The Denver Pioneers have not been swept in a weekend series all season long, and they continued that trend on Saturday night at Lynah Rink.
The Pioneers got 22 stops from freshman goalie Tanner Jaillet and Larkin Jacobson’s second period goal turned out to be enough, as Denver knocked off Cornell to earn a split with the Big Red on the weekend.
“The split was key,” said Denver coach Jim Montgomery. “We’ve always been able to bounce back, and we haven’t been swept on the road since I’ve been here.” This season marks Montgomery’s second year on the job in Denver.
Montgomery’s squad certainly came out with a sense of urgency in the first period, as they outshot the Big Red by a 13-8 margin, but Cornell starting goalie Hayden Stewart kept his side in it.
It took another 15 minutes of strong puck possession from the Pioneers in the second period before they finally broke through on the power play. Danton Heinen weaved his way into the attacking end with just seconds remaining on the Denver man advantage. Heinen left a drop pass at the right faceoff circle, which was controlled by Adam Plant. In just an instant, the puck was in the net, as Plant fired a bullet pass to the far post that found the stick of Zac Larraza for the easy finish.
“I thought we had a shift before that for about two and half minutes where we got three lines out there and they never got outside their end,” said Montgomery. “I thought our momentum there just carried over for our power play.”
The Larraza tally came with just one second remaining in the man advantage and it sparked the Pioneers, who needed just 48 seconds to double their lead.
A three-on-one break led to the game-winning goal, as a Cornell turnover ended up in the back of their net when Larkin went top shelf following a nice feed from Josiah Didier. Nolan Zajac was the other man on the rush, as he picked up the secondary assist on the goal.
The Pioneers had a chance to run away and hide from the hosts, but Cornell did not go down so easily.
Just two and a half minutes after the second Denver goal, Patrick McCarron worked the puck to the middle of ice, which was where Joakim Ryan was waiting. Ryan whipped a shot on net, which just squirted through Jaillet and into the crease, but Joel Lowry swept it into the open cage to ensure the goal.
Lowry’s marker brought the margin back to one, but that was the closest Cornell got, as Jaillet’s strong play kept the Big Red at bay in the closing frame.
“He’s really good, he just keeps getting better,” said Montgomery. “That’s what you want to see from your freshmen. I thought our three freshmen that were dressed had great games.”
The inability to score on Jaillet eventually forced Cornell coach Mike Schafer’s, hand as he was forced to pull Stewart with a minute and a half left for an extra attacker.
Daniel Doremus took advantage of the vacant cage, as his empty-netter came with 56 seconds left and put the nail in the coffin of the Big Red. Heinen got the assist on the goal, his second of the evening.
Schafer was not complimentary of his team’s play after the game. Schafer noted that his squad did not have a “killer instinct,” which was an aspect of the Big Red’s game that was evident in their victory on Friday night over the Pioneers.
Not all was bad in Schafer’s mind though, as he commented on the freshman Stewart’s play in net, “I thought he played well; he saw a lot of action … we gave up two back-door scoring chances for their goals, but he was up to the task on everything else.”
Those great chances for Denver helped the Pioneers to be the best scoring offense in the NCAA in November, and they will need to keep their offensive attack rolling when they return home next weekend for a weekend set with the nation’s top squad, North Dakota.
