Hockey

Denver Rolls Past UMass Lowell 4-1 – Earn Weekend Sweep

5 Comments

Photo: Courtesy of Denver Hockey Twitter

It wasn’t a pretty game but DU took care of business with a solid win against UMass Lowell Saturday night to complete an East Coast  sweep for the weekend. The University of Denver (10-4-2) faced Hockey East UMass Lowell Riverhawks (8-8-1) Saturday night at the Tsongas Center and came away with a convincing 4-1 win.

Freshman Filip Larsson started in goal for the Pioneers and got the win.

Denver was on their heels for the first ten minutes of the game. The Pioneers settled down the balance of the period and created several chances of their own. In the slow moving opening 20 minutes, DU trailed in shots-on-goal, 9-6. The Riverhawks had a narrow advantage on faceoffs 8-7 but UMass Lowell doubled up the Pioneers with 23 shots. Filip Larsson held the home team off the scoreboard on several great saves. The first period ended 0-0.

With three minutes remaining in a sluggish second period, DU freshman Cole Guttman broke the deadlock on an assist from Emilio Pettersen, on his eighth goal of the season, to make it 1-0 at 16:47. Denver thwarted Lowell’s efforts to score the rest of the period as the Riverhawks could only generate 3 shots-on-goal to Denver’s 4 for the entire period.

A beautiful power-play play roof shot by Jarid Lukosevicius, assisted by the freshmen tandem of Petterson and Guttman,  made the score 2-0 at 3:19 of the third period. Shortly after that, a second undisciplined penalty by the Riverhawks’  Connnor Sodergren led to another Jarid Lukosevicius  power-play goal  at 5:23 to make it 3-0.

The Riverhawks finally scored following a Liam Finlay tripping penalty and made it 3-1 at 12:20 of the 3rd period on a rising wrist shot from the Riverhawks Seth Barton. Ryan Barrow countered with Denver’s final goal at 17:45, assisted by Les Lancaster, on a great individual effort to make it a 4-1 final.

 

 

 

5 thoughts on “Denver Rolls Past UMass Lowell 4-1 – Earn Weekend Sweep”

  1. In road hockey, you usually have to grind down opponents as you get deeper in games. That’s just what happened this weekend, as the Pioneers got better as the games went deeper, owning the third periods in both games against teams DU should beat. It’s a good sign as the team grows in confidence, without two of the Pios’ top players (Mitchell and Stapeley).

    What I really liked about last night was that DU’s big guns were the big players. DU needs Luko, Petterson and Guttman to score goals and to create offense, and that’s just what those guys did.

    Now it’s on to Wisconsin…

    Reply

  2. Great way to start the 2nd half. A long road trip and two wins over Hockey East opponents was great to see. GO PIOS!!!!

    Reply

  3. So these are a few questions that aren’t related to the UMass-Lowell game, but wanted to see if anybody knew:

    1) With Brendan Budy leaving and Trevor Wong and Alex Swetlikoff decommiting for the WHL, does anybody know if we will be/are in on uncommitted Finnish prospects Matias Maccelli and Marcus Kallionkieli from the USHL?

    2) Has Ty Smilanic’s offer been rescinded or is he still scheduled to arrive in 2020?

    3) Will Bobby Brink now come in next fall?

    4) Is Brendan Budy completely gone, or will he come back next year from the USHL?

    If anybody knows would love to hear! Thanks.

    Reply

    1. Will try to answer all of these as best I can!

      1 – I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re in on Maccelli and Kallionkieli. David Carle has proven himself very successful with European recruits with Borgström, Heikkinen, and Pettersen so I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re pursuing them. That being said, DU’s young depth ha proven itself surprisingly good this year – which is part of the reason why Budy left – so there may not be the need, per se, to replace all of the recent decommits.

      2 – As far as I know, Smilanic is still coming to Denver. I have not heard anything on that front to believe otherwise. And College Hockey Commits and Elite Prospects both still have him listed as a 2020-2021 freshman.

      3 – I’ve been told Brink is trying to speed up his enrollment which means he’d like to get to Denver next season. With the decommits that you previously mentioned, it appears pretty darn likely that he’ll be here next year unless he hits a snag with DU admissions or the NCAA…so you never know. Tl;dr: expect him on campus next season.

      4 – I expect Budy in an NCAA uniform next season or the year after but don’t expect him in a DU uniform. It’s not totally out of the question and it’s not like it hasn’t happened before, but I’d expect him to go to a different school next year or the year after.

      Hope that mostly answers your questions!
      -NT

      Reply

      1. Sorry…one edit. Smilanic isn’t listed on College Hockey Commits but Elite Prospects still has him coming to Denver in 2020.

Leave a Reply