Denver survived a strong effort from a UMass Lowell team that did nothing to make it easy for the Loveland Regional’s top seed Thursday night.
Cameron Wright scored the winning goal for Denver at 17:03 of the third period to break a tie in a 3-2 win in the first round of the 2022 NCAA tournament in Loveland, Colo.
The Pioneers (28-9-1) advanced to Saturday’s regional final, where they will play No. 2 Minnesota Duluth for a trip to the Frozen Four. No. 4 Lowell’s season is over at 21-11-3. Duluth (22-15-4) was a 3-0 winner over No. 3 Michigan Tech (21-13-3) in the afternoon semifinal on Thursday.
Lowell opened the scoring on Lucas Condotta’s 10th goal of the season. A scrum behind the net involving Lowell’s Marek Korencik and Nik Armstrong-Kingkade resulted in the puck getting kicked out to the point where Condotta smacked it to the right side of Denver goalie Magnus Chrona for a 1-0 lead.
The Pioneers got on the board late in the first when junior defenseman Justin Lee whipped a wrister from the left faceoff circle toward the net, where Brett Stapely redirected it past the blocker of flummoxed UMass Lowell goalie Owen Savory to tie the game at 18:36. It was Stapely’s 16th goal of the season.
Denver almost took a 2-1 lead in the final minutes of the middle frame when a Sean Behrens shot from high in the slot pinged off the post and bounced off the back of Savory’s right leg. With the puck slowly creeping toward the goal line, River Hawks defender Jon McDonald got his stick on it just in time to clear it to safety. So close was the play, Denver’s Massimo Rizzo appeared to begin a premature goal celebration.
With the teams playing 4-on-4 in the third period, Savoie picked up the puck deep in the Pioneers zone and skated the length of the ice down the right side. With he and Bobby Brink leading a 2-on-1 charge against Lowell’s Nick Austin, Savoie faked to Brink but elected to keep the puck himself and ripped it top shelf on Savory’s far side for a 2-1 lead at 9:26.
Lowell made it a tie game for the third time on the night at 14:21 of the final frame, when Connor Sodergren got a stick on a bouncing puck in front of the net following a centering feed from Matt Crasa on the right wing.
Full story to come.