Having last weekend off wasn’t necessarily needed rest for the University of Denver hockey team. After their best performance of the season Oct. 28 in a 4-2 victory at Minnesota-Duluth, the Pioneers have nearly two weeks between games.
DU (4-4, 2-2 WCHA) resumes Friday in a two-game WCHA series at defending NCAA champion Wisconsin (4-4-2, 3-2-1). Pioneers coach George Gwozdecky hopes his team will pick up where it left off.
“You can definitely see the team developing,” said Gwozdecky, who spent most of last week recruiting. “That was a very important game, and win, at Duluth two Saturdays ago. We gained confidence from it.
“It was our best performance of the season, and now we’re looking forward to this weekend’s series. We’ve got another tough one in Wisconsin.”
Spelling it often
DU freshmen Tyler Ruegsegger and Rhett Rakhshani are considered among the country’s premier rookie forwards. But they are also being talked about because of their unfamiliar hockey hometowns – Ruegsegger is from Lakewood and Rakhshani from Huntington Beach, Calif. – and the difficult spellings of their last names.
Inside College Hockey.com says of the duo: “Typist’s nightmare as easy names like Carle and Stastny give way to head-scratchers like Ruegsegger and Rakhshani. And defenders are finding them even harder to stop than they are to spell.”
Ruegsegger is tied with junior Ryan Dingle and redshirt freshman Brock Trotter with a team-leading eight points (three goals). Rakhshani has six points (two goals).
Footnotes
Air Force forward Andrew Ramsey fought RIT defenseman Al Mazur in Friday’s Atlantic Hockey Association game. Both were suspended for Saturday’s series finale after receiving fighting majors and game disqualifications…. AFA collected three of four points against RIT, thanks in part to Josh Frider’s game-tying goal with 39 seconds to play in Saturday’s 4-4 overtime tie. Frider scored on a 6-on-5 attack, after the Falcons’ goalie was pulled. … RPI and rookie coach Seth Appert, a DU assistant from 1999-2006, has lost just once in seven games. The Engineers (3-1-3) have played four overtime games, and all but one game have been decided by one goal or less. RPI, 14-17-6 last season, cracked the top 20 in the two national media polls this week.
Mike Chambers can be reached at 303-954-1357 or mchambers@denverpost.com.
