ST. PAUL, Minn. — George Gwozdecky coached hurt on Friday, suffering from an “upper body” injury he obtained while unloading the old wooden box that contains the Broadmoor Trophy on Wednesday.
After a decisive 3-0 victory over Wisconsin in the semifinals of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association Final Five, Gwozdecky revealed his injury — a splinter — and talked about his excitement in possibly bringing the WCHA playoff championship hardware back to the Hilltop.
“The big old wooden box, it’s like a big coffin, but I’ll wear my work gloves this time,” he said after DU’s win in front of 14,722 at the Xcel Energy Center.
DU (23-10-5) goes for its second straight and record-extending 16th Broadmoor Trophy tonight, thanks to a fifth straight victory over the Badgers (19-16-4). Junior Brian Gifford, sophomore Kyle Ostrow and freshman Patrick Wier-cioch scored and Marc Cheverie had 42 saves for his second straight shutout against UW.
The Pioneers, 5-0 against the Badgers since being eliminated by them in last year’s NCAA Tournament, improved to 9-0 at the WCHA Final Five since 1999. The loss eliminated Wisconsin from NCAA Tournament contention.
DU — playing without its top two centers in the Tyler twins, Bozak and Ruegsegger — improved its chances of garnering a No. 1 seed for the 16-team national field and could clinch that position with a win tonight.
“It’s good to be back in the finals. Last year was unbelievable,” said Ostrow, whose second-period goal came on a breakaway off two crisp passes from Luke Salazar and Patrick Mullen.
Gifford got things going, capitalizing on a neutral-zone turnover and scoring on a slap shot inside the far post 15:20 into the game. Ostrow doubled the lead late in the second period and Wiercioch added an insurance goal with a wrist shot through traffic on DU’s second and final power play.
“DU played an extremely intelligent game. They played well as a team, they played hard and won a lot of battles, and got some timely goals,” UW coach Mike Eaves said.
Gwozdecky said the game plan was to spread the ice by taking advantage of his team’s speed and diminishing the Badgers’ physical advantage. The primary objective was to prevent Wisconsin from gaining puck control behind or beside Cheverie.
“Any team that can skate, and I’ll include us in that description, likes to go up and down the ice, and we wanted to get our transition game functioning,” Gwozdecky said. “The other part of our success was our end-zone defensive play against a team that is very effective when they gain position down low.”
Wisconsin 0 0 0 — 0
Denver 1 1 1 — 3
First period 1, Denver, Gifford 4 (unassisted), 15:20. Penalties — Bohmbach, UW (slashing), 11:07; Rakhshani, DU (holding), 15:34.
Second period — 2, Denver, Ostrow 14 (Salazar, Mullen), 13:40. Penalty Testwuide, DU (holding), 17:00.
Third period — 3, Denver, Wiercioch 12 (Mullen, Colborne), 6:01 (pp). Penalties — Smith, UW (hooking), 5:35; Lee, DU (interference), 9:11; Martin, DU (cross checking), 18:07; Geoffrion, UW (elbowing), 18:46; Ryder, DU (slashing), 19:27.
Shots on goal — UW 17-14-11—42. DU 14-8-7—29. Power play opportunities — UW 0 of 5. DU 1 of 2. Goalies — UW, Connelly (18-14-4) 29 shots-26 saves. DU, Cheverie (23-10-5) 42-42. A — 17,722.
DU Recap
The Post’s three stars
1. Marc Cheverie.
The sophomore made 42 saves for second straight shutout vs. UW.
2. Patrick Mullen.
Senior defenseman (two assists) was excellent in all three zones.
3. Kyle Ostrow.
Rising star had a breakaway goal.
What you might have missed:
DU defenseman Patrick Wiercioch finished with 10 points (four goals) in five games vs. Wisconsin. NHL-bound Wiercioch decommitted to Wisconsin last summer after a spot opened at DU. The Badgers wanted him to play another year of juniors.
Up next
Today, vs. Minn.-Duluth, 6 p.m. (FSN), St. Paul, Minn.
Mike Chambers, The Denver Post
