Hockey, Men's Sports

Pioneers Bounce Back from Blown Lead to Earn Gold Pan Split

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Look, there’s no two ways about it. Blowing a 3-0 lead to your archrival and giving up five straight goals along the way is embarrassing. Add in the fact that the #4 Denver Pioneers (14-4-0, 4-4-0 NCHC) had zero regulation wins in nearly a month, the blown lead and loss stung even more. So, a night later, with game two of the home-and-home series with the #10 Colorado College Tigers  (10-5-1, 4-3-1 NCHC) and the last game before the three-week holiday break looming, the vibes were terrible and the pressure was immense. Was DU’s season on the line already in mid-December? Fortunately, Cale Ashcroft’s game-winning goal five and a half minutes into the third period prevented that question from needing to be answered as the Pioneers held on to earn the 2-1 win and split the first Gold Pan series of the season.

If DU felt the pressure after last night’s embarrassment in Colorado Springs, they certainly didn’t show it. The Pioneers came out hot in the first period, dominating play for the first six minutes. But it was the Tigers who scored first, after Ty Gallagher took advantage of a Stanley Cooley screen and beat Matt Davis with a wrister. Gallagher’s goal set the Pioneers back and for the rest of the period, they receded back into the shell that blew the lead in game one and allowed the Tigers to dictate play. For DU fans, it was deja vu all over again.

Fortunately, Matt Davis came to play in game two and stopped nine of CC’s 10 first-period shots which allowed the Pioneers to regroup at intermission. And did they ever. Just two and a half minutes into the second period, Aidan Thompson scored his 11th goal of the season after burying the rebound off of his own shot to tie the game at one. From there, Denver dictated play at five-on-five, but the power play, which has scored just once in the last five games, continued to struggle, even with an extended five-minute chance after a Tyler Dunbar game misconduct for checking from behind. Denver went 0/3 tonight and 0/7 this weekend with the man advantage.

Still, after struggling at even-strength a night ago, the Pioneers flipped the script and made sure that they were the better team at five-on-five tonight and it made a massive difference early in the third period when Hagen Burrows who won a massive 50-50 battle below CC’s net found Cale Ashcroft in the slot before the latter took his time, picked the top right corner, and sniped a wrister past a helpless Kaidan Mbereko. A strong third period in all phases and zones – without a doubt DU’s best period since sweeping North Dakota in Grand Forks a month ago – made Ashcroft’s goal hold up as the game-winner.

If you take nothing else away from this weekend – and there is plenty like DU’s vibes are much better entering the holiday break, they finally won in regulation again, etc. – it should be this:

The Gold Pan Rivalry is back.

Even in the last few years with CC finally starting to build back from spending the better part of the last decade wandering in the desert of irrelevance, it never felt like the DU-CC matchups had any juice to them. CC was better, no question, but there was never any doubt as to which team was going to take home the Gold Pan. After last night’s thriller (to the unbiased observer) and tonight’s grind-it-out, physical affair, there’s no question – the rivalry is back and if CC can keep it up, it might just be entering another golden age, the likes of which we haven’t seen since the mid-late 2000s and early 2010s. The hatred never left. But the competitiveness…oh, the competitiveness is back.

No, Denver’s ultimate goal is never to just win the Gold Pan. It never has been and it never will be. But these days, winning the Gold Pan might mean a hell of a lot more in the big picture than it has at any point in the last 10 years. And if nothing else, this weekend’s split means the Gold Pan will be on the line in the final weekend of the regular season.

Zooming out, this victory means a lot to the Pioneers and their season. Entering the holiday break losing five of their last six and getting swept at the hands of CC would have been demoralizing and a potentially season-crushing result. Instead, the Pioneers enter the break with some positive vibes and a massive rivalry victory.

Highlights

 

Top photo courtesy of Clarkson Creative via Denver Athletics

5 thoughts on “Pioneers Bounce Back from Blown Lead to Earn Gold Pan Split”

  3. Some random thoughts on the weekend and beyond:

    1) The DU/CC rivalry is really back. CC is a very good hockey team up and down the lineup and is likely a group that will likely find itself in the NCAA Tourney this year with 20+ wins. Full credit to Kris Mayotte and his staff for finding and plugging-in some very talented portal players (Gallagher, Cleveland, McLane) from good programs to complement a well-recruited, developing base (Laba, Cooley, Veremyev, etc.) in front of a great goalie in Mbereko. It’s going to be a death struggle for the 2025 Gold Pan in March.

