How far has DU come since December? Consider this: in early December the Pioneers went to Grand Forks and were thumped in back-to-back games by No. 2 North Dakota by a cumulative score of 9-1.

Friday night, in a game that confirmed the Pioneers’ 6-1-3 start to 2016 was no fluke, No. 13 DU knocked off NoDak, 6-4, in a highly entertaining game at a packed Magness Arena.

The newly dubbed Pacific Rim Line of junior Trevor Moore, sophomore Danton Heinen and Dylan Gambrell combined for 11 points, including three goals, and generally upstaged UND’s vaunted (and justifiably so) CBS Line, which had six points and two goals.

Heinen had five points, including a pair of goals, and Moore added four points. Tanner Jaillet made 41 saves, several of the spectacular variety.

North Dakota scored 5:39 into the game when Christian Wolanin collected a loose puck near the DU blue line and fired it past Jaillet. That seemed to light a fire under the Pioneers, who knotted it up seven minutes later on captain Grant Arnold‘s deflection of a Nolan Zajac blast and never trailed again.

“I thought it started after they scored,” DU coach Jim Montgomery said. “Again it’s our leadership group – Quentin Shore, Grant Arnold, Gabe Levin, Nolan Zajac, Will Butcher and Trevor Moore. They’re leading the charge vocally on the bench. ND played really well, and I think our players matched us.

“It was just great college hockey … the best game I’ve been a part of, not just because we won, but because of the atmosphere and the level of play by both teams.”

One of the keys for the Pioneers (14-8-5, 10-5-2 NCHC), who were outshot 45-31, was their ability to respond to North Dakota’s charges.

Moore gave DU a 2-1 lead six minutes into the second. After UND tied it roughly 12 minutes in, Heinen and Moore responded by controlling the puck in the offensive zone until defenseman Adam Plant found space to unload a shot that made it 3-2.

When North Dakota freshman Brock Boesser tied it at 3 just 1:36 into the third, taking a backdoor feed from defenseman Troy Stecher, who was all over the ice all game, the Pioneers again responded six minutes later with Heinen’s first goal. Shore gave the Pioneers a short-lived two-goal edge with a bar-down shot between the circles on the penalty kill. It was his third goal in two games.

But UND came right back with goalie Cam Johnson pulled for a 6-on-4 power play, with Nick Schmaltz tallying 30 seconds later. Heinen’s empty netter after Moore worked the puck into the UND zone sealed it in the closing seconds.

“(Moore and Heinen have) a guy that knows how to play with them,” Montgomery said of Gambrell. “We got them out there after a couple of icings. That third goal when Plant scored, that was great puck protection against a tired team and they found an open guy.”

 

As they demonstrated 13 days ago at Miami, the Pioneers are more than capable of playing a physically taxing style, one comprised of checking AND skating. It provides them a more pronounced advantage in Mile High altitude. The Pioneers also generated a huge advantage in blocked shots, and at no time was that more evident than the game’s closing 90 seconds, when Arnold in particular – though not exclusively – took a couple for the team.

“I thought everyone stepped up,” Montgomery said. “Those first four to seven minutes, after that we played like we did like we did at Miami. All of a sudden we got physical, we got to their net front.

“We did a much better job taking away time and space from them (than in the series at North Dakota).”

Net loss: This was only the second game this season in which North Dakota allowed as many as six goals, and it was by far Johnson’s worst outing of the season. He came on in relief during a 6-1 loss to St. Cloud State, and he split time in a 5-5 tie with Colorado College last month. He had been so good this season that he entered the game first in the nation in goals-against average and save percentage. Even with allowing five goals he only fell to second in both categories (1.52, .940).

Point parade: Eight players registered points for DU, but the outbursts by Heinen and Moore were exclamation points on the top line’s torrid play in 2016. Heinen now has 25 points, 13 of which have come in the past eight games. Moore and Gambrell are tied atop the DU scoring list with 28 points, with Moore having a team-best 23 assists – a number that has pushed him into the top-10 nationally. Gambrell has 16 points in the first 11 games of this calendar year, while Moore – who looked faster and more confident than he has all season – has 15 in that span.

@MagnessMayhem