Troy Terry’s first game back with the University of Denver didn’t go to a shootout Saturday night.
But the Pioneers won anyway, routing the fledgling Division I hockey program , this time taking a 6-1 victory over the Sun Devils at Magness Arena.
Terry, the sophomore forward from Highlands Ranch whose shootout heroics lifted the United States to wins over Russia in the semifinals and Canada in the finals of the World Junior (under-20) Championships earlier in the week in Montreal, had two goals and three assists in his return to college hockey.
He also was saluted after a whistle at 12:09 of the first period. With Terry looking at the scoreboard screens, too, from the bench, video of his three shootout goals against the Russians on Wednesday and his success — the only one among the 10 shooters — in the Thursday gold-medal game against Canada were shown. So were the Americans’ bench-emptying celebrations after both wins, and then Terry was introduced and acknowledged the cheers with a stick overhead as he skated a tight circle near the bench.
Then it was back to live action. The entire tribute lasted less than two minutes.
“That was pretty awesome, that was pretty special,” Terry said. “Just to see how much support I had back here, too, for what happened over there and what we accomplished was pretty awesome.”
A weary Terry, operating on little sleep, arrived back in Denver on Friday but understandably didn’t play against the Sun Devils that night. But he was part of a loaded-up Pioneers top line — with center Henrik Borgstrom and winger Dylan Gambrell — for the second game of the series.
“Yesterday helped a lot, with Monty giving me that day off,” Terry said of DU coach Jim Montgomery. “Truthfully, maybe I was a little tired. Maybe it was altitude if anything, but I felt pretty good in general.”
Borgstrom, who played for Finland in the WJC and was the Florida Panthers’ first-round draft choice last June, had two goals and an assist for the second consecutive night and Gambrell, San Jose’s second-round pick in the same draft, had three assists. Borgstrom and Terry previously had played on the same line only sparingly this season as Montgomery sought scoring balance.
“That was fun,” Terry said. “Those guys are so good.”
Was it hard to get his head back into the college game after the WJC experience?
“These guys are my best friends,” Terry said. “I was obviously staying in the moment up there, but as soon as we won that game, I was looking forward to getting back with these guys and playing. There’s really nothing like putting on a Pioneer jersey and playing with these guys.”
Montgomery said Terry “was dancing out there. A five-point night is a career night for him as a Pioneer, so hopefully he can go five points every night the rest of the year, and I like our chances.” Montgomery said loading the top line “is the plan moving forward. Let’s see how effective they can be, how much they can grow.”
Wingers Jared Lukosevicius and Kevin Conley had the other goals for the Pioneers, who had 32 shots on goal halfway through the game and finished with 48 as Ryland Pashovitz and Joey Daccord, who split the game in the Sun Devils’ net, were under siege.
ASU’s Brett Gruber ruined the DU shutout with a late goal. Evan Cowley had only his third start of the season in the net and played 57:07, allowing the one goal for the Pioneers before walk-on Greg Ogard finished up.
The game drew a crowd of 5,980, just short of a sellout. Montgomery said that was attributable to Terry’s return and the attention he drew to the program. “It was a great crowd,” Montgomery said. “I bet there was at least 1,500 less people here if Troy’s not here tonight. I think for the growth of Colorado hockey and for the Denver program, I think there’s going to be a lot of kids not just from Colorado, but bordering states that want to be Denver Pioneers because of Troy Terry.”
The Pioneers (14-4-4) return to National Collegiate Hockey Conference play next weekend with a two-game set at Western Michigan.