Troy Terry got the party started and the defense took over from there Saturday night.

The junior center scored goals late in the first and second periods, and defensemen Michael Davies and Griffin Mendel added third-period strikes in a 5-1 nonconference victory over Lake Superior State. Freshman forward Jaako Heikkinen finished the scoring and joined Mendel in collecting a first NCAA goal.

Perhaps the most important first for the top-ranked Pioneers (2-0-2) was the performance of freshman goaltender Dayton Rasmussen in his first collegiate start. He stopped 15 of the 16 shots on goal he saw and tracked the puck well all game.

“I thought he played great. You couldn’t ask anything more from a first start from a freshman goalie,” DU coach Jim Montgomery said. “He was on top of his blue paint, finding pucks in traffic, deflecting pucks from bad angles into the stands or into a corner to break out or take faceoffs. His game management and everything about it was great.”

Rasmussen faced the same challenge Tanner Jaillet had the night before, long stretches of inactivity. The same could not be said for Lakers netminder Mareks Mitens, who faced 54 shots, stopping 49, one night after Nick Kossoff was bombarded with 66 shots. For the weekend, DU had a 120-33 shots on goal advantage.

However, there was a point in the first period when a feeling of “here we go again” could have invaded the DU bench, but that was not the case said junior Colin Staub, who had two more assists and now leads the Pioneers with four.

“At that point we had been rolling, and sure they got a pretty nice deflection, but on our bench we were confident we were going to get it right back and we weren’t going to go down in a hole like last night,” he said.

Terry tied it at 1-1 on DU’s 16th shot. After Staub and Dylan Gambrell worked to keep possession in the Lakers zone, the Pioneers center circled the entire offensive zone with the puck and went around halfway again before picking a top corner past Mitens.

That newly formed line had six points and was effective in every facet.

“I though that line was great all night,” Montgomery said. “Colin Staub has been great all year. He leads our team in assists; never would have predicted that after four games. He’s just such a well-rounded player and he does the right things.

“He made it easy for Gambrell and Terry to read off him. He was parking his rear end in front of the net and letting them do their magic on the outside.”

Gambrell started the play that led to the go ahead goal on a 5-on-3 power play late in the second period. Terry then got the puck to freshman Ian Mitchell at the left point. Mitchell launched a shot to the left side of the net, and Terry got a piece of it to give the Pioneers their first lead of the weekend, 2-1.

“We were kind of going through the same kind of thing until the second period when we were able to get another one,” Terry said. “I think once we got a lead it kind of opened things up for us. They couldn’t sit back and play the same way they did the night before. They had to try and push the pace and that’s what we do best.

“It played in our favor and I think you saw that in the third period.”

Indeed. Davies started the goal avalanche just 47 seconds in when he received a nice cross-ice pass from Staub just inside the top of the right circle. Mitens had no chance on Davies’ blast – his first goal of the season.

Mendel got on the scoresheet when he rifled a nice cross-slot pass from Henrik Borgstrom into the net 8 minutes later. Heikkinen capped the night with a shot from near the right dot that also featured the first point of junior defenseman Sean Mostrom‘s career.

Mostrom gathered the puck in the Denver zone and got it to Liam Finlay, who sped through the neutral zone, attracted plenty of Lakers attention and found Heikkinen alone in the circle.

“For Mendel to shoot that puck, we might have found a kid with a one-timer,” Montgomery said. “We’ve been looking for that. That was a great release on a great play by the whole line, by Borgstrom and (Adam) Plant.

“The play by Jaako. I thought Jaako was playing great and we thought, ‘We’d like to get him one so his confidence can grow.’ You could tell by the big smile on his face.”

One bright spot for the Lakers came on their goal. Their effectiveness at creating traffic led to goals both nights. On Saturday’s first goal, J.T. Henke retrieved the puck below the goal line, fed William Riedell at the left point and the defenseman fired away immediately. Josh Nenadal was stationed in front to redirect it past Rasmussen.

Unlike Friday, that’s as far as it went. The Pioneers’ top line and group of freshmen ensured that.

What power play?

With 8:14 to play in the game, Pioneers defenseman Blake Hillman was given a five-minute major and a game misconduct for contact to the head. The call seemed dubious and if it wasn’t, Hillman is nowhere near that type of player. In fact, he’d played well in all three zones and had a few near misses of his own for goals.

To say the ensuing power play was a disaster for the Lakers would be an understatement. First, Logan O’Connor drew a penalty shot, which Mitens stopped. Then the Lakers iced the puck, which DU largely controlled during the kill. When it was done (after four minutes because of a Lake State minor penalty), DU’s penalty killers had a 3-1 shots edge.

Lineup changes

In addition to Rasmussen, junior defenseman Sean Mostrom made his season debut and freshman center Jack Doremus played his second game. Sophomore defenseman Erich Fear and freshman center Kohen Olischefski sat.

DU’s three stars

1. Troy Terry. His goals gave DU its first lead of the weekend and sparked a good-natured interview afterward (see below).
2. Colin Staub. Excellent in both games, he assisted on Terry’s first goal and fed Michael Davies for the third.
3. Dayton Rasmussen / Griffin Mendel / Jaako Heikkinen. OK, this is five stars – one for each goal, but all three freshmen played well. Rasmussen got his first NCAA win, while Mendel and Heikkinen dented the scoresheet for the first time.

Next up

The Pioneers hit the road the next two weekends. First up is a trip to Boston to play No. 7 Boston University on Friday and No. 13 Boston College on Saturday. BU tied Connecticut on Friday and routed the Huskies on Saturday. BC was swept at St. Cloud State. After that, DU will open NCHC play with a series at Western Michigan.

Listen in

Postgame interviews with Troy Terry, Colin Staub and Jim Montgomery. Terry displays a quick wit in answering Mayhem’s lead-off question.