DU 3 - Union 1 FINAL

(above) Nothing gets past the Finnish Line as Juho Olkinuora made 42 saves on Friday night
photo credit: Hyoung Chang, Denver Post


With Jason Zucker up in Canada and John Ryder, Beau Bennett, Sam Brittain and Adam Murray on the shelf with long-term injuries, the Denver Pioneers defeated the #10 ranked Union Dutchmen 3-1 on Friday night.

Denver scored on their first two power play shots in the game and the Union starting goaltender was lifted after giving up two goals on four shots.  Drew Shore & Joey LaLeggia started things off with power-play goals in the first eight minutes of play.  David Makowski assisted on both goals.

DU's makeshift lineup played very well defensively, which was a point of emphasis after Christmas Break.  Shawn Ostrow notched DU's final goal.

The Pioneers will face Air Force, who defeated Colorado College 2-1 on Friday night. It was the first win ever for the Falcons over CC in World Arena.

DU Lineup
Loney - D. Shore - Salazar
Knowlton - N. Shore - Doremus
Mermis - Ostrow - Jackson
Larraza - Tabrum - Olszewski

Phillips - Mayfield
Makowski - Didier
LaLeggia - Lee

14 comments:

du78 said...

Solid win by DU tonight. Jussi was superb in goal. Always nice to play with the lead.

Jordan said...

Solid win, good hockey, fun game.

Anyone know what happened on the icing/no icing/inadvertent whistle that resulted in a Union faceoff in the DU zone? Gwoz was quite upset, and Butch skated away for the linesmen to deal with it. Very weird.

Twister said...

Great win for DU to start the 2nd half of the season. The Pios had the great start and it looked as though they might win in a rout, but Union came back strong and played a very good game. Credit Juho for standing tall--he faced a lot of rubber tonight.

An always tough AFA team awaits tomorrow.

Jordan said...

Great line of the evening:

Connor (PA guy), calling the action in the junior hockey game during an intermission: "Jay Stickney, I'm coming for your job!"

MagnessMan said...

Great to see this team play a smart hockey game. Let's go down to the Academy and wipe that Saturday night monkey out.

Congratulations to the Cadets for getting their first W in the cement toilet and their first road win against the pot smokers since 1985!
AF seniors are 2-2 against CC. Impressive.

MagnessMan said...

Interesting factoid. This was the second meeting between Union and Denver. The first was in 1999 and was the very first game played at Magness (Icebreaker DU won 4-1).

CodeBoone said...

OK...Now...Who did DU beat in a shootout to win that Ice Breaker? What DU goalie was a stone wall for that shootout?

dggoddard said...

Had to look up the trivia answer in the Media Guide. Tough questions. :-)

Someone texted me last night that DU is now 8-1-1 when they score first and 1-6-2 when they give up the first goal.

Might be a good idea to get the first goal tonight in the Springs.

vizoroo said...

Win over Union was big. Now time for a Saturday win.

Unknown said...

DU's goalie was the MVP last night.

miller said...

It will be interesting how Gwoz transition Sam's return. I would think that he would rotate goalies (ala Fischer and Mannino). So what happens to Murray?

Anyone know when Ryder will return?

Imaws Kcup said...

Nice jump in the Pairwise after the win last night. We are now up to #17. Last time I checked we were down to about #24.

old pio said...

Good win against a good team.

Twister said...

How Gwoz handles the goalies once Sam comes back is one of the big questions for the 2nd half. As well as Sam played last season I can't imagine him not getting quality time down the stretch. Obviously the big concern with him is rust, but I'm sure the coaches won't put him out there until he is ready.

I hope Ryder gets back soon, although I saw him on campus several weeks ago on crutches and wearing a heavy-duty brace. DU needs his physical presence. This team is much more effective when they are physical. I saw Loney and Jackson quite a bit last night, and both guys were so much better when they threw their weight around.