DENVER—Tyler Ruegsegger and Rhett Rakhshani scored goals in a 47-second span late in the second period to rally Denver for a 3-2 victory against Colorado College on Saturday night at Magness Arena.
The third-ranked Pioneers snapped a six-game winless streak against their state rival while salvaging a split of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association series.
Ruegsegger posted a goal and an assist for DU, and Pioneers goaltender Peter Mannino recorded 20 saves to improve to 9-3.
DU (9-3-0, 6-2-0 WCHA) found itself in a quick 1-0 hole after CC’s Jimmy Kilpatrick converted a power-play chance 71 seconds into the contest.
The Pioneers got on track in the waning moments of the second period, tying the game on a rebound goal by Ruegsegger. Moments later, Ruegsegger fired a centering pass from the right wing that found the stick of a streaking Rakhshani, giving DU a 2-1 lead at the second intermission.
“Last night we didn’t play our best, and we took it upon ourselves to change that,” Rakhshani said. “The second shift I took a penalty and they scored on it, but we knew it was just the start of the game. Our team wasn’t going to back down after that.”
A goal by Denver senior Tom May increased the Pioneers’ lead to 3-1 with 7:53 to play in the third, but the fourth-ranked Tigers made things interesting down the stretch with a goal by Eric Walsky with 43.3 seconds remaining. CC, though, could not produce a tying goal in the final seconds despite pulling freshman goaltender Richard Bachman for an extra attacker.
Bachman made 24 saves while suffering his first loss in league play and falling to 9-2 overall. Denver outshot CC (8-4-0, 8-2-0) 27-22.
“There was a real sense of urgency for us in this game,” DU coach George Gwozdecky said. “Not only based upon the conference, but probably more importantly for us and our lack of success in our last six games (against CC). We haven’t had a lot of success against these guys. We came out of the locker room ready to go.”
