While many of their University of Denver classmates were settling in on spring-vacation beaches, hitting the ski slopes, visiting home or girding for the next quarter with marathon study sessions (yeah, right) Saturday, the hockey Pioneers for the second consecutive night weren’t sharp but managed to win.
Colin Staub, a freshman winger from Colorado Springs, scored at 8:54 of the second overtime and the Pioneers finished off a two-game sweep of Nebraska Omaha in a National Collegiate Hockey Conference quarterfinal series with a 4-3 victory over the Mavericks at Magness Arena.
Seconds earlier, Staub had a prime opportunity, but couldn’t get it on net, and he came right back to put the game-winner past Omaha goalie Evan Weninger for his fifth goal of the season.
“I don’t know how the second (shot) went in,” said Staub, who came to the Pioneers via the Wichita Falls Wildcats of the North American Hockey League. “I’m just glad it did. The first one, I probably could have done a little better job of getting it on net.”
Said DU coach Jim Montgomery: “It was a sigh of relief when that puck went in. … It’s funny, we all circled who’s going to get it for us. Two of us had him because he’s just so dangerous, he’s a guy who attacks the net and he’s so strong, he goes right through people. I thought he almost scored twice in the first overtime.
“It’s amazing how much he’s grown throughout this year, his freshman year.”
Quentin Shore and Troy Terry had first-period goals to put the Pioneers up 2-0, but from there DU for a time looked as if might become the second Denver-based hockey team to blow a 2-0 lead and lose Saturday night. But after the Mavericks pulled into 2-2 and 3-3 ties, the Pioneers — unlike the Avalanche, which lost 3-2 at Winnipeg — ultimately pulled it out. Sophomore Tanner Jaillet had 51 saves in the Pioneer net in the nearly 89 minutes, and at least a handful were tough ones in the sudden-death.
“Tanner Jaillet, wow,” Montgomery said. “Some incredible saves.”
It was the hockey longest game in Magness history. In the second game ever in the building, DU beat Providence 3-2 on Oct. 16, 1999, with Joe Ritson scoring the game-winning goal 4:25 into the second overtime.
The third-seeded Pioneers, 22-8-5 and ranked sixth nationally, finished 6-0 against Nebraska Omaha this season and will take an 11-game winning streak into the league’s four-team Frozen Faceoff at the Target Center in Minneapolis. After the top four seeds all finished off quarterfinal series sweeps Saturday, the Pioneers will face the league’s second seed, St. Cloud State, in one Friday semifinal, while top-seeded North Dakota will face fourth-seeded Minnesota Duluth in the other.
“Great college hockey game,” Montgomery said. “Hats off to UNO, they played great hockey. They competed at an incredible level, and it’s a reflection of their legendary coach (Dean Blais), who I have the utmost respect for. It’s hard to eliminate a team when their season’s on the line, and it’s really hard to do when it’s a Dean Blais-coached team.”
Senior defenseman Nolan Zajac, who came into the night with 14 assists in 35 games this season, set up both of the Pioneers’ first- period goals. First Shore (at 5:29) and then Terry (17:14) had easy tap-ins of his cross-slot passes.
Nebraska Omaha didn’t go away, though.
DU defenseman Grant Arnold drew a 5-minute major for kneeing at 7:21 of the second and the Pioneers had killed off a little more than three minutes of the penalty when Zajac was called for tripping at 10:34. Forty-three seconds into the ensuing 5-on-3, Jake Guentzel scored to get the Mavericks within 2-1.
Then UNO’s Austin Ortega beat Jaillet to the short side for the short-handed goal that made it 2-2.
The Pioneers were back in front when Danton Heinen scored on a breakaway at 1:31 of the third, but Ortega’s second goal, on a power play, tied it up again at 3:57. When neither team scored the rest of regulation, the game went on.
And on … until Staub ended it.
“I mean, we just stuck to our process,” said Staub. “We just made sure to keep on hitting, just keep in getting pucks behind their ‘D,’ and kept on doing what we do best. That’s kind of wearing them down and I think we wore them down, especially by the second (overtime).”
The Pioneers now will face a St. Cloud State team that drilled them twice, 5-2 and 6-2, in mid-December in Denver. Since then, the Pioneers have gone 16-1-3. Regardless of what happens in Minneapolis, DU will get one of the 16 NCAA tournament berths, but the Frozen Faceoff could provide an avenue to maintain momentum.
Terry Frei: or @TFrei
