On a Friday night when offense was at a premium, second-ranked Denver locked down on defense to emerge with a 1-0 victory over a determined Dartmouth team.

Tanner Jaillet made 23 saves for his second shutout of the season, and freshman Jaakko Heikkinen scored the lone goal late in the second period.

The victory came after the Pioneers (10-3-4) had tied their previous two games and fallen from the No. 1 spot in the rankings.

Jaillet was quick to credit the team’s defensive effort for the shutout.

“The second and third period were awesome. We were committed and bought into what the coaches had laid out for us,” Jaillet said. “To sum it all up, in the last 15 seconds they shoot it across to the weakside D and Colin Staub blocks it. Things like that. Our D men were breaking pucks out really well.

“That was definitely a team shutout for sure.”

After a lackluster first period, the Pioneers came to life in the next two, especially defensively.

“It was just moving pucks quicker and playing harder hockey,” Denver coach Jim Montgomery said. “I thought we got to pucks better and I thought our defensemen moved their feet better on breakouts.”

Heikkinen gave the Pioneers the lead with 4 minutes to play in the second period with a finish of a beautiful tic-tac-toe play with Kohen Olischefski and Staub on DU’s fourth power play.

The freshman found some real estate in the slot to take a feed from Staub, who was stationed below the goal line and to the left of Big Green goaltender Devin Buffalo. Olischefski worked the puck along the outside of the left circle before finding Staub.

“We got in the zone well, so we didn’t waste time,” Heikkinen said. “We just moved the puck fast and tried to generate a lot of shots. We made a couple of good chances and luckily we buried one.”

Olischefski very nearly made 2-0 with 9:28 left in the game, but Buffalo (31 saves) was there. The senior also caught enough of an Ian Mitchell blast to with 5:40 left to keep the margin close.

Special teams difference

The Pioneers’ power play got going, ending its four-game drought, and the penalty kill stopped all three Big Green chances cold.

“Both goalies were terrific tonight. Both had to make at least 10 really good saves,”  Montgomery said. “That’s why it was a tight 1-0 game, both penalty kills were pretty good and both power plays generated chances but not enough.”

The blueprint

Jaillet said the Pioneers are seeing a familiar pattern from foes, Dartmouth included, in how they attack.

“It was sort of what we thought we’d get,” the senior said. “The last couple weekends we’ve noticed teams are just chipping pucks up and flying their forwards (into the zone) trying to catch us off guard. I thought we handled it pretty well.

“We were ready for what they had.”

Notable

Defenseman Adam Plant said before the game his recovery from an upper-body injury is going well, and he is hopeful of returning to the lineup in two weeks, when DU returns from Christmas break. The senior missed his fifth game of the season Friday.

… Michael Davies returned to the lineup and at times was paired with his usual partner from a season ago, captain Tariq Hammond. At other times, he played with Mitchell or freshman Griffin Mendel.

Denver’s three stars

1. Tanner Jaillet. The senior stopped all 23 shots, and made a couple clutch saves each period.
2. Jaakko Heikkinen. The freshman finished a nice tic-tac-toe passing play for the game’s only goal.
3. Colin Staub. A primary assist and a couple of big shot blocks late for the junior.

Up next

The teams play again Saturday at 7:05 p.m. at Magness Arena.