In the span of barely three minutes in the waning moments of the second period between #5 Denver (16-5-2, 7-3-1 NCHC, 20 pts) and #19 Omaha (11-8-2, 4-6-1 NCHC, 11 pts), Jack Devine nearly singlehandedly turned a close, 2-2 game completely on its head by scoring twice and adding an assist to give the Pioneers a 5-2 lead after two periods. That flurry to end a period in which Denver outscored Omaha 4-1 was all they needed to dispatch the upset-hunting Mavericks, 6-3.
Until the last five minutes of the second period, Denver was struggling to find the back of the net on Omaha starting netminder Simon Latkoczy even though they dominated play – DU outshot UNO 24-11 through 40 minutes. But aside from a Boston Buckberger shorty in the first and an Aidan Thompson power play blast early in the second, Latkoczy stood on his head.
Devine, the NCAA’s leading goal-scorer with 20, who assisted on Thompson’s marker, took the game into his own hands and padded his Hobey Baker-worthy resume in the final minutes of the middle frame. He started the flurry by tapping home the rebound from a McKade Webster shot. Then, two and a half minutes later, Devine circled the offensive zone, backhanded a pass to the slot, and Webster found the back of the net. Not even a minute after Webster’s goal, Massimo Rizzo stole the puck from Trey Mancini at the Omaha blue line, started a DU 3-on-1 look, and found Devine across the slot for a shot that NCAA leading scorers simply do not miss.
Just like that, a 2-2 game at the 14:37 mark of the second period turned into a 5-2 lead at the 17:43 mark. That’s just how dangerous Denver’s NCAA-leading offense is. If you blink, you’ll miss something incredible.
Both teams added a goal in the third period, one from Rizzo for DU – Devine earned his third assist and fifth point of the night on the goal – and the other from Jesse Lansdell on an Omaha power play midway through the final period, to round out the scoring.
This was the second straight Friday night that the Pioneers used a dominant second period to earn a win. Last weekend, they scored five in the middle frame against St. Cloud State to earn the 5-1 victory, and then tonight’s four were enough to finish the job at Omaha. The challenge now is going to be continuing that momentum, especially defensively, to earn the weekend sweep, something Denver failed to do last weekend.
If Matt Davis and his defensive teammates can replicate tonight’s performance (and maybe even an improvement from Davis in the SV% department) where they only allowed 22 shots on goal and just 35 shot attempts tomorrow night, they will almost certainly stride into Grand Forks next weekend with a big six points and an important road sweep under their belts.
Highlights
HIGHLIGHTS: Devine's 5 points, Rizzo's 4 points power @DU_Hockey to 6-3 win at @OmahaHKY
🎥: https://t.co/ZyUdpPa7bb#NCHChockey // #GoPios pic.twitter.com/fu5MijN7gj
— The NCHC (@TheNCHC) January 20, 2024
DU continues to rely on their scoring ability (even strength anyway) to overwhelm their opponents and overcome their leaky defense/goaltending. Hope this continues to serve them well.
As great as it was to see Devo and his first line explode to take over the game in the second offensively for the Pioneers, the bigger take away for me was DU’s defensive improvements, which they have obviously been practicing.
DU really limited the numbers of Omaha shots with good gap control and effective positioning, blocked some shots, and cut down on the turnovers by making smarter decisions in the d-zone. Good coaching there.
DU’s goaltending is still not playoff level yet, but the only Omaha goal that Davis was really fooled on badly was the penalty shot by Urdahl. The other goals were a great one-timer shot by Mueller that no NCHC goalie would have saved, and a scrum shot (those happen). He also made a couple of great saves that goalies need to make from time to time, which is is good.
Now comes the point where we need to see if the Pioneers can get sweeps by playing a second smart game in a row. Omaha will come out hard and the Pios need to have their feet moving. Second-half hockey is about establishing consistency, and the Pios have a lot to prove in that department.
I’ve contacted the Denver Post and Denver Gazette in the last couple weeks about the lack of DU hockey coverage. The Post says they lack the resources, yet I see big coverage for CU women’s basketball. There are like 50,000 DU alumni in the Denver/ Boulder area and you’d think the media would be aware of that. Hard to understand.
I’ve seen some pretty good Gazette articles about DU hockey come across my news feed occasionally. I don’t get to any Denver Post articles, because of the paywall. I admit I focused on newspaper coverage of DU hockey in the past (like 5-10+ years ago) It was often good, sometimes I wished for more. But I have to ask, how much does it really matter anymore? If few people are reading print anymore, and if big fans like myself aren’t paying online, is newspaper coverage that relevant? I liked when it was, but times have changed.