The DU Pioneers completed a weekend sweep of Arizona State on Saturday, routing the Sun Devils by a score of 6-1 in front of 5,980 fans at Magness Arena. Skating in his first game back since winning Gold with Team USA at the IIHF World Junior Championships earlier this week, sophomore forward Troy Terry (Denver, Colo.) registered a career-high five points (2G-3A) to earn First Star honors.
“It’s great to be back – there’s nothing like putting on a Pioneers jersey,” Terry said following Saturday’s victory. “We’ve got a special group here and I love playing at Denver. It was a good team effort tonight and the crowd was awesome – it was nice to get a win for them.”
The home team took an early 1-0 lead on Saturday as freshman forward Henrik Borgström (Helsinki, Finland) buried a nice feed from Dylan Gambrell (Bonney Lake, Wash.) deep in ASU territory to register his 11th goal of the season at the 6:46 mark of the opening stanza. Period No. 2 saw the Pios further adding to their lead as Terry wired home his first goal of the night into an open cage after some nifty stickhanding by Borgström drew the Sun Devils’ goalie out of his net and the Florida Panthers prospect slid a perfect pass over to his linemate. A pair of power play goals by Jarid Lukosevicius (Squamish, B.C.) and Borgström then put the hosts up 4-0 as Saturday’s contest entered its second intermission with the hosts on top 4-0.
Freshman forward Kevin Conley (Wausau, Wis.) banged home a loose puck midway through the third period to put Denver up by five and Terry made it 6-0 shortly thereafter, ripping a bullet of a wrist shot to the back of the visitors’ net from a tough angle. A goal by Sun Devil Brett Gruber ruined the shutout bid of senior netminder Evan Cowley (Evergreen, Colo.) late in regulation, but that would be as close as ASU would get as DU ultimately took the decision by a 6-1 final.
The Pioneers (14-4-4) resume NCHC play next weekend on the road versus Western Michigan. Denver’s next home game is scheduled for Friday, Jan. 27 vs. Nebraska-Omaha.
Featured Image Credit: University of Denver
