The No. 1/1 University of Denver Pioneers faced a tall order to open their defense of a 2017 NCAA title, playing two games at No. 4/6 Notre Dame – a team they faced in the national semifinals. The Pioneers lived up to their billing as the top team in the country, leaving South Bend with a victory on Saturday on top of a shootout win that will be recorded as a tie from Friday.
The Pioneers (1-0-1, NCHC 0-0-0-0) responded to a late-game push from the University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish (2-1-1, Big Ten 0-0-0-0) to win, 4-2, in the Compton Family Ice Arena on Saturday night.
Dylan Gambrell and Troy Terry each logged multi-point games and Tanner Jaillet made 31 saves in the Pioneers’ first victory of the season.
After killing a penalty only 20 seconds into the game, the Pioneers began creating offense and capitalized at 10:10 of the first period when a net-front scramble gave Troy Terry his first goal of the season. Colin Staub and Jarid Lukosevicius had assists on the goal.
Denver’s 1-0 lead held until the final two minutes of the opening frame when Griffin Mendel guided the puck into the offensive zone, Logan O’Connor played a pass from the end boards to the front of the net and Jake Durflinger buried his first collegiate goal. The goal came at 18:21 of the first period and the 2-0 lead would hold through the second intermission.
Cam Morrison and the Irish cut the Pioneers’ lead in half at 14:44 of the third period. Jake Evans and Andrew Oglevie had assists on the play. Notre Dame was awarded a power play following the goal and evened the score with a wrist shot that appeared to graze the side of the night but, upon video review, was revealed to have entered a hole in the net. Jordan Gross had the shot to make it 2-2 at 15:08 of the third period. Bobby Nardella and Jake Evans had the assists.
Twenty-four seconds after the Irish equalized with a pair of quick goals, Liam Finlay found open space and fired a wrist shot past the glove of Irish goalie Cale Morris. Tyson McLellan and Dylan Gambrell had the assists.
Gambrell iced the game with an empty-netter at 18:40 of the third period. Terry had an assist.
The Pioneers finished 0/2 on the power play and 2/3 on the penalty kill.