Hockey, Men's Sports

Denver Caps Minnesota Duluth Sweep With 5-2 Victory

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“Déjà vu all over again” is a phrase taken from a famous quotation attributed to Yogi Berra. DU hockey stole a page out of Yogi’s book Friday night, at least for the first two periods, when the Pioneers went up 3-0 to ultimately deliver the knockout blow to Minnesota Duluth Saturday night. The Pioneers win swept the Bulldogs out of the NCHC quarterfinals. A 4-0 Friday thrashing was followed by a 5-2 win at Magness Arena Saturday night. Denver advances to the NCHC Frozen Faceoff for their tenth season in a row, the only NCHC team to accomplish that feat.

In the first period, Denver carried play the first ten minutes but UMD created several scoring opportunities in the second ten minutes. DU goaltender Matt Davis was up to the challenge – stopping two sterling opportunities. The Bulldogs outshot DU, 13-10 in the frame but the teams played a relatively even scoreless first period.

In the second period, after struggling with the extra man advantage, Denver finally scored a powerplay goal (3:53) with a scum in front of the UMD goal. Aiden Thompson directed the puck through traffic into the cage. Denver followed twenty-seven seconds later when Reiger Lorenz did a pirouette and snipe (4:20) for a 2-0 Pioneer lead. Denver started to buzz. Denver carried play the balance of the period before Sean Behrens added the exclamation point. At 14:02, Behrens buried a wicked wrister, 3-0. Just like Friday night, DU owned the second period and exited with a 3-0 edge.

Denver continued to generate several great scoring opportunities in the opening minutes of the third but was turned away by UND’s Matthew Thiessen. It was back and forth until seven minutes into the period when UMD’s Luke Loheit slipped a soft goal past Davis, 3-1. Davis responded with several grade ‘A’ saves against the Bulldogs powerplay and even-strength opportunities. Duluth kept firing away as the Denver defense had trouble clearing the zone as the clock wound down. At 3:26, UMD pulled their goalie and Denver icing led to a faceoff in the Denver end. Kyle Bettens made Denver pay with a UND goal at 17:56. Less than a minute later with Matthew Thiessen on the bench, Denver got the puck out of their zone and a streaking Tristan Broz scored an empty net goal with 1:13 left, 4-2. Denver staved off UMD’s extra man attack again with twenty-three seconds remaining when Denver added an exclamation point goal with a two-man breakaway and a gimme scoring pass from a streaking Jared Wright to Reiger Lorenz, 5-2.

Yes, the game tightened at 3-2 in the third period but it never felt that DU was going to lose this game. This Denver team is young but developed every step of the way during conference play. DU finished the season without centers Carter King and Massimo Rizzo, both nicked and getting needed time to rest and recuperate. Matt Davis played an excellent series and made key stops, especially tonight when Denver needed critical stops. Finally, Denver’s defense is getting better each game eliminating quality scoring opportunities. David Carle has done a masterful job with this young team.

It is on to St Paul for the Frozen Faceoff. Head Coach David Carle vows to play for the win because playing the NCHC tournament safe has stung Denver in the past and they lost needed momentum. The top two seeds, North Dakota and Denver, advance and Sunday game threes will determine the other two teams. Would you have taken 26-9-3 (15-7-2) record heading into this season with a young team with so many question marks?

Damn right,  we would!

 

 

 

 

4 thoughts on “Denver Caps Minnesota Duluth Sweep With 5-2 Victory”

  2. Bravo. A very good sweep for the Pios, as ending any team’s season is always a tough assignment. Once again, the Pioneers’ offensive depth prevailed and all four lines had some dominance in the o-zone, which the DU coaches love to see. That creates match-up issues for opponents, and is a big reason why DU is still scoring 4+ GPG. Face-off improvements are also duly noted. Well done. Power play is still underpowered, but that should change in the coming weeks as King and Rizzo return to the lineup.

    More importantly, the young DU defense is now jelling pretty well in front of Davis, as it must in playoff hockey. DU now really understands high level playoff defense — how to play with coordinated gap control, crease-clearing and shot-blocking, which bodes well for DU in the coming weeks. Kudos to the coaching staff for getting this young team to understand, buy-in and execute these decision-making concepts. It’s not easy to do, and these guys are doing it.

    That said, there are still some lingering issues to clean up in terms of puck management in the defensive zone, and struggles with clearing the puck when under pressure, which we saw in the third period of the Saturday game. We all saw this when Duluth cranked-up the offensive pressure with its season on the line and scored a couple of goals to make things closer than they needed to be. Teams with more offensive talent will bury those kinds chances off turnovers, so the Pioneers need to practice safer clearing, especially at the ends of long shifts, when physical strength is low.

    Davis has improved in recent weeks, too. He made some huge saves at point blank range when DU needed him to play big on Saturday. He let in the one softie to Loheit, and that is the kind of goal he cannot give up against more talented offensive teams, as those are the types of goals that get good teams knocked out of playoff games.

    Some coaching decisions remain about how and when to deploy the returning Carter King and perhaps Massimo Rizzo. The benefit of having them in the lineup must be weighed against the risk of re-injury. Were it up to me, I’d save both players for the NCAAs, assuming they are both ready.

    This Minnesota-Duluth team may not have the offensive firepower (or leadership quality) of previous UMD teams, but they were well-coached and have strong systems. I expect them to be very good next season.

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  3. Great way to start the postseason. Pios were solid all weekend, and while UMD had a push last night, I really liked DU’s effort and execution. Davis had some big saves last night, which was great to see, and I like the composure DU showed after UMD cut the lead to 3-2. They found a way to close out a desperate opponent. Not easy to do.

    Looking ahead, obviously there are bigger fish to fry than whatever result DU earns next weekend in St. Paul, but I believe next weekend is very important. Pios need to build off this weekend and keep the momentum going. I don’t want to read too much into it, but let’s not forget what happened last year–DU piled up 13 goals against Miami in the first round, then got to St. Paul and were shut out by CC. The following weekend they were again shut out, this time by Cornell, and the season was over. Very frustrating way to end the season. Didn’t look like the same DU team we saw for most of the season.

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  4. The DU brass doesn’t want to talk about it or make excuses, but a number of insiders have told me that a number of DU team members got sick last year around the time of the Frozen Five and NCAA first round. That may have been a major reason behind DU’s flat performances in St. Paul and Manchester.

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