Northern Michigan freshman goalie Jared Coreau used every inch of his 6-foot-5 frame to stop the puck Saturday night, and when he wasn’t making one of his 45 saves, he was watching the University of Denver misfire.
Combined, Coreau’s performance and some significant shooting flaws led to a 2-2 overtime tie in the nonleague two- game series finale at Magness Arena.
DU, which rallied from a 2-0 deficit for the second consecutive night, outshot the Wildcats 34-8 through two periods and 47-13 for the game. The Pioneers scored five straight third-period goals Friday to win 5-2.
They limited NMU to 28 shots for the series.
“We see this as a good tie,” said DU captain Kyle Ostrow, who spearheaded the comeback with a short-handed goal and an assist on David Makow- ski’s game-tying power-play goal. “We had a bad first period, got down early again, but we generated a lot of offense tonight and played our systems really well defensively.
“I think we take a lot of positives out of this, just (because) the depth of our team, with the guys we didn’t have here, and how hard everyone worked.”
DU again played without key forwards Drew Shore and Jason Zucker, both with a team- high 14 goals, and No. 1 NHL draft pick Beau Bennett. Shore and Zucker are in Buffalo, N.Y., playing for the U.S. World Junior team, and Bennett is recovering from a knee injury.
Junior wing Luke Salazar, who had two goals and an assist Friday, was one of a handful of DU players who didn’t have any puck luck Saturday. The Thornton native missed on several key chances and was stoned by Coreau on a penalty shot early in the third period.
Still, he and the rest of the Pioneers were pleased to create so many chances without their premier scorers.
“Other than a very poor start, in the last 50 minutes of the game, we were very good,” DU coach George Gwozdecky said. “Their goaltender was outstanding. Very few nights like this. Other than a tie, I was so happy with our effort. We worked our tail off.”
The Wildcats’ Tyler Gron (slap shot) and Erik Higby (tip-in) scored 4:47 and 7:31 into the game.
DU cut the lead in half at 10:24 of the second period, when Ostrow scored on a short-handed semi-breakaway — shooting sideways after being hooked from behind. He also drew a penalty on the play, but the Pioneers couldn’t get anything going on a power play that looked sharp but was unproductive.
They were 0-of-7 with the extra skater through two periods, but produced 20 shots in 11:54 with the advantage. On Friday, in their first game since Dec. 11, the Pioneers were 0-of-6 on the power play through two periods, with just three shots.
Makowski’s power-play goal came at 10:02 of the third period, and DU finished 1-of-9 with the advantage (26 shots).
Mike Chambers: 303-954-1357 or mchambers@denverpost.com
DU Recap
The Post’s three stars
1. Kyle Ostrow.
Had a short- handed goal and assisted on a power-play tally.
2. Jared Coreau.
Wildcats’ freshman goalie had 45 saves.
3. David Makowski.
Pioneers freshman defenseman had a goal and a game-high 10 shots.
What you might have missed
DU senior Joey Brehm played in his first career regular-season game as a collegian. The former defenseman and captain of Edina (Minn.) High School played as a fourth-line winger.
Up next
At Minnesota State, Jan. 14-15
