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There would be no magical rally for the Denver Pioneers Saturday night. One night after the Pioneers rallied from a three-goal deficit to beat Western Michigan, the Broncos exacted revenge by building a 4-1 first period lead and held on for a 6-3 win in front of 4,496 at Magness Arena.
The first period was strange in that Western Michigan owned the beginning and end of it, while Denver controlled the middle. The Broncos struck first when Aidan Muir was sprung on a breakaway. Muir came down the middle, then deked to his backhand and beat Evan Cowley at 5:16.
The Broncos made it 2-0 when they got a little puck luck. A pass to the slot hit the skate of Pioneer Gabe Levin and came to Sheldon Dries in the slot, whose shot along the ice beat Cowley at 6:19.
“I think it was a testament to our team’s fortitude, because last night we didn’t display a lot of it,” said Western Michigan coach Andy Murray. “Mental toughness when Denver started coming on, we kind of faded away a bit. Tonight, we talked about it. I thought we had some valuable minutes from some players that maybe haven’t had prominent roles for us.”
Denver then started to press, and a couple of good shifts from its top line gave the Pioneers some momentum and forced Frank Slubowski to make several big saves. Denver finally capitalized on a power play when Joey LaLeggia’s shot from just inside the blue line hit a Western Michigan player’s stick and ricocheted in at 14:21.
Moments later, Denver captain Grant Arnold had a chance to tie it when he was sprung deep into Western Michigan’s zone. Arnold made a quick move and got off a shot that went over the top corner.
“Frank played a very solid game obviously, and it was good for him,” said Murray. “Denver’s a good team, and to expect that you’re going to control the full 20 minutes is tough.”
That loomed large when Kenney Morrison scored on a harmless-looking shot from the right point at 17:02. The knuckle ball shot fooled Cowley completely, as he never moved.
The Broncos made it 4-1 with a power-play goal at 18:37 when Kyle Novak skated in from the left corner and made a quick move to beat Cowley at the inside post.
“We came out strong, up 4-1, but we knew we couldn’t sit back on a lead like we did yesterday,” said Novak. “We decided to stick to our game.”
That was all on the night for Cowley, who was replaced by Tanner Jaillet.
“We didn’t have the same intensity,” said Denver coach Jim Montgomery. “We gave them a lot more time and space, and we weren’t making as many saves. People were beating us to rebounds, and that’s usually a recipe for giving up, what’d we give up, 10 goals on the weekend?”
Denver got one back in the second period on a power play. After sustained pressure and great puck movement, Trevor Moore sent a perfect pass from the left right circle through the skates of a Broncos player to Danton Heinen on the back door. Heinen got a shot off that Slubowski stopped, but the rebound came to Daniel Doremus in the slot, and he backhanded it in at 7:36.
After that goal, and some more pressure from the Pioneers, the Broncos started trying to get someone high behind the Denver defense. It paid dividends when Frederik Tiffels got the puck at the Denver blue line and slid it behind the Josiah Didier and Tariq Hammond to Novak, who cut across the slot and beat Jaillet’s outstretched left pad at 13:24.
“We figured we could stop them in our zone just like a normal penalty kill and might as well try to get some breakaways out of it,” said Novak. “I just kind of had a move in my head and went with it.”
Denver pulled back to within two goals with its first even-strength tally when Heinen stole the puck inside the Broncos zone and slid it to Trevor Moore in the right circle, who beat Slubowski with a wrist shot top corner glove side at 15:54.
Late in the period, Denver was about to go on a power play, but Zac Larraza got called for unsportsmanlike conduct, negating it, and then 25 seconds later Doremus was called for goaltender interference. However, the Broncos couldn’t capitalize on the four-on-three.”
“That’s where our game management was poor,” said Montgomery. “I didn’t know what was happening. The ref came over and asked us where No. 9’s stick was, and I had no idea, and I guess it was at the foot of our bench. Again, I’m just embarrassed that something like that happened. As the leader of the program, I’ve got to be a better leader and show them that’s not acceptable, because that’s cheating the game and it’s not the heart of game of hockey, and I’m sorry to all Denver Pioneers fans that happened tonight.”
Denver had a few good chances to close the gap in the third, but Slubowski was there to make the saves, and with 43 seconds left in the game, Colton Hargrove scored an empty-net goal to seal the win for the Broncos.
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