We know what to expect from DU’s upperclassmen, but the questions of the night Saturday at Magness Arena were how would the freshmen look and what strides did the sophomores make?
Those were answered during a 4-1 exhibition victory over a physical Mount Royal team.
Over the summer Coach Jim Montgomery told me that he expected a handful of sophomores to take significant steps in their games, particularly forwards Troy Terry, Jarid Lukosevicius and Logan O’Connor.
Terry, frequently paired with freshman Liam Finlay (more on him in a bit), looked more assertive and set up Dylan Gambrell for the Pioneers’ first goal with a beautiful pass. O’Connor played with more burst than I remembered seeing at any point last season, and he and senior Evan Janssen got the first call up front on the penalty kill. O’Connor also scored a nice backhand goal off a pass from freshman Tyson McLellan 40 seconds into the third period to make it 3-1.
Lukosevicius frequently played with Terry and Finlay and was around the puck quite a bit.
Meanwhile, all seven freshmen dressed and played. Most were showcased special-teams situations and with different line mates and D partners, as you might expect.
Freshman report card
Each of the newcomers brought something, and while some are assured of playing a lot right off the bat it will be interesting to see where the others slot in.
One DU staffer compared Finlay, who is 5-foot-8 and 150 pounds to Johnny Gaudreau (whom Montgomery coached at Dubuque in the USHL). Once my eyebrows returned to their normal position, I watched Finlay at practice this week. I thought maybe. After Saturday night’s exhibition the head is nodding a little bit. He’s quick, elusive and a wizard with the puck on his stick. He and Terry were a magical combination at times.
Another forward assured of top-six minutes is going to be Henrik Borgstrom, who was a first-round pick by the Florida Panthers in June’s NHL Entry Draft. The 6-3 center displayed tremendous playmaking ability and despite his slender frame (185 pounds) was not knocked off the puck easily by a physical Mount Royal team. He and Gambrell, the Pioneers’ top returning scorer, frequently were together with senior Emil Romig.
The third freshman forward I expect to play regularly is McLellan. If No. 9 looked familiar Saturday night, it should. McLellan’s game is similar to Gabe Levin‘s – smart, responsible and capable of dazzle. McLellan and sophomore Colin Staub were the third PK forward pair, and the freshman frequently took defensive zone draws. Coaches don’t put young players in situations such as that unless they trust them, particularly this coach.
The other two freshmen forwards are a bit of an X-factor. Kevin Conley made a lot happen nearly every shift he played, and at 6-0, 195 he adds a little vinegar to the lineup. Justin Cole at 6-3, 210 adds even more size, and he, too, was notable for his physical presence and nose for the net. It is not hard to imagine either or sometimes both getting some games this season.
On the blue line, Michael Davies demonstrated he can shoot the puck and isn’t intimidated despite going 5-8 and 164. He played the most with captain Will Butcher and saw time on both special teams units. He was physical enough in his own zone and around the puck quite a bit in the O zone. He was paired with his junior teammate Blake Hillman on the second power-play unit.
Erich Fear, like Conley and Cole, adds more size at 6-5, 218. He played with a variety of partners, mainly Tariq Hammond and Adam Plant. At times tentative early, Fear played better and better as the game progressed.
“I was happy with every single one of them,” Montgomery said. “They played on their toes. I thought they played aggressive. And you could see as the game went on they started getting more confidence and making plays.”
Special special teams
The Pioneers’ special teams showed no rust, killing off all six shorthanded situations and scoring on two of their four man advantage chances.
Gambrell struck for the first of his two goals on the power play just 4:49 in after receiving a sweet feed from Terry through the slot. Terry circled at the left dot and found Gambrell alone in between the circles. Gambrell then finished the scoring 5:16 into the third.
Matt Marcinew also scored on the power play, taking a saucer pass from Butcher, again alone in the slot and rifling it home. That was the first of two Butcher assists.
“I thought that was the best exhibition game we’ve played in the four years I’ve been here as far as being so close to playing Denver hockey,” Montgomery said. “Mount Royal is a very well coached team, they played fast and it was a very good prepatory game for us as we get ready for the season.”
O’Connor was paired with Janssen on the first penalty-kill unit. Other PK forward pairs were McLellan and Staub, Marcinew and Matt VanVoorhis and Terry and Gambrell. VanVoorhis typically plays D at even strength.
The Terry-Gambrell pairing generated several shorthanded chances and reminded me of Trevor Moore and Danton Heinen playing together on the PK last season.
The power-play units were Gambrell and Butcher behind Marcinew, Borgstrom and Terry, followed by Finlay, Lukosevicius and Romig with Hillman and Davies, who played together with Gambrell in Dubuque of the USHL.
Notable
Conley seemed to relish his role as an agitator, and Mount Royal took umbrage at the final buzzer, drilling him from behind into the boards. That touched off a skirmish that led Montgomery to wave his team off the ice after the game instead of line up for a handshake. The game started with a vicious hit from behind that nearly knocked Plant’s head off and led to a five-minute major and the first DU goal. …
Junior Tanner Jaillet started in goal and played the first two periods, stopping 12 of 13 shots. He appeared to be beaten short side on the one goal. Senior Evan Cowley stopped all eight shots he faced in the third period, including a flurry of them late in the game. …
After a slow start in the face-off circle, DU improved as the game went along and won 31 of 58 draws (53.4). Marcinew did the heavy lifting, winning 16 of 20 (80 percent).
DU outshot Mount Royal 32-21 and was ahead 27-13 after two periods. …
It’s hard to draw serious conclusions from a single exhibition game, especially one where coach Montgomery was always moving people into different line combinations, as well as playing guys who won’t play much in the regular season.
Vets: We know the sophomores to the seniors pretty well already. Yes, losing Moore and Heinen to the pros is going to hurt, at least for a month or two until they guys get more comfortable with new roles and increased ice time. Dylan Gambrell was the best player on the ice last night, and he showed us that he will be the go-to-guy this year, scoring twice and and assisting on a third goal. I thought Matt Marcinew played with senior level of confidence, and Logan O’Connor surprised me with a quality scoring move I wasn’t expecting. However, guys like Jannsen, Lukosevicius and Romig need to do more than they showed last night if DU is going to be really elite. I really liked the power play for the Pios against Mount Royal- converting at a higher rate this season could really help relieve some of the pressure to score 5 on 5.
Rookies: All eyes were on Henrik Borgstrom last night, and for good reason. He’s big, he has amazing hands, good hockey sense and excellent speed for his size. He looks like the NHL First Round draft pick he is, and he’s going to help DU fill the Moore/Heinen scoring gap. He was very solid last night, but he’s also got some defensive issues, as well as a tendency to float/sporadic work rate, much like Joe Colborne was when he arrived at DU as a freshman. I also liked Conley’s motor and McLellan and Fear’s passing ability both surprised me. Finley can clearly handle the puck, but he’s going to need to be better on his skates at this level, and any comparisons to Johnny Hockey are ridiculous at this point in his career.
Overall, I like DU’s defense most. The offense will become good in time, and the Pios can be really helped by strong special teams play, as they were very strong for an exhibition game on pp/pk.
We’ll know where DU stands after next weekend, when they aren’t playing Ham-and-Eggers from Canadian schools.