Hockey, Men's Sports

Frozen Faceoff Semifinal Goal Fest Turns into Overtime Thriller, 5-4

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Old habits die hard. The nation’s leading scoring hockey team, the Denver Pioneers, scored goals as usual but gave up wide-open scoring opportunities to St. Cloud State in the first two periods – a return to their porous selves from the first half of the season. However, Denver found defense over the third period and won in overtime, 5-4, on a dazzling goal by Zeev Buium. North Dakota fell in the earlier afternoon game to Omaha 6-3 – setting up a Denver vs Omaha final in St Paul, Minnesota Saturday night. The win all but assured Denver a top-four seed in the NCAA hockey tournament,

There were four goals scored in each of the first two periods as the teams matched goals and DU never led. It took extra time and a beautiful individual effort for DU to advance to the Frozen Faceoff final.

In the first period, SCSU started the scoring early (1:40) when Cooper Wylie put the Husky’s up, 1-0. Seven minutes later, Zeev Buium charged into the offensive zone from the blue line and evened up the score, 1-1. St. Cloud’s Nick Portz traded punches with the Pioneers and scored an even-strength tally, 2-1. Late in the first period, captain McKade Webster fought through traffic and stuffed in a goal for the Pioneers, 2-2.

In the second period, St. Cloud started the scoring early again when Adam Ingram beat DU goaltender Matt Davis a minute into the period, 3-2. Four and a half minutes later, DU’s Miko Matikka scored on a one-timer blast on the powerplay to knot the score 3-3. At 8:06, SCSU’s Barrett Hall returned the favor with a Husky powerplay goal, 4-3. Denver missed scoring on a five-minute major opportunity when the Husky’s  Cooper Wylie was called for hitting from behind. Denver had good looks at goaltender Isak Posch but could not solve the Husky defense. It took Miko Matikka at even-strength to score on a deflection in traffic to pull the Pioneers even, 4-4.

Denver carried the offensive pressure into the third period, doubling up the shots on St. Cloud but the 4-4 score held past the midway point of the period.  St. Cloud started to pin Denver back in the defensive zone over the next five minutes. Denver held on but created a flurry of opportunities in the final minute of regulation but could not get the puck past Posch.  Both sides looked exhausted as the horn sounded.

Early in five-on-five extra time, Denver struggled to create solid scoring opportunities but neither could St. Cloud. Finally, at 13:39 DU’s freshman phenom Zeev Buium scored on a breakout rush for a beautiful deke and goal, 5-4, and win.

Next up for Denver is Omaha in the championship game tomorrow at 6:30 pm MT on CBS Sports Network.

 

 

 

 

2 thoughts on “Frozen Faceoff Semifinal Goal Fest Turns into Overtime Thriller, 5-4”

  1. Great win after a lot of defensive lapses. Zeev Buium was spectacular, as usual.
    Looks like no matter what happens tomorrow, the DU win puts CC into the NCAA Tourney. This would mean 5 NCHC teams will be in the big dance this year!

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  2. Yikes. While DU fans can celebrate the OT win, the coaches will probably be pulling their hair out with the regression into poor defensive play and simply awful goaltending that DU displayed in the first two periods of that game.

    You can’t always rely on the five goal offense to bail you out at playoff time, where mistakes (and hot goalies) often end seasons.

    Let’s hope we see better defense tonight and in the NCAA tourney.

    Congrats on the top 3 PWR finish nationally – it speaks to the quality of the program to be there with the second youngest team in college hockey. The fact that BC is #1 with the youngest team in college hockey is an achievement that is even more amazing.

    Go Pios!

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