The wild, wild Western Collegiate Hockey Association was in extraordinary form Friday night at Magness Arena.
With six minutes to play in the second period, the University of Denver was outshooting visiting Wisconsin 33-12, and Pioneers sophomore goalie Marc Cheverie had played well despite allowing four goals.
So why was DU coach George Gwozdecky calling a timeout?
Perhaps Gwozdecky was giving the sellout crowd of 6,036 time to scratch their heads, wondering why the Badgers had just taken a three-goal lead.
No worries. The Pioneers answered in dramatic fashion, overcoming two minutes of poor defensive play to rally with four third-period goals for an electrifying 6-5 victory in the WCHA opener for both teams.
Trailing 4-1, Dustin Jackson, fabulous freshman Patrick Wiercioch and Anthony Maiani scored to tie it, the latter coming with 9:12 to go. Just 1:02 later, however, Wisconsin was back in front, with Jordy Murray tapping in a doorstep rebound off Cheverie, who was otherwise solid in his third career start.
No worries. DU’s Tyler Ruegsegger knotted it at 5-5 with 5:42 to go and Wiercioch, who signed with the Pioneers after reneging on his commitment to Wisconsin, scored the game-winner with 3:45 left from a bad-angle corner shot that went off the skate of Wisconsin defenseman Cody Goloubef.
DU (2-0, 1-1) went 3-of-11 on the power play and outshot the Badgers (0-3, 0-1) 52-31.
“It’s a heart-attack game, but it’s really a good sign when a team can fight back and believe in themselves and get a win out of what looked like a very difficult situation,” Gwozdecky said. “Our power play came through in a big way and certain guys had real big nights.”
Notwithstanding a 1:21 second-period stretch that saw Wisconsin score three straight goals to take a 4-1 lead, DU proved it is worthy of its No. 4 national ranking.
Cheverie wasn’t bad, either. The Badgers scored their first two goals with Ruegsegger in the penalty box, and the shots by Michael Davies (redirect) and Jamie McBain (screened wrist shot) went in high corner off screens.
John Mitchell made it 3-1 with a high wrist shot through a handful of bodies and Ryan McDonagh banged in a breakaway bid off the right post. That’s when Gwozdecky called a timeout, to remind his team that domination doesn’t mean much without goals to go along with it.
“We played a very effective first period, obviously, but I thought we lulled ourselves to sleep. We thought it was going to be easy,” Gwozdecky said. “We called the timeout just to settle our guys down.”
Wisconsin’s three-goal spurt began shortly after DU failed to convert on a 5-on-3 power play for 1:48. Badgers goalie Shane Connelly was terrific to that point, but ultimately no match for DU’s top players, led by Wiercioch (two goals, assist), Tyler Bozak (goal, two assists), Ruegsegger (goal, assist) and Rhett Rakhshani (two assists).
Wisconsin 1 3 1 — 5
Denver 1 1 4 — 6
First period — 1, Wisconsin, Davies 1 (Gardiner, McBain), 7:04 (pp). 2, Denver, Bozak 1 (Rakhshani, Mullen), 19:24 (5x3pp). Penalties — Ruegsegger, DU (interference), 5:37; Goloubef, UW (boarding), 8:49; Turnbull, UW (tripping), 7:02; Glasser, DU (hooking), 15:53; Turnbull, UW (interference), 17:26; Street, UW (slashing).
Second period — 3, Wisconsin, McBain 1 (Gardiner, Davies), 12:34 (pp). 4, Wisconsin, Mitchell 2 (Grotting, McDonagh), 13:34. 5, Wisconsin, McDonagh 1 (unassisted), 13:55. 6, Denver, Jackson 1 (Ruegsegger, Testwuide), 15:19. Penalties — Testwuide, DU (slashing), 2:25; Murray, UW (charging), 4:39; McDonagh, UW (roughing), 7:10; Street, UW (cross checking), 7:22; Gifford, DU (holding), 9:40; Ruegsegger, DU (roughing), 11:17; Turnbull, DU (holding), 16:30; Jackson, DU (roughing), 20:00; Goloubef, UW (roughing), 20:00.
Third period — 7, Denver, Wiercioch 2 (Bozak), 6:00. 8, Denver, Maiani 2 (Martin), 10:48 (pp). 9, Wisconsin, Murray 2 (Gardiner), 11:58. 10, Denver, Ruegsegger 2 (Rakhshani), 14:18 (pp). 11, Denver, Wiercioch 3 (Bozak), 16:15. Penalties — Mitchell, UW (hooking), 1:07; Testwuide, DU (5-major, checking from behind, game misconduct), 3:55; UW bench (too many men), 5:11. Grotting, UW (slashing), 9:10; Smith, UW (holding), 12:34; Mullen, DU (tripping), 18:58.
Shots — UW 5-11-15 — 31. DU 24-13-15 — 52. Power plays — UW 2 of 8. DU 3 of 11. Goalies — UW, Connelly (0-2) 52 shots-46 saves. DU, Cheverie (2-0) 31-26. A — 6,066.
Mike Chambers: 303-954-1357 or mchambers@denverpost.com
