It was an early season game that had a late-season feel, and in the end top-ranked Denver found a way to knock off another top-10 team on the road Friday night at Boston.

Troy Terry scored the decisive goal with 16 seconds left in the third period to lift the Pioneers to a 4-3 victory over No. 6 Boston University in a game that was every bit what you’d expect from a matchup of two highly ranked teams.

The victory gives DU five out of a possible six points on the road thus far, with three of four at then No. 4 Notre Dame in the Pioneers’ opening series.

Terry collected the puck at the goal line to the right of Terriers goalie Jake Oettinger, looped to the near-side dot and snapped a shot high glove side.

The Terriers (3-3-1) had the Pioneers on their heels for much of the third period, when they had a 12-6 shots edge. Defenseman Dante Fabbro tied it with 6:39 to go after Ryan Cloonan retrieved a rebound in the right corner and got the puck up to Fabbro at the point. His blast through traffic eluded Tanner Jaillet (26 saves).

That was the only blemish against Jaillet in a stretch of more than 40 minutes.

Colin Staub scored twice in the first period for the Pioneers, and freshman Jake Durflinger got DU (3-0-2) on the board 2:51 into the game. Terry worked the puck low on the right side to Dylan Gambrell in the slot. Oettinger made the first save, but Durflinger pounced on the rebound at the left doorstep.

Cloonan took a hooking penalty on the play, so DU went directly to the power play. Staub got the first of his goals off a pass from Liam Finlay to make it 2-0 just 1:03 later.

The Terriers broke through midway through the first by sustaining a lot of pressure in the DU zone, something that caused problems for the Pioneers for stretches all game. Ty Amonte beat Jaillet from the lower right circle with 9:10 to go in the period, and Bobo Carpenter buried a no-look pass from Jordan Greenway less than 2 minutes later to even it up.

Staub, however, was at it again on a power play in the final two minutes, banging home a rebound of a Henrik Borgstrom shot from in close to make it 3-2.

The teams traded some chances in the second before BU put the pedal to the metal in the third. Fortunately for the Pioneers, Jaillet and Terry stood tallest when it counted most.

Notable

Denver’s power play continued to look, well, powerful, converting two of four chances. The Pioneers also stopped four of five BU power plays (Carpenter’s goal being the exception). … DU held at 20-17 shots edge after two periods but ended up with a 29-26 disadvantage. … Gambrell had the primary assist on Staub’s first goal and the secondary one on his linemate’s second tally.

DU’s three stars

1. Colin Staub. The junior scored his first two goals of the season on first-period power plays and constantly retrieved the puck for Terry and Gambrell by winning board battle after board battle. He got the lone assist on Terry’s winner.
2. Troy Terry. In addition to scoring the winner, he initiated the play that Durflinger scored on to stake DU to the all-important early road lead.
3. Tanner Jaillet. When it counted the most, the senior was at his best, making 11 of his 26 saves in the third period.

Next up

The Pioneers on Saturday will visit No. 19 Boston College, which lost to Providence, 2-1, on Friday to fall to 1-4-1. Opening face-off is 5:05 MDT. The game can be seen on ESPN3 and heard on AM 1600.