What is the ceiling for the Pioneers this season?

Entering the new year, making the NCAA Tournament, and maybe playing host to an NCHC playoff series seemed like worthy goals. Twelve games later and a sweep of No. 2 North Dakota after Saturday night’s 4-1 victory, things have changed for DU.

The Pioneers (15-8-5, 11-5-2 NCHC) continued their 2016 resurrection by handing the Fighting Hawks their first road sweep in more than five years (November 2011 at Minnesota).

Dylan Gambrell scored the first and last goals of the game, both off feeds from line mate Danton Heinen, fellow freshman Jarid Lukosevicius scored the eventual game-winner in the second period and Trevor Moore added his fourth goal in three games – on a third-period breakaway off a terrific stretch pass from defenseman Will Butcher – to lift DU to 8-1-3 in 2016. Both of Gambrell’s goals came after Heinen – he of a five-point night Friday – did the hard work down low to control the puck and center passes to his center in the slot.

Saturday’s performance was far more measured after Friday’s end-to-end, non-stop track meet.

“I really liked way we played,” DU coach Jim Montgomery said on 104.3 FM after the game. “We managed the game better tonight. We didn’t give up odd man rushes, our defensive layers were better.

“Both teams were tired. We knew the team that executed and showed the most desire to win battles was going to win tonight.”

One of the biggest battles the Pioneers faced was killing off three third-period penalties, including one in the final three minutes when NoDak pulled goalie Cam Johnson for an extra attacker. In all, DU killed off all four of its penalties Saturday and seven of eight on the weekend against one of the nation’s top power plays.

“You know they’re going to get power plays,” Montgomery said. “(Before the third period) I talked about what we had to do to win the game.

“I thought the players did a fantastic job. They got shots, but they were from the outside. They got zero second shots.”

Sophomore Tanner Jaillet played well in net for the second consecutive night, making 34 saves one night after stopping 41 shots.

“I thought he saw the puck great,” Montgomery said. “It was like that night in Omaha where he was like a vacuum. He was like Johnny Bench back there, his glove was in the right position all the time.”

The Pioneers, who climbed to eighth in the all-important Pairwise rankings, find themselves just six points behind NoDak and St. Cloud State in the NCHC standings with six games to play but overtaking either won’t be easy, and it’s not DU’s focus anyway, Montgomery said.

“This was weekend was really huge for Pairwise,” he said. “We just want to build momentum. We’re talking about building toward NCAA Tournament and try to get as high a seed as possible.”

Quite a contrast from two months ago when just making the tournament would have been considered a big accomplishment.

Pacific Rim Line: The Pioneers’ top line of Gambrell, Heinen and Moore accounted for three of their four goals, and the trio combined for seven points, giving them 18 on the weekend. Moore’s goal gave him 10 points in the past three games, while Heinen’s two helpers gave him seven in that span. … The trio has 52 points since the  Christmas break.

Balance: Yes, the top line is doing the lion’s share of the scoring in the new year but it might be more of a reflection of how well that trio is playing than an indictment of the rest of the team.

The Gambrell-Heinen-Moore combo has 88 points (27 goals) this season. Lukosevicius’ goal gave the group of him-Grant Arnold–Matt Marcinew 18 and 31 points (sometime member Logan O’Connor‘s inclusion makes it 20 and 35). The Quentin Shore–Troy Terry–Evan Janssen trio has 33 points and 17 goals. And the Gabe Levin–Emil Romig–Colin Staub group has 23 points and nine goals.

It’s also notable that three of the four lines include  players with nine or more goals – Heinen (12) and Gambrell (9), Shore (9) and Marcinew (9).

And every D pair has at least 10 points, with Butcher and Blake Hillman at 24 points, Nolan Zajac and Tariq Hammond at 20, and Adam Plant and Matt VanVoorhis with 10.

Special or not? Over its past six game, DU’s already strong penalty kill has been even better, allowing just three goals in 20 chances (85 percent). However, the power play has ebbed, hitting on just two of 19 chances (11  percent). Imagine what DU’s offense would look like if the man-advantage got on a roll.

@MagnessMayhem