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DENVER — On Saturday night, the No. 9 Denver Pioneers accomplished something no Denver team had done since the 1988-89 team: sweep the season series against arch-rival Colorado College.
In a game that was a lot tighter than the final score indicated, Zac Larraza scored two goals, Larkin Jacobson got his fourth game-winner of the year, and Tanner Jaillet made 23 saves as Denver defeated CC, 6-3.
“That was a lot of fun; all the guys in there are pretty excited,” said Larraza. “Overall, it was great to be a part of that.”
Denver struck first, and once again it was special teams, as on a power play, Joey LaLeggia fired a shot from the point that Tyler Marble made a stop on. Larraza dove to his right and batted the rebound five-hole past Marble at 8:41. It was one of Denver’s 22 shots in the period.
“I really thought the first period was the best period we’ve played in a while as far as all four lines, six D, in synch in all three zones, and it was nice to see because it’s been a while since we’ve been that I thought dominant,” said Denver coach Jim Montgomery. “Overall, I thought the weekend was very good. It was good for us to make a lot of high-end plays offensively.”
Denver doubled its lead at 1:44 of the second period on a pretty play when Gabe Levin spied Josiah Didier coming down from the point and fed him a perfect pass in the right faceoff circle that Didier fired top shelf stick side.
After some up-and-down play, CC got back in the game with its own power-play goal when Jacob Slavin fired a laser of a slap shot from the blue line that hit Jaillet on the arm and bounced in at 13:16.
However, as the Pioneers had all weekend, they quickly responded, preventing CC from gaining any momentum. On a power play, Trevor Moore got the puck on the right side of the crease and passed it to LaLeggia coming down the slot. LaLeggia roofed it stick side at 15:36.
“It was a power-play goal for them,” said CC coach Mike Haviland. “They were two-for-three I think on the power play. There were some offensive-zone penalties that we can’t take. They responded with the goal. I guess it was a common theme of the weekend that we score and they come right back and score.”
Slavin gave the Tigers life just 57 seconds into the third period when he got the puck deep along the ride-side boards and skated toward the net, roofing a shot from the right faceoff circle top-shelf stick side on Jaillet.
Just 23 seconds later, Peter Maric tied the score for the Tigers when he backhanded in a rebound from the slot five-hole on Jaillet.
“We just came out kind of flat,” said Larraza. “We thought we had the win. Right after that, we took the timeout, and then we took it to them, and I felt that we really controlled the game after that.”
Denver started putting furious pressure on the Tigers, but couldn’t crack through. Denver also had a scare when Larraza went down on the ice after a knee-on-knee with Hunter Fejes, who wasn’t penalized on the play.
“That hurt,” said Larraza. “No matter what happened, even if my ACL is torn, I’m not coming out of that game.”
With just under eight minutes left, Chase Perry replaced a tired Marble in the CC net; Marble finished with 38 saves on 41 shots.
It looked like overtime might be in the works, but Matt Tabrum carried the puck in deep along the left boards and fed a pass to Jacobson, who stepped toward the net, froze Perry, then skated one step farther and beat Perry with a backhander along the ice.
“The poise he had on that play, it’s an entry that we work on quite a bit where he leaves a guy behind him and he drives wide and he got it back and what a great move he made around the goalie and stuffing it in the net,” said Montgomery.
Larraza gave the Pioneers some breathing room when he deflected Will Butcher’s shot from the left point past Perry at 17:28. Moore capped the scoring with an empty-netter with 30 seconds left.
“I thought we responded,” said Haviland. “I thought they were really good in the first, and we didn’t seem have our legs. As the night went on, we got our legs and a good response in the third. We just have to figure out a way in the last four minutes there not to give up those goals.”
The win moved Denver into a tie for third place with Omaha in the very competitive NCHC. Denver is one point ahead of Minnesota-Duluth for the final home ice spot for the first round of the NCHC playoffs. Denver hosts Miami next weekend; the RedHawks are in second, three points ahead of the Pioneers.
“You need to slow them down; they’re a great scoring team, and they can really make plays on the rush,” said Montgomery of the RedHawks. “You have to neutralize their top-end forwards, and that’s not an easy task.”
