DU Beats Notre Dame 3-1, Splits Series

From DU Website

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Freshman Anthony Maiani buried a rebound on a shot by Rhett Rakhshani at 12:24 of the third period to send DU to a 3-1 win over Notre Dame tonight before 2,763 fans at Joyce Center. Denver improves to 3-1 with the win, while Notre Dame falls to 2-2.

The win marked the 300th career win at Denver for two-time National Coach of the Year George Gwozdecky. The win was also the 450th of Gwozdecky’s 22-year collegiate coaching career.

“I am really proud of the team tonight,” Gwozdecky said. “We played a tremendous third period tonight to earn a hard-fought win.”

Patrick Mullen started the game-winning play when he fed a streaking Rakhshani in the high slot. Rakhshani’s quick wrist shot bounced hard off Notre Dame goaltender Jordan Pearce (25 saves) toward the right circle where Maiani was waiting for the rebound goal, which was his first career game-winning goal.

Tom May iced the win with an empty-net goal with 17 seconds remaining. Brock Trotter and Andrew Thomas earned assists on the goal.

Freshman Chris Nutini gave DU a 1-0 lead after a dominant opening period by the Pioneers. Nutini’s wrist shot from the point rattled past Pearce high to the stick side at 15:55. DU outshot the Irish, 11-1, and controlled the puck for much of the period.

Ryan Thang tied it at 1-1 with Notre Dame’s third power-play goal of the series. Thang buried a feed from Erik Condra from the low slot at 10:55 of the second period. The Irish outshot DU in the period, 9-8.

Rakhshani led DU with two assists and Peter Mannino earned the win with 19 saves. DU outshot Notre Dame, 28-20, but failed to score on the power play for the third consecutive game. Notre Dame was 1-for-5 with the man advantage.

The Pioneers open WCHA play on Oct. 26-27 against Minnesota Duluth at Magness Arena.

Notes: Nutini became the fifth DU freshman to score his first career goal in the first four games of the season. The Pioneers have outshot their opponents 53-23 in the first period this season....The assists by Rakhshani marked his first points of the season. He led the Pioneers with 26 helpers last season.