A hockey game broke out in the midst of a special teams practice Saturday night at Magness Arena.

Denver extended its winning streak to six games with a 4-2 victory over a determined and difficult Western Michigan team in a game that included 17 penalties and four power-play goals.

A non-factor through much of the first seven games, the Pioneers’ power play awakened, scoring three times in nine chances after scoring just four times total coming into Saturday.

“It’s the best our power play’s looked all year, and we need it to continue that way if we’re going to be able to continue win games in the NCHC, especially on the road,” DU coach Jim Montgomery said.

Henrik Borgstrom, Jarid Lukosevicius and Dylan Gambrell struck with the man advantage, Will Butcher assisted on all three goals and Borgstrom had helpers on the second two for Denver (6-2, 2-0 NCHC).

“We changed the PP lines a little bit,” Borgstrom said of units’ resurgence. “When you have a shooter like Gams in your power play it’s going to get better.

“We showed tonight we are a team that can play on the power play, too.”

Borgstrom’s goal came from the right circle after Butcher found him with a nice feed through the slot with just 31 seconds to go in the first period and DU on a five-on-three advantage.

Western Michigan (3-2-1, 0-2) wasted little time evening the score as captain Sheldon Dries scored 2:50 into the second when he dove and drove the puck into the DU net. Seven minutes later the Broncos seized their first lead of the series when Matheson Iacopelli beat Tanner Jaillet from the right dot on a power play.

It marked the first time in five games DU had allowed more than a goal.

Lukosevicius knotted the score with just under six minutes to go in the period when he redirected Butcher’s power-play blast from the top of the left circle.

The Pioneers’ top line of Borgstrom, Lukosevicius and Troy Terry drew another WMU penalty early in the third and Gambrell cashed in off a nice pass into the slot from Borgstrom.

“It’s huge (having Gambrell back). We missed him,” Borgstrom said. “He has a great shot, is a great skater and is a great guy around the locker room.”

Gambrell fed Matt Marcinew a beautiful pass as the senior flew through the slot, and Marcinew beat WMU goalie Trevor Gorsuch to make it 4-2 with 4:55 to go, the Pioneers’ lone even-strength strike.

DU’s work wasn’t done, however, as it had to kill a 6-on-4 disadvantage in the closing minutes.

Defense doesn’t rest

The Pioneers and Jaillet (23 saves) allowed more than one goal for the first time in five games, yet they continue to limit opponents opportunities.  DU allowed 25 shots on goal one night after giving up 26 to a team that was scoring five goals a game entering the weekend.

“Our commitment by our forwards to backchecking has been really good,” Montgomery said. “Our defensemen’s gaps, we’re shutting people down, we’re not giving up our blue line hardly at all. It’s hard to possess pucks if you don’t give up the blue line.

“We all said the strength of our team is our D core, and for the first month of the season I thought they needed to be our best players and be great and we needed to win 2-1, 3-2 games and that’s what we’ve done. Now hopefully we’re going to continue to grow offensively and become a more dynamic team.”

Notes

Saturday’s game marked the seventh time in eight outings the Pioneers outshot their opponent. The lone exception was a 3-1 victory over then No. 2 Boston University on Oct. 15. The Terriers held a 25-23 edge that night. … It also marked the sixth game in a row DU has scored first, all of them victories.

The final word

Despite the aggregate score of 7-3 it was anything but an easy weekend.

“Awesome sweep. I don’t know how many teams are going to sweep Western this year,” Montgomery said. “That’s a really good hockey team. I was really worried about this game. The mental toughness and how hard we played was really impressive because with a week off you worry about players not being ready and focused, and I thought that was our best 60-minute game.”