SOUTH BEND, Ind. — A weekend series that saw Denver get tested on the road gave the Pioneers an idea of what it’s going to be like playing teams wanting to knock off the defending national champions.
Saturday night, top-ranked Denver concluded a competitive weekend series with fourth-ranked Notre Dame, knocking off the Fighting Irish 4-2 at the Compton Family Ice Arena.
After playing to a 2-2 tie on Friday, coach Jim Montgomery’s Pioneers overcame a furious third-period rally by the Fighting Irish with two late goals to pick up their first win of the season.
“Notre Dame is a really good hockey team,” Montgomery said, his team now 1-0-1 on the season. “I thought we did a better job of earning second chance opportunities in the offensive zone.”
After sweeping a series last weekend against Alabama Huntsville, coach Jeff Jackson’s squad (2-1-1) suffered its first loss of the season.
“It was two really good hockey games,” Jackson said of the series with Denver. “They are a tremendous team. There were points in each game where we played toe-to-toe with them. We have to find a way to do that for 60 minutes.
“They do a tremendous job of pressuring the puck. They don’t give you much time to make plays and that is what the game is all about. It’s about mastering time and space and if you don’t have time and space, it is hard to make a play. And they eliminate time and space about as well as any team I have seen in recent years.”
For most of the game, the Pioneers appeared to be in control. Denver got its first goal at the 10:10 mark of the first period when Troy Terry scored to make it 1-0.
Then late in the period, Logan O’Connor fed the puck to Jake Durflinger and the freshman scored his first collegiate goal at the 18:21 mark to make it 2-0.
“My linemates did a good job,” Durflinger said. “O’Connor won a puck battle and made a great pass out front and I happened to be in the right spot. ”
“We recruited him with the intent to be a paper and glue guy,” Montgomery said of Durflinger. “He’s a very intelligent hockey player and he does good things well.”
Denver had opportunities throughout the second period to increase its lead, but Notre Dame goalie Cale Morris and the defense kept the Pioneers off the board.
“The thing we have to learn as a team is that we have to learn to bear down,” Montgomery said. “We had opportunities to go up 3 or 4-nothing in the second and I thought that we controlled the play, but we just missed the net. We got to find a way to bury more pucks and not let teams hang around.”
Hang around is what the Fighting Irish did and they capitalized in a wild 24-second stretch in the third period.
Notre Dame got on the board at the 14:44 mark on Cam Morrison’s goal and the Fighting Irish got a huge break when Ryan Barrow was called for hooking.
Having a power play on the ensuing possession, Notre Dame took advantage when Jordan Gross scored at the 15:08 mark to tie the game.
The puck initially went through the net, but play continued and after video review the goal counted.
“You’re up 2-0 on a Jeff Jackson team, that doesn’t mean anything,” Montgomery said. “They are so even-keeled. They managed to come back and make great plays.”
The Pioneers immediately responded 24 seconds later when Liam Finlay scored to give Denver the lead for good.
“It’s frustrating,” Jackson said. “We’ve given up what I call ‘momentum goal’ every game we have played so far. We score a goal and the other team comes right back and scores the next shift. That is a mental thing that we have to have our guys be prepared for. The match-up didn’t change. We gave up a goal due to lack of coverage at our own end. And that can’t happen with five minutes left in the game, especially after coming back and tying the game.”
Dylan Gambrell added an empty-net goal at the 18:40 mark to seal the win for Denver.
“I loved how we responded,” Montgomery said. “We made a real good neutral-zone play and we were able to get the lead and after that we were able to shut them down.”
Despite the loss, Jackson was pleased with his team’s effort this weekend.
“I saw positive things from all three positions,” he said. “I thought both of our goalies played well. I thought our defense for the most part did a good job against a very talented offensive team. Our forward depth right now is not where it needs to be from an offensive perspective, but I thought we showed signs of potential to be able to generate offense from our cycle. Our first unit power play has been pretty effective for us.”
Denver returns home for a weekend series against Lake Superior State before traveling to Boston on Oct. 27-28 for games against Boston University and Boston College, respectively.
“We like to have a real tough schedule because it prepares us for the tournament,” Montgomery said.
Rensselaer 1, at Ohio State 1
Christian Lampasso’s goal at the 2:16 mark of the second period allowed the Buckeyes (1-1-2) to tie the Engineers (0-1-2) by an identical score for the second straight night.
Goalie Sean Romeo had 22 saves for Ohio State.
At Michigan State 3, Bowling Green 2
Taro Hirose’s goal at the 19:20 mark of the third period proved to be the winner as the Spartans (1-1) rallied from a 2-1 second period deficit to knock off the Falcons (1-2), who won 4-1 on Friday night.
Brandon Kruse scored a power-play goal and Shane Benard added a second-period goal.
Tommy Apap had a goal and Patrick Khodorenko added a power-play goal for Michigan State.
Spartans goalie John Lethemon had 22 saves.
Wisconsin 4, at Merrimack 1
Three second-period goals proved to be the difference for the 10th-ranked Badgers (4-1) in their win over the Warriors (0-2-1) in North Andover, Mass.
Seamus Malone’s power-play goal at the 12:01 mark in the second period opened the floodgates for Wisconsin, as it got two more goals in a span of 39 seconds from Max Zimmer and Ryan Wagner.
Jason Ford also added a goal for the Badgers.
Goalie Kyle Hayton had 41 saves.
