LetsGoDU

Sweep The Gophers Week
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Gophers Choke On Fish Dinner

Fisher and Paukovich star in 1-0 road win over Golden Gophers

MINNEAPOLIS - Senior netminder Glenn Fisher stopped 31 shots and junior forward Geoff Paukovich tallied his third game-winning goal as the No. 4 Denver Pioneers ended No. 1 Minnesota's 21-game home unbeaten streak with a 1-0 win before a sellout crowd of 10,119 fans in WCHA action tonight at Mariucci Arena. The shutout was the third of the season for Fisher as Denver improves to 18-7-2 overall and 10-5-2 in league play with its third consecutive win. The top-ranked Gophers fall to 20-3-3, 12-2-3 with its first home loss of the season.

"We played a really strong road game and Fisher was outstanding in net," DU head coach George Gwozdecky said. "We made some mistakes in a tough environment, but got a big goal from Paukovich in a nice road win."

Paukovich scored the game's lone goal at 11:04 of the second period when he redirected a Keith Seabrook wrist shot past Kellen Briggs (22 saves). Andrew Thomas added the second assist for the Pioneers, who were outshot 31-23 in the contest.

DU's penalty-kill unit turned in a 4-for-4 effort and the Pioneers preserved Fisher's fourth career shutout by holding off the Golden Gophers for the final 55 seconds when Briggs was pulled to create a 6-on-5 advantage. The Pioneers killed a crucial Minnesota power play late in the third period to record their first win at Mariucci Arena since Nov. 1, 2003.

Briggs kept the Golden Gophers in the game when he stopped a Ryan Dingle breakaway near the 9-minute mark of the final stanza. Minnesota had several good looks to tie the game after Briggs was pulled, but Fisher and the Pioneers held the home team off the scoreboard to improve to 8-4-0 away from Magness Arena.

The teams played a scoreless first period. The Golden Gophers outshot the Pioneers 14-9, but missed a golden opportunity to score when Fisher thwarted a Ben Gordon breakaway opportunity near the 16-minute mark.

DU went 1-for-6 with the man-advantage to remain tied for second place in the WCHA with 22 points. Minnesota leads the WCHA with 27 points.

The teams play the series finale tomorrow night at 4:37 p.m.

Notes: Seabrook's second period assist snapped a nine-game pointless streak. DU improved to 16-0-0 when leading after two periods. The Pioneers improved to 5-9-1 in their last 15 games against top-ranked opponents. The Pioneers have held opponents to two goals or less in eight of their last nine games. Fisher has shut out Wisconsin, Michigan Tech and Minnesota this season. Fisher improved his record to 12-4-1 with a 1.92 GAA and .935 Sv%.

DU's Lineup vs. Minnsesota
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Cook - Handza - Testwuide
Trotter - Ruegsegger - Gifford
Helgason - Dingle - Rakhshani
Mullen - Paukovich - Vossberg

Butler - Brookwell
Thomas - Blom
Veideman - Seabrook

Fisher