{"id":27432,"date":"2005-04-08T10:30:27","date_gmt":"2005-04-08T15:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2005\/04\/08\/notebook-friday\/"},"modified":"2010-08-17T19:56:15","modified_gmt":"2010-08-18T00:56:15","slug":"notebook-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2005\/04\/08\/notebook-friday\/","title":{"rendered":"Notebook: Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"
Denver has crafted a 3-0 record against North Dakota this season, with a key reason being that the Pioneers have been able to stay a step or two ahead of the Sioux.<\/p>\n
Translating that to Saturday’s national championship game, the start will be critical to both.<\/p>\n
The Pioneers have scored first in all three games — two in Grand Forks and one at the WCHA Final Five — and have responded to the Sioux’s challenges quickly.<\/p>\n
They earned a pair of 4-2 victories in early February by protecting their lead.<\/p>\n
On Feb. 4, Nick Larson scored just 38 seconds after a UND goal to give Denver a 3-1 lead. Later in that game, Geoff Paukovich restored the two-goal lead 3:01 after the Sioux cut it to one.<\/p>\n
A night later, Luke Fulghum broke a 1-1 tie just 97 seconds after North Dakota forged it, then Jeff Drummond made it 4-2 only 53 seconds after the Sioux climbed within one.<\/p>\n
“The biggest factor in those games was that we were able to take leads in both games and every time North Dakota was able to respond with a goal, we were uncanny in being able to respond almost immediately by scoring again to give us that cushion, and really were able to keep the momentum and the crowd out of the game,” Denver coach George Gwozdecky said. “But both games were very close, very tight, hard-fought, similar to the game we played them in the Final Five.”<\/p>\n
As North Dakota languished at the end of a five-game WCHA losing streak at the end of that series against Denver, Gwozdecky still saw potential.<\/p>\n