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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — In front of a curiously empty World Arena for a big rivalry game between Denver and Colorado College, the No. 9 Pioneers defeated their rival 6-4.
In the process, the Pioneers also captured the Gold Pan trophy, given to the winner of the season series between the two, taking an insurmountable 3-0 lead in the four-game season series.
“I was really happy with our team’s effort as a whole,” said Denver coach Jim Montgomery, who was back behind the bench after missing last weekend’s series in North Dakota due to the death of his father. “I thought that CC played a really good game and came at us hard, and had us on our heels for moments in the first period, and I thought that our defensemen and our forwards communicated better after that so we broke the puck out better.”
CC had the first good chance when Jaccob Slavin let rip a perfect slap shot from the right point. The puck skipped along the ice and beat Denver goalie Tanner Jaillet on his right, but then hit the post and bounced right back into Jaillet’s pads.
Shortly after that, Denver drew a power-play chance and generated several good looks, including one Denver defenseman who missed an open net high with a bullet from the left point.
After weathering that storm, CC had several good looks and finally capitalized when Peter Stoykewych came down the slot and picked up a perfect pass from Sam Rothstein and beat Jaillet with a quick shot over Jaillet’s right shoulder at 17:25.
The lead didn’t last long, as freshman phenom and NCHC leading scorer Danton Heinen got a pass from Nolan Zajac and split the Tigers’ defense down the middle, beating CC goaltender Tyler Marble top-shelf stick-side at 18:10.
CC capitalized on a power play early in the second period when Rothstein got to a rebound on a wild goal mouth scramble and pushed both the puck and Jaillet’s right pad into the corner of the net at 3:04. After a referee review, the goal stood.
Moments after that, Cody Bradley almost tipped one in, but it hit Jaillet’s right arm.
However, Denver tied it again at 8:45 when Joey LaLeggia carried the puck deep on the left side and slid a pass to Daniel Doremus on the far post, who redirected it past Marble.
Denver almost took its first lead of the night when Zajac’s shot from the right point hit Marble’s shoulder and bounced high in the air, then fell behind Marble just wide of the net.
As a four-on-four expired, CC went on a three-on-two rush, but a Denver defenseman slid backward on his stomach to break up the pass. Denver went two-on-one the other way, and Larkin Jacobson deked around a sliding CC defender and slid it to Zac Larraza on the far post, who one-timed it past Marble at 16:14.
“I look at it as you give them 27 shots, you do a pretty good job that way,” said Tigers’ coach Mike Haviland. “You look at the shots, you give them four two-on-ones on mistakes that we make, and they have a lot of talented guys over there. They make plays and they put it in the back of your net.”
CC tied it before the announcer could barely get started annoucing the Denver goal when Christian Heil pounced on a rebound. It looked like the net got lifted off its moorings by Heil as he kicked Jaillet’s leg while crashing the post and got it inside the post at 16:31 as the net came off. The goal was ruled good.
With under a minute left in the period, Denver took a 4-3 lead on a gorgeous tic-tac-toe passing play. Adam Plant got the puck down low and passed to Larraza at the right side of the slot, and Larraza immediately passed it to Heinen coming down the left side of the crease, and Heinen knocked it into a wide-open net at 19:30.
“It was a great play and a good transition,” said Montgomery. “It was a great play; it was the nicest play since I’ve been at Denver.”
“That’s the thing – you look at the sheet and you give up a goal in the last minute and 10 seconds of the first, you gave up a goal in the last minute of the second – those goals are killer, and you can’t give those goals up,” said Haviland. “At times, I thought we played very, very well. You just can’t make the mistakes we are making and expect to win hockey games.”
Early in the third, CC looked to have a good chance to tie it when it went on a power play, but instead, Denver scored shorthanded when Gabe Levin carried it in deep on the right side and backhanded a pass to Jacobson on the far post, and Jacobson redirected a backhand top shelf at 14:13.
“They really played well,” said Montgomery of Larraza and Jacobson. “I thought that the shorthanded goal really broke the game open. It was a great play by Levin, and great job Larkin going back door.”
Denver ended any hopes of a CC comeback and sent the remaining fans to the doors when Doremus scored on a redirect of a pass from Heinen at 14:46, beating Marble into the open net glove side.
CC gave its fans one last hurrah when right off the faceoff at the left side, Peter Maric shot the bouncing puck on net and beat Jaillet at 18:40.
