Men’s D2 sweeps Denver in first home series
The Colorado Buffaloes men’s Division II team continues to look unstoppable.
The Buffs (9-1-0-0, 6-0 BMHC) swept the Denver Pioneers (6-8-1-0, 4-5 BMHC) in a two-game series at home to remain undefeated in conference play. The Pioneers put up a good fight against Colorado, falling 5-2 on Friday and 2-1 on Saturday in the closest games Colorado has played on home ice all season.
Colorado’s offense was held to less than eight goals all weekend, a total that it had hit in all of its home games so far. The seven goals for the Buffs were spread out across six goal scorers, with forward Stephen Schaefer being the only Buff to find the back of the net twice. Forwards Roman Templeton and Anders Morrison scored their first goals of the season, with Morrison scoring the game-winner on Saturday.
After struggling on the power play against the Wyoming Cowboys, CU turned it around against Denver. The Buffs went 3-for-7 on the man advantage, including two back-to-back power play goals in Friday's game.
Friday saw the most penalty minutes of the weekend, with the Buffs and Pios combining for 71. Denver captain Willem Van Aarem picked up a 15-minute game misconduct penalty for fighting with forward Dom Suchkov, who received the same sentence. In the same scuffle, CU forward Ethan McEneany picked up the Buffs’ second game misconduct for a face mask on DU forward Cody Bjorndal.
The Buffs once again rolled out the goalie tandem of Will Baker and Caleb Allen, and both delivered strong performances. Baker stopped 38-of-40 shots he faced on Friday, readjusting after letting in the first shot of the game. Allen kept the Buffs in Saturday’s close game with two shutout periods to start, before allowing his only goal of the game 14 seconds into the third. He finished the day stopping 32-of-33 shots faced.
Game One
The Buffs and Pios traded chances to start the game, but both teams struggled to get shots through traffic. Forward Jacob Colaluca finally got DU’s first clean look, burying it past Baker’s blocker on the Pios first shot on goal.
Playing from behind for the first time on home ice, the Buffs searched for an equalizer.
Colorado found its equalizer with a tip-in by center Marius Krasauskas that snuck past DU goalie Alex Reedy.
Denver flipped momentum in its favor as it began to pepper Baker. Baker stood tall in the net after giving up the first shot, allowing the Buffs to generate chances the other way.
Colorado took its first lead of the night on a rebound goal by forward Elyjah Sue with 10:49 remaining in the first period.
Less than five minutes later, Reedy gave up another rebound on a shot by Schaefer that doubled the Buffs’ lead.
Neither team scored for the rest of the first, and with tempers flaring, the physicality reached its peak. Van Aarem delivered a high hit to McEneany in the final minute of the period that set both sides off. Suchkov came over to defend his teammate and got in a fight with DU’s captain. McEneany picked himself up and jumped into the fight with Bjorndal. All except Bjorndal were kicked out of the game with misconducts.
Entering the second, Colorado led Denver 3-1. Denver fought hard to reduce the deficit as it dictated pace for the majority of the period. Baker held it down in the net, shutting out the Pioneers for most of the second.
DU finally broke Baker with a snipe by defenseman Garret Veyna at the point 17:22 into the second period.
With the game at 3-2, the Buffs had to play smart to hold their lead. In the final minute of the period, CU forward Brick Fisher committed a cross-checking penalty to send DU to the power play with 44 seconds remaining. Colorado held the power play off long enough to finish the period still up by one.
Entering the third period down one on the power play, the Pioneers had a chance to capitalize.
DU failed to convert on its power play, as Baker and the Buffs’ penalty kill snuffed out the Pios offense.
The Pioneers were still in the game, only down by one with the whole period ahead of them. But discipline was Denver’s downfall, as two avoidable penalties gave Colorado a five-on-three.
An offense as strong as the Buffs’ seldom misses on that type of opportunity. Less than 10 seconds in, Schaefer put home another rebound to give the Buffs a 4-2 lead.
Fresh off the power-play goal, Colorado came down and scored again. Captain Kory Diponio fired a shot from the blue line that deflected in past Reedy to make it 5-2.
Giving up two goals on the kill demoralized the Pios as they limped to the end of the game with no real chances.
Game Two
Forced to play without their captain, the Pioneers looked to bounce back in game two.
Denver did not look sharp in the first period as it struggled to get zone time and put pucks on Allen.
Colorado spent much of the period in the offensive zone. Reedy got the start again for the Pioneers. The Buffs’ constant pressure eventually wore him down. A shot from the circles left him spinning in his crease trying to find the rebound, but Templeton beat him to it to give Colorado the lead.
Colorado’s power play got its first chance of the day with less than two minutes to go, but the Buffs could not find the success they had the day before. Colorado settled for a 1-0 lead heading into the second.
The second period felt just as slow as the first, as the high tempers of Friday were not as strong on Saturday.
Colorado got its second look of the day on the power play as forward Alexander Cadil headed to the box for holding. It didn’t take long for the Buffs to convert, with Morrison tipping the puck past Reedy for a two-goal lead.
Allen couldn’t be solved by the Pios, stopping all 21 shots he faced in the first two periods. The shots he faced came from the perimeter, as Colorado sealed off the slot all game.
Colorado defended its two-goal lead for the rest of the period and was 20 minutes away from its first series sweep.
Denver knew it was in trouble and came out faster than the 40 minutes before. Fourteen seconds into the third, Allen lost sight of a rebound and forward Coleston Bazin ruined his shutout bid to make it 2-1.
Allen quickly shook off the goal and returned to form. Even with two power play chances, one with an empty net for six-on-four, the Pioneers could not put the equalizer past him. Allen stopped 11 shots to guide the Buffs to a close 2-1 victory
What’s next
Colorado men’s DII will head up I-25 to face off against the Colorado State Rams (5-4-0-0, 3-2 BMHC) for one game on Friday, Oct. 30 at 8:30 p.m. MT.
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