A year to cherish ended in disastrous fashion Saturday night for the University of Denver hockey team.
The Pioneers captured their second consecutive NCAA championship in April, and the program with seven overall national crowns appeared to be living up to its perennial power reputation with six wins in seven games entering this weekend’s Denver Cup.
The holiday tournament is typically DU’s favorite time of year. The 12th-ranked Pioneers entered the four-team tournament with 11 titles in 13 years and only had to get past lowly Princeton on Friday to advance to their 12th title game.
That didn’t happen, but the Tigers’ shocking three-goal victory wasn’t the worst insult DU absorbed in front of partisan weekend crowds at Magness Arena.
After losing 3-2 to Ferris State in Saturday afternoon’s consolation game, DU was assured of being this year’s only Denver Cup participant to lose twice.
The Bulldogs, who tied Boston College in overtime Friday but lost in a shootout to determine advancement to the tournament title game, took an early 2-0 lead and got the game-winning goal off the stick of back-checking DU forward Ryan Dingle.
Ferris State (9-6-5) outshot Denver 30-12 after two periods and 45-26 for the game. The Bulldogs led 3-1 late in the second period after Dingle’s stick inadvertently knocked in Zac Pearson’s feed from the point. Only a splendid performance by Pioneers goalie Peter Mannino prevented a rout.
Princeton, which entered the weekend 4-10, outshot DU 29-24 and won 4-1 with an empty-net goal in one of the biggest national upsets of the season.
In both games, the Pioneers (11-9-2) rarely produced an adequate first pass coming out of their zone and were awful on the power play. Maintaining possession was a rarity in all six periods for a team that already has equaled its loss total of last season (32-9-2).
“As difficult as this is to swallow, we’ll take a very good lesson from this tournament and apply it to the stretch run of the WCHA season,” said DU coach George Gwozdecky, whose team finished 3-5 in regular-season nonconference play. “It’s more important how you play rather than who you play. You cannot prepare yourself based upon the team you’re playing and where they are in the standings.”
DU played in a Denver Cup consolation game for just the second time and first since 1997. The Pioneers finished 11-25-2 that season; Gwozdecky’s current club is 8-4-2 in the WCHA and tied for third with 14 games to go.
Mannino expects DU to shake off the remaining rust from its 12-day Christmas break, contend for the WCHA title and challenge for a third consecutive NCAA Tournament berth.
“We came back after the break, practiced hard and everybody looked great,” Mannino said. “It’s unfortunate that we didn’t get the wins. These two teams that we played came hard. They wanted to get us and they succeeded.”
Boston College 5, Princeton 1
Boston College captured the 14th Denver Cup by defeating Princeton in the championship game of the four-team tournament at Magness Arena.
Chris Collins had two goals and three points and Stephen Gionta had a goal and an assist for the No. 4 Eagles (10-4-2), who led 3-0 after two periods and 5-0 late in the game. Princeton, coached by former Colorado College player Guy Gadowsky, fell to 5-11.
Boston College goalie Joe Pearce, who made his season debut in Friday’s 3-3 overtime tie against Ferris State, was named tournament MVP. He helped the Eagles advance to the title game by beating Ferris State 3-2 in a shootout.
Pearce was joined on the all-tournament team with Collins and Eagles defenseman Peter Harrold, Princeton forward Kevin Westgarth and teammate and brother Brett Westgarth, and Ferris State center Greg Rallo.
Ferris State 1 2 0 – 3
Denver 0 2 0 – 2
First period – 1, Ferris State, Bomersback 9 (Stefanishion, Pearson), 19:37 (pp). Penalties – Pearson, FS (slashing), 1:03; Verdone, FS (holding), 7:44; FS bench (too many men), 13:04; Mullen, DU (holding), 15:00; Carle, DU (holding), 17:39.
Second period -2, Ferris State, Rallo 12 (Zarb, Jorgensen), 2:42 (pp). 3, Denver, Gauthier 9 (Carle, Fast), 15:44 (pp). 4, Ferris State, Miller 7 (Pearson), 16:28. 5, Denver, May 4 (Stastny, Carle), 17:55. Penalties – Blom, DU (cross checking), 2:35; Testwuide, DU (hooking), 8:30; Rallo, FS (roughing), 13:14; Scheible, FS (interference), 15:38; Rallo, FS (high sticking), 17:56; Gauthier, DU (high sticking), 17:56.
Third period – None. Penalties – Verdone, FS (slashing), 1:20; Fast, DU (interference), 2:54; Testwuide, DU (holding), 6:51; Van Culin, FS (hooking), 13:42.
Shots on goal – Ferris State 15-15-15 – 45, DU 8-4-14 – 26. Power-play opportunities – Ferris State 2 of 7, DU 1 of 6. Goalies – Ferris State, MacIntyre (3-2-1) 26 shots-24 saves. DU, Mannino (6-5) 45-42.
DENVER POST THREE STARS
1. Derek MacIntyre – Ferris State goalie awakened in the third period and stopped 14-of-14 shots.
2. Peter Mannino – DU goalie deserved a better result with a 42-save performance.
3. Greg Rallo – Bulldogs’ first-line center scored a power-play goal to make it 2-0.
What you might have missed
The Pioneers don’t want to make excuses, but they used a 19-player lineup that was missing valuable forward-defenseman Adrian Veideman (shoulder injury) and U.S. National World Junior teammates Geoff Paukovich and Chris Butler. The three players each average more than 18 minutes of ice time.
Next
Jan. 13 against visiting St. Cloud State.
Mike Chambers can be reached at 303-820-5453 or mchambers@denverpost.com.
