Hockey, Men's Sports

Pioneers Cruise to 16th Straight Victory Over Miami with 6-2 Effort

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The last time Denver lost to Miami, the COVID-19 pandemic was ravaging the planet and the NCHC was conducting its “Pod” in Omaha wherein all eight teams played their first 10 games of the season, isolated from the outside world. Since that miserable December 2020, the Pioneers have reeled off 16-straight* wins over the RedHawks. The latest effort was a 6-2 clinic at Magness Arena that saw #6 Denver (17-5-0, 6-4-0 NCHC) dominate in all phases and send Miami (3-15-2, 0-10-0 NCHC) home with a loss. The win clinched the series sweep for the Pioneers and improved their record to 3-1 since the holiday break.

If you had to nitpick an otherwise perfect game, Denver’s penalty kill was lacking in game two of the weekend series. Miami had two opportunities with the man-advantage and they scored on both. Otherwise, the Pios controlled the game, outshooting the RedHawks 42-12 and out-attempted them 74-34. If the Pioneers were a bit lackluster in their 4-1 victory on Friday, they put their foot down early in game two and didn’t let up until the final buzzer.

Miami’s power play couldn’t miss but neither could Denver’s. Jared Wright opened the scoring immediately after the Pioneers’ first power play ended while Jack Devine and Sam Harris each scored on DU’s other two power plays. From there, Aidan Thompson, Eric Pohlkamp, and Kieran Cebrian each added tallies to round out the Pioneers’ scoring and give Denver six different goal-scorers. Miami goaltender Bruno Bruveris caught lightning in a bottle on Friday night, limiting the Pioneers to just three goals on the 35 shots faced but he couldn’t find the same magic tonight.

In many ways, this series between the Pioneers and RedHawks was boring. Denver came into the weekend expecting to dominate and they did just that. Neither game was particularly competitive – something that has been a feature of many DU-MU games over the last decade – and the Pioneers did what the Pioneers were expected to do. They scored a bunch and gave up very little. In short, Denver just took care of business and pulled to within two points of first place in the NCHC. Western Michigan, which is tied with Arizona State and North Dakota at the top with 19 points does however have two games in hand on the rest of the conference.

DU’s schedule now gets a bit tougher after next weekend’s bye week, if only because it can’t get any easier after sweeping the #61 team (out of 64) in the Pairwise Rankings. Denver will travel to Duluth in two weeks to take on the UMD Bulldogs who just punched above their weight class this weekend by sweeping St. Cloud State before returning home a week later to host Omaha.

* – This includes Denver’s shootout victory over Miami last February

Highlights

Top photo courtesy Tyler Schank/Clarkson Creative Photography via Denver Athletics

6 thoughts on “Pioneers Cruise to 16th Straight Victory Over Miami with 6-2 Effort”

  4. Dominating win. Pios carried the play throughout, had good energy, and kept the pressure on. SOGs were 16-3 through 1, 33-6 through 2, and 42-12 for the game. It was a clinic.

    I didn’t see any of Friday’s game, and although it sounds as though that was a more competitive contest, DU got the job done this weekend and defended home ice against a last-place Miami team. 10 GFs, 3 GAs. I’ll take it. Hopefully DU can continue the momentum against Duluth in a couple of weeks.

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  6. If nobody has ever noticed, in the classic movie “The Sting” when they read off the available talent as they set up shop, “The Boone Kid From Denver” is mentioned on the list. I caught that tonight.

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