The University of Denver’s seven seniors were honored before Saturday night’s game at Magness Arena, each hoping this wouldn’t be his last NCAA game at home. Hope turned into action, and shortly after the opening faceoff against No. 5-ranked Miami (Ohio), the seniors led a remarkable first period that carried DU to a 6-2 victory and a split of the key National Collegiate Hockey Conference series.
The No. 7 Pioneers — who surpassed Minnesota Duluth for the fourth and final NCHC home-ice playoff seed with just two games remaining — led 4-0 after 20 minutes behind two goals and four assists by seniors. Larkin Jacobson and Ty Loney struck on juicy rebounds, and freshman Danton Heinen (power play) sophomore Trevor Moore also scored in a dominating 22-shot period.
Heinen (two goals) and Moore (three assists) each finished with four-point nights.
“I think our seniors had a purpose tonight, and led the group,” DU coach Jim Montgomery said. “It was a lot of emotion from us, and when we play with emotion and execute we’re a really good hockey team. We have really good hockey players and they made great plays tonight. It’s as simple as that.”
The Pioneers finished with 47 shots. Sophomore Evan Cowley had 19 saves for DU.
“I loved the way Evan played tonight,” Montgomery said. “When Evan plays like that he’s an amazing goaltender. He had a really good week of practice and he knew we were giving him a game.”
Senior defenseman Joey LaLeggia, a 2014 first-team All-American who could become Denver’s second Hobey Baker Award winner as national player of the year, scored his 12th goal of the season and 46th of his career to make it 5-2 in the first minute of the third period. Six minutes later, Heinen — the NCHC’s freshman scoring leader — got his second goal and third point of the game to regain DU’s four-goal cushion.
“This game was a little extra special because it was senior night,” LaLeggia said. “Very proud of the effort from the boys. That’s a very good hockey team we played. After an effort like (Friday) night it was really good to see us come out and play like we did (Saturday).”
Miami (20-11-1, 13-7-1) scored the only two goals in the second period before the Pioneers (19-11-2, 12-9-1) closed the door.
The RedHawks won 5-3 on Friday. The teams also split a series in January at Oxford, Ohio.
Denver (38 points) finishes the regular-season Friday and Saturday at sixth-place St. Cloud State (31). Top-ranked North Dakota (47) leads the eight-team NCHC, followed by Miami (41) and Nebraska Omaha (39). Minnesoata Duluth (36) is two points behind Denver for the last home-ice spot and plays at seventh-place Western Michigan next weekend.
Mike Chambers: mchambers@denverpost.com or
