Dylan Gambrell and Troy Terry had three points apiece and five Denver teammates added two – including two-goal games from expected and unexpected sources – as the No. 1 Pioneers blew out No. 19 Boston College, 6-1, at Boston on Saturday night.

Henrik Borgstrom had his second two-goal game of the season, giving him a team-high five overall, and defenseman Blake Hillman tied his regular-season career total with two goals. Hillman, who had one goal last season and three as a freshman – when he scored two in the NCAA Tournament – struck on a pair of point shots.

Tanner Jaillet stopped 25 of the 26 shots he saw.

“Looking at our team, that was the best performance of the year especially offensively,” DU coach Jim Montgomery told the school’s official website. “We really showed skill tonight. We made a lot of plays and were really good at managing the puck. I give BC credit in the sense that I know that’s going to be a really good team. That staff is really good and those young players are going to gain conference. … That’s a team that’s going to be reckoned with by the end of the year.”

Denver (4-0-2) again displayed a dominant power play, converting on three of six opportunities.

Gambrell got DU on the board 24 seconds into their first power play, taking a nice backhand pass from Terry as they cruised through the slot.

Borgstrom made it 2-0, when he deflected freshman Ian Mitchell‘s point shot on a second power play, and Hillman drilled a shot past BC’s Joseph Woll after Tyson McLellan won a face-off at the left dot in the BC zone back to the defenseman.

Christopher Brown pulled the Eagles (1-5-1) to 3-1 on a power-play tally of his own 1:45 into the third, but the Pioneers removed any doubt about the outcome with a three-goal burst midway through the third.

“We didn’t think our details and habits were great last night (at Boston University) and we executed great on everything,” Montgomery said. “BC scored a great goal, that’s not our penalty kill. From our goaltender out, our communication was the best I’ve seen it all year as far as talking and puck support.”

Borgstrom made it 4-1 with another power-play goal at 8:09, McLellan buried a nice cross-slot feed from Colin Staub four minutes later, and Hillman made it 6-1 with 5:34 to play. Jarid Lukosevicius retrieved the puck out of the left corner and found Hillman alone at the left point. He wasted no time sending the puck past a screened Woll.

Mitchell, McLellan and Staub also had two points apiece for DU.

Saturday night’s all right

If teams want to beat the Pioneers, they better bring it on Friday. Because so far DU has owned Saturday. The 6-1 victory at BC made DU 3-0 on Saturdays thus far this season, and the Pioneers have outscored foes 15-4 on the sixth day.

Welcome back

Senior forward Rudy Junda got his first game – and start – of the season, playing on a line with freshmen Kohen Olischefski and Jaako Heikkinen. On defense, sophomore Erich Fear returned to the lineup after sitting the past two games. Freshman forward Ryan Barrow and junior defenseman Sean Mostrom sat.

DU’s three stars

1. Blake Hillman. The defenseman doubled his goal total from a season ago with his second- and third-period strikes.
2. Dylan Gambrell. He got the Pioneers on the board and he set up Borgstrom’s back-breaking second power-play goal. He also added a helper on Hillman’s second goal.
3. Henrik Borgstrom. Two more goals – the first was a beautiful tip of Mitchell’s second-period shot that turned out to be the winner.

Up next

The Pioneers hit the road for the third time in four weeks, opening NCHC play at Western Michigan next Friday and Saturday. Both games are scheduled for 5:05 p.m. MT face-offs.