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The University of Minnesota Duluth finally found a way to get a puck past Tanner Jaillet, but it couldn't find away to take down the University of Denver.
Jaillet, who backstopped the No. 1 Pioneers to a 1-0 National Collegiate Hockey Conference triumph one night earlier, turned aside 27 of 28 shots Saturday as Denver shaded the No. 16 Bulldogs 2-1. It marked the first time UMD has been swept at home in nearly two years (Dec. 11-12, 2015 versus the University of North Dakota).
After Jarid Lukosevicius gave the Pioneers a 1-0 lead with 21 seconds to go in the second period, senior right winger
Blake Young picked up the Bulldogs' lone goal, scoring on a backhand spin-o-rama move at 8:32 of the third. The deadlock lasted for a little over seven minutes before Jake Durflinger banged in a rebound past UMD sophomore goaltender
Hunter Shepard, who went on to finish with 14 saves in his 12th consecutive start. Denver finished with only 30 total shot attempts and put just 15 on target -- a 2017-18 season low for a Bulldog opponent -- in the victory, it's seventh in 10 lifetime visits to AMSOIL Arena (the Pioneers are 7-1-2 all-time their).
For the second straight night, both teams went scoreless on the power play (0-for-2 and 0-for-5 for the weekend).
"I thought we did a great job tonight," said UMD Head Coach
Scott Sandelin. "Defensively, we changed some things and our guys executed well. They scored on a couple of their opportunities and that was the difference, but tonight I had a totally different feeling about our effort than I did last night."
UMD (7-8-2 overall and 2-6-0-0 in the NCHC), which will pay a visit to the University of Nebraska Omaha next Friday and Saturday night, won't be back at AMSOIL Arena until Jan. 19, 2018.