    2) DU answered the team character question that many of us had this weekend after CC punched the Pioneers in the mouth (and in the gut) on Friday night, with a gritty 2-1 win on Saturday night. DU owned the third period on Saturday, got a pretty snipe game winner from an unlikely source in Cale Ashcroft, and it gave the Pios a bit of breathing room for a much-needed holiday break. But by no means is DU out of the woods…

    3) There are still lots of questions about DU’s midseason malaise. First, the secondary scoring DU enjoyed in the first part of the season has evaporated against NCHC teams. Many players are slumping, especially the former line of Lorenz (2 points in the last 10 games), Wright (1 point in last 10 games) and Cebrian (1 point in last 10 games). Carle broke-up all the lines on Saturday night to try and shake thing up, and we’ll see if there is more tinkering to come with the UNLV exhibition and at Maine on the other side of Christmas. DU needs secondary scoring to be a post-season player, and there are a number of guys who need to find their game. DU isn’t going to win many 5-2 games in NCHC play, and teams have adjusted to DU’s puck control strategy. Get used to 3-1, 3-2 and 2-1 games in the second half.

    4) Another other part of DU’s slide has been the power-play, which once was feared at 30% but went scoreless vs CC this weekend and never really looked dangerous. The Pios have tried several personnel/positional changes, but to me, the bumper element appears to be the weakest link structurally and opponents as opponents have targeted it recently and have often broken up DU’s puck-moving tempo. Also, DU’s back passes on the breakout have been sloppy and have led to turnovers. I’d like to see more rotation, more net-front attention and more one-timers from the sides and crashing the net for rebounds. Pohlkamp has cooled from a torrid start, and he needs to get his big shot going from outside, especially key for that second unit.

    5) One area that still worries me is the tendency toward slow DU starts in the Carle era, where the Pios tend to feel out opponents early vs. imposing their will early. I imagine that’s a reflect of DC’s coaching style, which is more analytical/even keel vs. emotional/rah rah. DU is usually an exploit the second period kind of team, but this year, the second period is not strong as in previous years. Let’s hope they find more energy earlier in games…

    6) Second half development – Reeder and Fisher are developing nicely as they figure out the college game and that is crucial for the Pios moving forward, especially if Wright, Lorenz and Cebrian stay slumping. Burrows and Pitner still look like they should developing in the USHL for another year, but that’s not on them. They were brought here to learn how to play in this league, and they will be good college players next season. That said, Burrows had a nice assist last night, so perhaps he can start to produce in the second half, which would sure help.

    5) Defensively, the Pios need to be tighter in the d-zone, especially on transition and on gap control. There have been too many odd man rushes and breakaways given up against better teams. Communication needs to improve as games get tighter in the second half.

    6) Roster: With Alex Weiermair now leaving the team for Portland in the WHL, the DU roster is now very thin at 24 bodies, with the only extra forward as Peter LaJoy, whose talent/upside appears to be quite limited. Can DU look to bring in a new forward over the break? I hope so. I understand DU wanting a lean roster to reduce the malcontents and transfers to improve playing time and to maintain budgetary responsibilities, but the hockey season is a six-month grind and DU needs at least 25-26 guys who can make contributions when called upon. Going with just 24 guys seems like a big risk to me.

    Go Pios!

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  5. Gritty, hard-fought victory over a tough and talented CC team. Pios had to earn it. After Gallagher walked in and rifled that shot past Davis for the first goal of the game, there was a collective groan and certainly some concerns. But the Pios fought hard in this one and that effort paid off. Great to see Ashcroft get rewarded with the game winner.

    As we all know, this CC squad is not the one from the recent past. Those teams, while they played hard and competed, were largely filled with muckers and grinders with limited offensive upside and overall not a whole lot to get excited about. This team, on the other hand, is legit. They skate well, have a great goaltender, have blueliners that move the puck effectively, and they have scoring threats from several different players. Obviously Mayotte knows what he’s doing. The rivalry is alive and well.

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