Minnesota-Duluth, owner of college hockey’s fifth-ranked power play, triumphed Saturday night behind its strength and weakness.
The Bulldogs, last in the 10-team Western Collegiate Hockey Association in penalty killing, got two short-handed goals and three on the power play to defeat No. 5 Denver 6-4 in a penalty-filled finale of a two-game series at Magness Arena.
The Pioneers, who won 5-2 on Friday, also scored multiple special- teams goals, including two by freshman Rhett Rakhshani. But DU couldn’t quite match the visitors’ special play in a wild game in which only one goal was scored 5-on-5 and with both goalies in the nets.
Mason Raymond and Bryan McGregor each scored short-handed and on the power play for the Bulldogs (10-17-3, 6-14-2 WCHA). Josh Meyers also had two goals, the latter with two seconds left and DU goalie Glenn Fisher (21 saves) on the bench for a sixth attacker.
Denver (20-10-2, 12-8-2) went just 1-of-9 on the power play, and although the Pioneers rallied from a 3-1 deficit, they failed to capitalize on momentum after tying it 3-3 and 4-4. Geoff Paukovich created the latter tie with 8:06 remaining on a 4-on-4 sequence, but McGregor’s rebound power-play tap-in with 6:50 to go ultimately proved to be the difference.
“It’s not the kind of game that I’m real proud of,” said DU coach George Gwozdecky, whose team has split its past four WCHA series. “It was a game of high emotion, of guys losing control. There were a lot of foolish penalties on both sides.
“That’s not the kind of game we want to play, and I bet Duluth would say the same thing. But that’s how the game turned into, and they were better at taking advantage of our miscues.”
DU captain Adrian Veideman scored the game’s only 5-on-5 goal to make it 3-2 midway through the second period. At the outset of the period, DU appeared to go ahead 2-1 on Patrick Mullen’s power-play goal. But the goal was negated because of a Paukovich violation.
Within the next five minutes, Raymond and Meyers scored power-play goals to give the Bulldogs a 3-1 lead. After Veideman’s long wristshot off an offensive faceoff slipped past screened goalie Josh Johnson (24 saves), Rakhshani intercepted a Johnson clearing pass and scored on a short-handed breakaway to tie it 3-3.
Just 1:58 later, however, Raymond answered with a short-handed 2-on-1 tap-in off a perfect feed from McGregor.
“Five-on-five, both teams fought and didn’t want to give an inch,” Paukovich said. “Special teams was the difference, and we weren’t as sharp as we wanted to be against the No. 5 power play in the country.”
Mike Chambers can be reached at 303-954-1357 or mchambers@denverpost.com.
