No. 4 Denver rallies from three down vs. No. 7 St. Cloud State in wild battle, wins 8-5; No. 2 Quinnipiac sneaks past Union, 2-1; Colgate upsets No. 11 Cornell, 3-2

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Brett Stapley scored twice and added an assist as Denver rallied from three goals down to defeat St. Cloud State, 8-5, in a wild affair in the Mile High City (File photo: Bradley K. Olson)

No. 4 Denver fell behind 3-0 early in a heavyweight battle against No. 7 St. Cloud State but then rallied scoring four times in both the second and third periods to earn a crazy, 8-5 victory over No. 7 St. Cloud State on Friday.

Carter Savoie recorded a hat trick for the Pioneers, while Brett Stapley notched two goals and an assist and Bobby Brink led offensive production with a five-point night (goal, four assists).

The Denver offense, even after falling behind by three, was relentless, posting 50 shots on goaltender David Hrenak (43 saves). Amazingly, after allowing 15 shots in period on, the Pioneers defense stifled St. Cloud State, giving up just nine shots on goal the rest of the way.

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No. 2 Quinnipiac 2, Union 1

One may have believed that a battle between second-ranked Quinnipiac and Union, a team near the bottom of the ECAC standings that just lost its head coach less than 10 days ago, might be a landslide for the Bobcats.

That was hardly the case.

The Bobcats rallied from an early deficit and relied on goaltender Yaniv Perets to make 26 saves, scoring twice in the middle frame for a 2-1 victory.

Wyatt Bongiovanni and Ethan Leyh tallied less than four minutes apart in the middle frame to secure the win. Josh Kosack’s unassisted goal at 13:02 of the first gave Union the 1-0 lead.

Quinnipiac is near perfect in the ECAC but still can’t steer clear of Clarkson, which shutout Brown on Friday and stands just one point out of first place in the league standings.

Colgate 3, No. 11 Cornell 2

Ethan Manderville’s power play goal with 7:30 remaining in regulation broke a 2-2 tie as Colgate upset No. 11 Cornell 3-2.

The Raiders never trailed in the game, getting an early goal from Alex Young and responding after Cornell tied the game on Ondrej Psenicka’s goal off the opening faceoff of the second period.

Colgate jumped ahead again when Griffin Lunn scored on the power play at 7:08 of the second. But Cornell found the equalizer just 54 seconds into the third when Kyle Penney scored unassisted.

Mitch Benson earned the victory for the Raiders, making 27 saves.

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