goal scoring talent that the Pioneers have. You could see DU getting stronger as the game went on, and in the third period, they had the puck most of the time.
The Pioneers still have problems dealing with extra-attackers when the opponent pulls its goalie, especially net crashers. That needs to be a point of emphasis to protect late game leads.
Without Mitchell (World Juniors) and Stapely (injury?) in the lineup, this team is solid but they need more offense from Luko, Petterson and Guttman.
Lowell is a better team than Merrimack, so the Pioneers will need their legs going all night if they hope to sweep.
By the way, DU’s loss of Brendan Budy back to junior hockey (Tri-City of the USHL) may not sound like a big loss now, but it may come back to haunt the Pioneers in a few years, if Budy chooses another college program after Tri-City. Budy’s point-per-game production in the BCHL last year as a 17-year old captain still points to future production at the college level.