It’s one thing to blow a three-goal lead at home to a highly ranked opponent like North Dakota, which Denver did on Nov. 17 in a 5-4 loss.

It’s quite another to blow a three-goal lead at home to two-win Dartmouth, as the No. 2 Pioneers did Saturday night, again falling 5-4, and heading into Christmas break with the feeling that someone peed in their punch bowl.

“We just went back to our old habits, like we have the first half of the year,” junior defenseman Blake Hillman said. “We started playing soft hockey where we weren’t making hard plays. It’s happened multiple times this year and we haven’t learned from it, and it’s something over this break we’re going to have to really think about in order to be successful in the second half of the season.”

Up 3-0 after a dominant first period, The Pioneers (10-4-4) gave up the next five goals before getting a tally from freshman Jack Doremus with 26 seconds left. The goal was the first of his NCAA career.

In a game with some bizarre goals, it turned out the game winner was an empty-netter on a clear by Big Green forward Shane Sellar with 57 seconds left. That came 40 seconds after Collin Rutherford scored his first goal of the season after getting two chances within seconds of each other.

The freshman fired a shot from inside the right circle off Tanner Jaillet‘s glove. The puck when behind the net, where Kevin Neiley (three assists) recovered it, turned and passed it through the heart of the DU defense back to the waiting, uncovered Rutherford, who roofed this one for a 4-3 lead.

Sellar had scored a pivotal goal in the second period, tying the score at 3 with 3:43 to play. In keeping with the strange goal theme, he walked into the left corner with the puck, turned and fired it toward Jaillet. The puck hit the DU goaltender’s stick and caromed into the net.

Denver rode a suddenly resurgent power play to a 3-0 lead in the first period. Largely on the strength of three man advantages in the final 11 minutes of the first period, the Pioneers went from one shot on goal to 15 and from no goals to three.

Freshman Kohen Olischefski got things rolling 28 seconds into the first power play when he rifled Hillman’s point-to-point pass by Big Green goalie Devin Buffalo at 9:29 to make it 1-0 and notch his first college goal. It was the second power play unit’s second goal in two nights and gave the freshman points in consecutive games for the first time in his NCAA career.

A minute and change later, Dartmouth took an offensive zone penalty that it ended up killing off, but it wasn’t so lucky on the third penalty in a row it took, roughly three minutes later.

DU’s top PP unit rekindled some of its offensive zone magic, with Troy Terry finishing a nice cross-slot pass from Henrik Borgstrom. Ian Mitchell initiated the play from the high slot with a pass to Borgstrom, who placed one right in Terry’s wheelhouse.

Olischefski’s second goal came after a nice seam pass from fellow freshman Jaako Heikkinen at the Dartmouth line. Olischefski raced down the right wing with the puck and put it over Buffalo’s right shoulder.

“He’s had two really good weekends in a row, and it’s good to have other players feeling confidence so they can take ice time so it’s spread out more evenly,” DU coach Jim Montgomery said. “I thought he was definitely our most dangerous forward tonight.”

Hillman started the play by finding Heikkinen, who like Olischefski had a three-point weekend, in the neutral zone.

It seemed like it was all systems go for one of the nation’s highest-scoring teams vs. the lowest scoring one, but the Big Green had other plans.

Dartmouth climbed back into the game in the first 4:14 of the second period on a redirection goal on Jaillet’s goalmouth by Cam Strong 3:06 into the period and a blind backhander by Will Graber that hit DU defenseman Tariq Hammond‘s stick and rolled past the goaltender. Just like that it was 3-2 and the Big Green had some wind at its back.

“That second goal was the one I have hard time with,” Montgomery said. “I put out a veteran line and we told them we needed to change momentum. They just didn’t play well. They were on the wrong side of pucks, they were reaching for pucks, there was no physicality. We need leadership from veteran lines up front.

“I would say (it’s complacency) if it’s a one-time thing, but it’s a five-time thing. There’s something inherently wrong within our group. We were able to regroup two years ago, and we’re going to have to or it’s going to be a real frustrating year.

“I don’t have the same feeling as the last two years because I question the character in our dressing room.”

So where does this leave the Pioneers after the closing series of the first half? Friday, they played a poor first period then were excellent the final two in a 1-0 victory that could have been by a wider margin.

Saturday, they met the objective of a strong start, only to watch what appeared to be a winnable game take flight back to the East Coast.

“We should have taken care of business, we let two points slip away from us, and it’s disappointing because we know we’re a good team,” Hillman said. “It’s just been a really tough first half for us. We just have to start practicing better, doing the details better. It’s going to catch up to us if we keep doing it like we did tonight.

“We need to learn how to close out games because we’re not doing it right now and it’s really hurting us.”

Notable

Face-offs continue to be a problem for the Pioneers. One night after winning half of 52 draws, the Pioneers won just 28 of 62 (45 percent). That is lethal for a puck-possession team. … Doremus entered the lineup in place of fellow freshman Jake Durflinger and centered the fourth line between Ryan Barrow and Rudy Junda. … Strong is a former youth hockey player for the Colorado Rampage.

Denver’s three stars

1. Kohen Olischefski. The freshman scored two first-period goals – the first two of his NCAA career – to help stake DU to its short-lived 3-0 lead.
2. Jaakko Heikkinen. He had assists on both Olischefski goals and was the only Pioneer on the plus side of the face-off ledger, winning 5 of 7.
3. Jack Doremus. The freshman’s first college goal gave DU a flicker of hope late in the third period. He and linemates Ryan Barrow and Rudy Junda showed plenty of jump.

Up next

The Pioneers play host to Merrimack College of Hockey East on Friday, Dec. 29, and Air Force the next night. Both face-offs are 7:05 p.m.