Weekend rewind: Denver at BU, BC

No. 1 Denver took very different routes to accomplish the same objective over the weekend in Boston. On Friday, they went back and forth with a highly skilled Boston University team in a top-10 matchup, ultimately winning it when Troy Terry scored with 16 seconds left. On Saturday, they took control early at Boston College and continued building their lead through dogged pursuit of the puck.

Here is a look back at the games.

Here’s your depth

Some media members (raising my right hand) have been guilty of asking coach Jim Montgomery over the past couple of falls where the scoring balance is going to come from? Of course, we always find out come second semester, when it comes from all over the lineup.

This season, I’m not asking because there already are 12 players with multiple points and a total of 18 with a point. Yes, the ringleaders are Troy Terry and Dylan Gambrell with 10 points apiece, and Henrik Borgstrom has eight (including a team-best five goals), but underclassmen like sophomores Tyson McLellan and Liam Finlay have five points apiece and freshman defenseman Ian Mitchell has four.

Then you have a pair of juniors who’ve largely flown under the radar but are as steady as the day is long – Colin Staub and Blake Hillman. Staub has nine points and is tied with Gambrell with a team-best seven assists. He, Gambrell and Terry have been a formidable combination thus far (29 points). Hillman, meanwhile, took time out from being a defensive disruptor to score two goals Saturday. Offense from the blue line will always be a component of Montgomery’s teams, but with Hillman joining Mitchell, Michael Davies and Adam Plant in the offensive threat category, that gives future foes something to think about.

And a special tap of the stick on the ice for Gambrell, who registered his 100th career point at BC. He has 33 goals and 67 assists in his DU career and now is in the school’s top 100 all-time scorers (currently 92nd).

Good things happen in pairs

For the third time in three weekends, the Pioneers had a two-goal scorer. In fact, this weekend they had three of them, giving them five-two-goal strikes in six games. Borgstrom, who did it in the opener at Notre Dame, was the first to do it a second time when he struck twice on Saturday, when Hillman joined him. Staub got a pair Friday, and Terry had a pair the previous Saturday against Lake Superior State. Only Hillman is the outlier here as the other three had multiple two-goal games last season.

Last season, the Pioneers had a two-goal or three-goal from a player 22 times, but it took them until Jan. 6 to have it happen five times. A total of nine players had multi-goal games, including Jarid Lukosevicius‘ title game impersonation of his coach.

Borgstrom had six two-goal games, Terry had five (including a hat trick) and Staub and Gambrell did it three times. Finlay also had a hat trick.

Road warriors

The Pioneers started the season a week after their first opponent, then No. 4 Notre Dame, and took three of four points. After one home weekend, they went back on the road to Boston (where they lost twice two years ago) and got four points. One has to think that bodes well for the coming weekend, when they open NCHC play at Western Michigan – their third road trip in four weeks to start the season. Winning on the road is essential in the march through a treacherous conference schedule.

Take a look back at this past weekend’s game:

DU edges BU

DU routs BC

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