Ignited by its perfect power play Friday night, the University of Minnesota Duluth men's hockey team upended the No. 5 University of Denver 4-3 Friday night at AMSOIL Arena in Duluth, Minn., the Bulldogs fourth win over a nationally ranked team over their last five games.
The Bulldogs neve trailed in the opening game of the the highly anticipated National Collegiate Hockey Conference series, and they went 2-for-2 with an extra skater in a power play that needed less than a minute all night to score two goals against the nation's best power play team entering the weekend – the Pioneers.
"The plays we made, they were all really fast," said Max Plante, who had two points on the Bulldogs lead off power play line Friday. "On the first first one, Aaron didn't mess around with it, he just got it to the net. The way they play, they were kind of a little passive, so the way we work, we're sort of smart hockey players and we make plays fast. On the second one, you know, we were all sort of reading off each other, there wasn't a set play or anything, obviously we practice that play. It looked like we drew it up, but we just know each other, being roommates, we are always out on the ice passing the puck around. It's awesome."
UMD used that power play to open up the scoring on the night at 17:05 of the first period. Aaron Pionk, who has compiled 18 assists so far this season rang up his second goal with a wrister from the point that beat DU goaltender Freddie Halyklow stick side. Pionk's goal was a total Hermantown, Minn. effort – both Zam and Max Plante had the assists in the tally.
Denver equalized at 2:21 of the second period on an odd-man rush to make it a 1-1 game, but the Bulldogs jumped back on top almost 10 minutes later.
On the power play again, M. Plante one-timed a feed from Callum Arnott from slot to retake the 2-1 lead at 13:14. The snipe was Plante's fifth goal of the season, and fifth in six games, while Arnott's assist was his third-straight game with at least a point (1g, 2a over that span).
Not to be left out of the second period scoring, Kyle Betten's quick blast from the point earned him his first goal of the season 4:31 later, and extended UMD's grip on the lead to 3-1 after 40 minutes.
6:39 into the third period, the Bulldogs built on that lead when Anthony Menghini banged in a rebound from Dominic James to stretch UMD's advantage to 4-1.
At 11:07 of the third, the Pioneers cut the deficit to 4-2 on a scrum goal that was challenged by Sandelin but withstood it. DU then pulled within a single goal 1:40 later on a power play goal and delayed penalty call that gave the Pioneers a 6–on-4 skater advantage that allowed Jack Devine to cash in.
But despite over three minutes with an empty Denver net and a Pioneer skater advantage, the Bulldogs, backstopped by rookie Klayton Knapp in net, held their ground. That included a late puck clearance of the goal line by senior blueliner Owen Gallatin, whose heroic swipe salvaged the UMD win.
"They were moving the puck around pretty well with their goalie pulled," said Gallatin about his goal line save. "Knapper got 95% of it, and I turned around and it was kind of like slow motion, the puck's slowly trickling towards the back of the net. So it was just a desperation play late in the game, poked it and it cleared well enough to not create a second scoring chance."
Knapp made a career-high 42 saves for the Bulldogs, who were outshot by the Pioneers 45-30 in the contest. The rookie goaltender improved to 5-3-1 with the triumph, while Denver netminder Halyk had 26 stops for the Pioneers, who fall to 17-6-0 overall and 6-5-0 in NCHC play.
The Bulldogs (10-12-1, 6-7-0) will drop the puck Saturday night in game two against DU. The contest is slated to get underway at 6:07 p.m.
BULLDOG NOTES: UMD's win at AMSOIL was its first against Denver since Nov. 9, 2019 … the win snaps a four-game losing streak the Bulldogs had against the Pioneers heading into Friday night … the Bulldogs' four goals against DU was the most since it recorded in four games … Max Plante has notched a point in his last seven games for the Bulldogs, compiling six goals and five assists for 11 points … Plante has also scored at least a goal in six of his last seven skates and now has four multiple point efforts so far this season in just 10 games … 10 players in all logged points … Aaron Pionk has now tied his first-year effort of 20 points … the sophomore defenseman has two goals and 18 assists (already a collegiate best) in just 23 games … Pionk had 20 points (3g, 17a) over 37 games as a freshman … Klayton Knapp's career-best showing of 42 saves is the second time this season a UMD goaltender has made 42 saves (a season-high) … Adam Gajan made 42 against the University of Minnesota back on Oct. 18.
