It was fitting that on the night DU honored its four seniors, the quartet was on the ice together to close out a hard-fought, 2-1 NCHC victory over Nebraska-Omaha on Saturday night at Magness Arena.

It was also fitting that one of the four, center Quentin Shore scored a momentum-swinging goal just as a Pioneer penalty expired in the second period.

And, of course, the Pacific Rim Line left the final impression on the Pioneers’ regular-season finale, with freshman Dylan Gambrell scoring the winner with 1:34 left after linemates Danton Heinen and Trevor Moore collaborated on a pinpoint passing play that resulted in Gambrell’s 15th goal, tying him with Heinen for the team lead.

“You need big-time players on your team to win championships, and they need to make big-time plays at big-time moments, and that was a big-time play by all three,” DU coach Jim Montgomery said.

In between, junior goaltender Evan Cowley stopped 26 of the 27 UNO shots on goal, including several through traffic and at point-blank range.

“He was fantastic, especially when it went 1-0. That penalty kill, he made three big-time saves,” Montgomery said. “He was spectacular all night.”

Add it up and the Pioneers (21-8-5, 17-5-2 NCHC) have their ninth consecutive win, part of their 14-1-3 run since the calendar flipped to 2016.

Their reward in next weekend’s first round of the NCHC playoffs? A rematch with this same Mavericks team, which demonstrated it has the skill, toughness and goaltending to stay with the Pioneers. Backup netminder Kirk Thompson made 44 saves, several of the spectacular variety for UNO (18-15-1, 8-15-1 NCHC), who lost their sixth in a row and fell to 4-12 in their past 16 games.

The game had a playoff-like intensity from the beginning and no shortage of chippiness from both sides, no doubt eager to begin sending messages for the playoffs.

Omaha took its first lead in the four games the teams have played this season (DU held three-goal leads in the first three meetings) at 11:53 of the second, when freshman Fredrik Olofsson (Broomfield, Colorado Thunderbirds) scored on one of the few rebounds Cowley gave up in front of the net.

Shortly thereafter, the Mavericks when on a power play, and Cowley kept DU in the game.

Shore got the equalizer just after the penalty expired with just under six minutes to go in the period. Shore collected a puck near the red line and drove to the net, going forehand-backhand on Thompson to get the goalie out of position before depositing the puck inside the right post.

“I thought Quentin Shore and Evan Cowley gave us the emotion. We were lacking emotion,” Montgomery said. “The great saves that Evan Cowley made on the penalty kill and right at the end the great move by Quentin Shore really motivated our bench.”

That’s how it stayed until the final two minutes, when Heinen gathered a puck below the UNO goal line, somehow found Moore in the right circle. Moore then fired a pass through the slot to Gambrell on the left doorstep, and the Pioneers’ leading scorer (42 points) left no doubt.

The play extended points streaks for all three members of the PRL – Gambrell’s hit 13 games (23 points), Heinen’s reached 12 games (23 points) and Moore’s helper gave him points in nine of 10 games (18 in that span and 39 overall). Shore’s marker gave him nine points in nine games and 11 goals and 20 points overall.

“It’s what we needed,” Montgomery said. “The whole streak has been by three goals. So we needed a gut check where we had to rally and we had to out will a team and come through with our brains and our execution.”

Brick walls: Cowley, who twice relieved Tanner Jaillet in the series against Colorado College two weeks ago, picked right up where he left off. And in the process kept an impressive streak alive for DU.

The Pioneers have not allowed more than one goal since their 6-4 victory over North Dakota on Feb. 12. And Cowley has been exceptional in the second half. After relieving Jaillet early in the first game against Minnesota-Duluth on Jan. 22, he allowed just one goal in more than five and half periods that weekend. After giving up three in the Pioneers’ only loss of the second half, at Miami on Jan. 29, he did not allow any in two trips out of the bullpen vs. CC. Then there was Saturday’s gem.

On the season, he is now 8-5 with a 2.17 goals-against average and a .926 save percentage.

Jaillet is 13-3-5 with a 2.21 and .926. He has been dazzling in his past six starts, with a 0.95 gas and a .964 save percentage in that stretch.