MINNEAPOLIS — After falling to Miami in the Frozen Faceoff semifinals, Denver went back to work with determination.
The Pioneers overcame an early strike from North Dakota in the first period and posted five unanswered goals for a 5-1 victory in Saturday’s third-place game at Target Center.
[scg_html_nchc2015]”I think we have a real resilient team and we have a team that wasn’t happy with our effort last night,” Denver coach Jim Montgomery said. “It’s funny how human nature is — you come back harder after a setback. We played good hockey.”
Just one night prior, Denver managed to climb out of a 4-1 deficit in the second period against Miami, putting itself within one goal of the RedHawks, but fell victim to a Miami offense that continued putting pucks in the net for a 6-3 win to push the Pioneers out of the championship game it won last season.
“I think yesterday was more of an anomaly, and today was more what we’ve been doing,” Denver coach Jim Montgomery said. “And I think that’s why we have 23 wins on the year. Consistently throughout the year, we’ve been able to play on the right side of the puck.”
For North Dakota, playing on the right side of the puck seemed to be a common trend until it left Minneapolis this weekend with its first pair of back-to-back losses this season. UND lost to St. Cloud State on Friday.
UND couldn’t seem to generate offense against the Pioneers — the only mark it left on the scoreboard came in the first period.
“It just seemed to be one of those weekends where things weren’t going our way,” UND defenseman Nick Mattson said. “I think us as a group, we’ve been in a lot harder situations than this, so it’s not anything we can’t handle. We’re just going to face it like men and move forward.”
In a similar story as North Dakota’s matchup against St. Cloud State on Friday, UND put itself on the board first when Brendan O’Donnell forced a turnover behind the net and fed the puck to Connor Gaarder, who blasted one from the left circle that beat Tanner Jaillet (25 saves) at 14:34.
Denver was quick to respond, however, as Josiah Didier found the equalizer when he shot one from the top of the slot through traffic to tie the teams 1-1 less than a minute later.
Quentin Shore tallied another for the Pioneers at 17:50 with a shot from the circle that slipped past Zane McIntyre (30 saves).
“I think we did a good job being resilient,” Shore said. “We went down early, but I think everyone stayed positive on the bench and that’s what kept us going. We just went out there and played our game and made things happen.”
[photoshelter-gallery g_id=”G0000RHPRAC2gZK4″ g_name=”20150321-NCHC-Denver-University-University-of-North-Dakota-Bradley-K-Olson” f_show_caption=”t” f_show_slidenum=”t” img_title=”casc” pho_credit=”iptc” f_link=”t” f_bbar=”t” fsvis=”f” width=”500″ height=”375″ bgcolor=”#AAAAAA” bgtrans=”t” btype=”old” bcolor=”#CCCCCC” crop=”f” trans=”xfade” tbs=”4000″ f_ap=”t” linkdest=”c” f_fullscreen=”f” f_constrain=”f” twoup=”f” f_topbar=”f” f_bbarbig=”” f_htmllinks=”f” f_enable_embed_btn=”f” f_show_watermark=”f” f_send_to_friend_btn=”f” f_smooth=”f” f_mtrx=”f” f_up=”f” target=”_self” wmds=”llQ6QNgpeC.p1Ucz7U.f22Fbq1nIYKgSCI7NYOFu5Rd.VaaJvxQKhFLHbmdaQC8rjr1gmg–” ]Matt Tabrum continued the trend with the lone goal in the second period at 10:27 with a one-timer from the top of the slot.
Denver’s Nick Neville and Emil Romig each tallied goals in the third period, clinching the 5-1 win and providing a boost of momentum heading into more postseason play.
Denver played without three key seniors Saturday — Joey LaLeggia, Daniel Doremus and Larkin Jacobson — with the upcoming weekend of NCAA regional tournaments in mind.
“We knew the game was important, but we know that our end goal, when we made the decisions as a staff, was the importance of next weekend,” Montgomery said. “We had three seniors that had some nagging injuries, and we just wanted to give them that extra rest.”
Next weekend is just as important for North Dakota, the host of the NCAA West Regional to be played in Fargo, N.D.
The result may not have been what it wanted this weekend, but its capable lineup will quickly learn from its setbacks and prepare for its 13th consecutive NCAA tournament berth, which is the longest active streak in the nation.
North Dakota has no worries of this weekend setting it back too far.
“None whatsoever,” Hakstol said. “This group’s had its ups and downs, especially through the career of our leaders. Guys have a real even level of confidence — a realistic level of confidence — and we have to handle this. It’s hard to handle this. It’s not a good feeling. You want to do better, especially in a league tournament. But in saying that, the page is turned immediately. We’ve got our eyes looking forward and we’ll get back to work. It’s national tournament time next week and that’s pretty exciting.”
[youtube_sc url=http://youtu.be/Gu875T2tSnc]
[youtube_sc url=http://youtu.be/cVUH5SkH6Y8]
