The powers that be at USA Hockey must be happy after the last two Saturday games by the No. 4 Denver Pioneers.
Pioneers’ Tyler Ruegsegger and Rhett Rakhshani were named to the U.S. National Junior Team. Last week, Rakhshani scored a hat trick to lead the Pioneers past St. Cloud State. Tonight, Ruegsegger had a career high five-point night and Brock Trotter and Tyler Bozak each scored two goals as the Pioneers crushed the Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves 6-2, getting their third WCHA series road sweep of the season. The win moved the Pioneers into a first place tie in the WCHA.
The Pioneers spotted the Seawolves a 2-0 lead in the first five minutes of the first period. Jared Tuton pushed in a rebound at 3:30 and Kevin Clark scored moments later at 4:46.
Trailing 2-0 going into the second, the Pioneers stormed back with four goals. Ostrow got the Pioneers on the board at 4:09. Tyler Bozak buried a pretty Ruegsegger feed at 7:11 and Trotter gave the Pioneers the lead, scoring the last two goals of the period at 9:26 and 12:32.
Denver put the game out of reach with two additional goals in the final period. Ostrow tallied his second goal, shorthanded, at 1:57 after Ruegsegger stole the puck from Olthuis. Ruegsegger completed his five-point night with a breakaway empty-net goal at 6:53. UAA outshot DU, 27-21, in the contest.
The Pioneers return to action at the 16th annual Wells Fargo Denver Cup on Dec. 28-29, playing Sacred Heart the first night. Dartmouth and Northern Michigan are also in the tournament.
