From: Rocky Mountain Newsby Pat Rooney
The Pioneers are 14-0 when they have limited their opponents to two goals or fewer, a statistic that is impossible to ignore.
But DU's steadily improving offense certainly cannot be overlooked, and the continued development of the team's young scorers will be a crucial factor in the Pioneers' quest to repeat their first-half success down the stretch.
DU begins a Western Collegiate Hockey Association series tonight against Wisconsin at Magness Arena, bringing a six-game winning streak sparked partly by strong offensive play into a rematch against the team that ended DU's season in the spring.
The Pioneers' surging offense will get an additional boost from the return of sophomore forwards Tyler Ruegsegger and Rhett Rakhshani, the team's third- and fourth-leading scorers. They missed DU's two wins in the Denver Cup two weeks ago while competing in the World Junior Hockey Championship in the Czech Republic.
"Every line and every player has been playing well," said freshman center Tyler Bozak, who has two goals and six assists during a four-game points streak. "All the defensemen have been playing great, and all our forward lines have been contributing. With that happening, it kind of has been hard to lose.
"There is a lot of firepower, for sure. With Tyler and Rhett coming back . . . I'm sure they will be great as usual."
In the four games before the start of their current streak, the Pioneers scored only six goals. DU has scored at least three goals in each game of its six- game winning streak, including 20 goals in the past four games.
DU has climbed to ninth in the nation in scoring, averaging 3.3 goals a game, to complement a defense led by senior goaltender Peter Mannino that is allowing only 1.75 goals a game, the second-best mark in college hockey.
"It is true that if we hold teams to three goals or less, there is a pretty good chance we're going to win with the way we're going," sophomore defenseman Cody Brookwell said. "That's our goal as defensemen."
The Pioneers had an eight-game unbeaten streak against Wisconsin before the Badgers won the teams' final three meetings last year, including a sweep at Magness Arena in the first round of the WCHA playoffs that kept DU out of the NCAA tournament.
"Wisconsin is a team that has tremendous talent, like a lot of teams in this league," DU coach George Gwozdecky said. "They are one of the big reasons why we weren't able to continue our postseason push last year. There are a number of things we remember very vividly."
No comments:
Post a Comment