Win the period, win the game.

And so top-ranked Denver did, with a three-goal third period powered by a newly formed line of Henrik Borgstrom, Troy Terry and Colin Staub, en route to defeating No. 3 North Dakota, 4-1, at Magness Arena on Saturday night.

The triumph gave the Pioneers (7-3-2, 3-3 NCHC) a split of the series.

One night after the Fighting Hawks scored four goals in a row to take control of an eventual 5-4 victory, the Pioneers returned the favor Saturday.

After Matt Kierstad scored on a 2-on-1 rush with Collin Adams, Borgstrom tied the score at 1 with a power-play goal with 4:15 remaining in the first period on a wrist shot from just inside the right circle.

Staub gave DU the lead for good 1:05 into the third, taking a feed from Terry in the slot and beating Peter Thome (28 saves). A potential tying goal by North Dakota was disallowed about four minutes later.

From there Denver finished things with power-play tallies from Terry, who took a pass from Ian Mitchell in the right circle and snapped it past Thome, and Borgstrom, who took a right-to-left, cross-ice feed from Terry and beat Thome, who was slow to track it.

Borgstrom had two secondary assists, giving him a four-point night, while Terry had three and Mitchell also added a primary assist on Borgstrom’s first goal.

Tanner Jaillet made 24 saves, including 20 in the final two periods for DU.

By the numbers

The Pioneers ended the Fighting Hawks’ dominance on the penalty kill, racking up five man-advantage tallies over the weekend (two on Friday in addition to Saturday’s trio). … DU also bounced back in the circle, winning the face-off battle, 33-23, one night after coming up short there. Tyson McLellan went 13-2 on the dot. … Denver also outshot North Dakota, 32-25

Lineup juggling

Defenseman Adam Plant returned after missing Friday’s game because of an undisclosed injury. He was paired with Michael Davies. … The reconfigured lines also included Dylan Gambrell between Jaako Heikkinen and Ryan Barrow, Tyson McLellan with Jake Durflinger and Logan O’Connor, and Liam Finlay centering Rudy Junda and Jarid Lukosevicius.

Denver’s three stars

1. Henrik Borgstrom. Two goals and assists on the other two goals. It was his fifth multi-goal game of the season. His 13 goals lead Division I.
2. Troy Terry. His three-point night gave him a nation’s best 23 points … in 12 games.
3. Tanner Jaillet. He bounced back from an up-and-down Friday, stopping the final 22 shots he faced.

Up next

The Pioneers are off next weekend. They travel to Minnesota Duluth for a series on Dec. 1-2 against their foe in April’s national championship game.