GRAND FORKS, N.D. — The Denver Pioneers needed a resilient response to a Friday night loss to North Dakota, and they got that response from their usual suspect on the score sheet Saturday.
Trevor Moore came back from a first period clipping major to notch two goals as his Pioneers (16-10-2, 9-8-1-1 National Collegiate Hockey Conference) rallied for a 3-3 tie with North Dakota at Ralph Englestad Arena Saturday night. Moore also scored the only goal in the shootout to earn Denver an extra point in the NCHC standings.
Moore turned the sellout Ralph crowd (11,782) against him when he upended Drake Caggiula at center ice, resulting in five-minute clipping major at 14:44, and UND made him pay for it with goals from Keaton Thompson and Nick Mattson 27 seconds apart on the major power play. However, Moore came back with an edge and helped the Pioneers storm back from the two-goal deficit.
“I’m really proud of Trevor,” said Denver assistant coach David Carle. “He’s one of the best offensive players in our league. He plays with an emotion and an edge. He’s a California kid, but you wouldn’t know it. He’s tough in one-on-one battles. For him to go and take that penalty to reset his mind frame and to come back with the attitude that he had in the second and third and really take control of the game at times was really impressive and really exciting to see — but not a surprise for us.”
It ruined a good start for UND (20-6-3, 11-5-2-0 NCHC), which looked in good shape to peg itself in sole possession of the NCHC points lead after cruising with the two-goal lead.
“We had an opportunity to get another two points tonight, and we only got the one,” said UND coach Dave Hakstol. “That’s probably the only mentality right now is that we had a chance to close out the two points.”
Moore finished a feed from Joey LaLeggia at 3:57 of the second for his first of the evening. At 5:49, Caggiula responded with a highlight-reel goal, tucking one in five-hole on Evan Cowley (35 saves).
Denver came out of the third with energy, and it paid off with Tariq Hammond’s seeing-eye point shot to make it 3-2 at 3:50.
“When you got a 20-minute game to play and you’re down by two, you’re going to give it your all,” Pattyn said. “We just didn’t take care of pucks early in the third and it came back and bit us.”
A few minutes later, a scrum in front of the net ended in what UND thought was an insurance goal from Brendan O’Donnell, but referees Timm Walsh and Nick Krebsbach weren’t able to confirm a goal on replay, despite clamoring from multiple UND players that the puck was in the net. Then at 9:03, Moore notched his second of the night off Zane McIntyre’s (34 saves) shoulder to tie it.
“The officials made their call — nothing we can do about it,” said Stephane Pattyn.
“Obviously really happy with the resiliency we showed; being down two goals in any building is tough,” said Carle. “To do it in this building shows a lot of the character and heart of our room. That was the most exciting and encouraging thing.”
Both teams had the chances down the stretch, but neither could get the game-winner to go in, though not without controversy. As time expired, Quentin Shore shot from the left circle and knocked the water bottle off the net, which Krebsbach signaled initially as a goal before going to replay and confirming the puck was well above the crossbar.
“Last night was a new environment for a lot of our players,” Carle said. “As the weekend went on, everybody got more comfortable with the environment and with me on the bench. We were far improved in all facets — myself included.”
