While Denver fans might not be thrilled with the outcomes vs. Colorado College this past weekend, it can only help the rivalry to have both teams competitive at the same time. In fact, given CC’s ties vs. DU and its earlier win against North Dakota, it will be interesting to see how the Tigers fare the rest of the way.

As for the Pioneers, who sit at No. 2 in the new polls out Monday, there were a number of things I came away impressed with on Saturday and some other things I noted they’re consistently doing well.

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y Night!

DU continues to make adjustments and seems to play better hockey on Saturdays than Fridays. I’m not sure why that is, but my guess – and this was reinforced during two recent  conversations I’ve had with a junior coach and a pro scout – is the Pioneers’ coaching staff is masterful at emphasizing what needs to be fixed in a way that makes it possible to fix it (or at least improve it) on the fly.

Consider this: DU is 3-2-3 on Fridays, but 6-1-1 on Saturdays. Goals allowed – 25 on Friday and 15 on Saturday. Take away Western Michigan’s  seven-goal onslaught on Nov. 4, and DU has allowed just eight goals in its other seven Saturday games.

Keep it clean

Something else the Pioneers are doing very well, and have consistently done well all season is stay out of the penalty box. They took just six penalties all weekend, only two on Saturday. They did not allow a power-play goal for the second weekend in a row. Their PK has climbed to 23rd (82.7 percent) and they are tied with Bemidji State for the last penalized team in Division I (8:06 minutes per game).

Faceoffs

One of the biggest concerns with losing sophomore center Tyson McLellan for an extended period because of a shoulder injury is what he brought to the Pioneers in the circle. McLellan had wasted no time establishing himself as the team’s top face-off man. This past weekend, the Pioneers’ top four face-off men (as measured by number of draws taken) all were over .500 on both nights, with Dylan Gambrell leading the way. On Friday, DU won 54 percent (33 of 61) and that rose to 58 percent (33 of 57) on Saturday. Gambrell won 10 of 18 on Friday (55.5 percent) and 13 of 18 (72 percent) on Saturday. According to my unofficial stats, 13 of those draws were in the defensive zone. Only freshman Jaako Heikkinen with six of his 16 draws taking place in the D zone came close.

PP struggling

You have to go back to Nov. 18 to find a game in which the Pioneers scored a power-play goal, and they had three that night against what was a very good North Dakota PK. Since? they’re 0-for-12. DU probably isn’t going to hit on more than 30 percent of its power-play chances, which is the rate they were going at, but expect it to be much, much closer to that number than what we’ve observed over the past couple weeks.

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