No. 2 Denver had a lot going for it Friday night, but the one thing it didn’t have was enough goals to beat another team that had not won a road game before visiting Magness Arena.

Merrimack College stunned the Pioneers, 3-2, handing DU it’s second loss in a row. Denver has one win in its past five games.

Kohen Olischefski scored his third goal in two games and Ian Mitchell tallied with 1:33 to play on a 6-on-4 advantage, but that was all the Pioneers (10-5-4) got against Warriors goalie Craig Pantano (36 saves).

“I thought we battled hard,” DU coach Jim Montgomery said. “Our execution and our skill with the puck, our passing was not very good but you expect that after a 10-day break.

“We got better throughout the game and we started to play with more pace and determination as the game went on, which is what you like to see.”

Cole McBride gave the Warriors (5-9-4) a lead just 2:38 when he capitalized after a neutral-zone turnover by the Pioneers. Olischefski tied it with less than five minutes to play in the first off a feed from Henrik Borgstrom (two assists).

“You’ve got to give Merrimack credit. They’ve got a pretty good neutral zone forecheck, they’re pretty committed,” Montgomery said. “They have a lot of people coming to the puck so it’s hard to get the puck in their end.

“The first one was just a physical thing and it was one of maybe five physical mistakes that we made that led to a lot of their odd-man rushes.”

That’s how it stood until midway through the third, when Merrimack leading scorer Brett Seney tallied twice in a 44-second span to make it 3-1.

Denver had 29 of its 38 shots in the final two periods. Tanner Jaillet made 23 saves for the Pioneers, who had a strong night in the face-off circle, winning 36 of 60 (60 percent). Freshman Jaakko Heikkinen won 10 of 12 draws.

“Tanner was great and gave us an opportunity to win,” Montgomery said.

Missing pieces

Defenseman Adam Plant missed his seventh game of the season due to an upper body injury. … Center Tyson McLellan (shoulder) is out until mid-February at least. … Defenseman Sean Mostrom also remained out with an undisclosed injury.

Denver’s three stars

1. Ian Mitchell. The freshman defenseman had a goal that pulled DU to one, fired a team-high six shots and was a plus player on a night when most Pioneers weren’t.
2. Kohen Olischefski. Another freshman stepped up with a goal and won 6 of 10 draws.
3. Tanner Jaillet. The senior kept it close, making 23 saves.

Up next

The Pioneers play host to Air Force on Saturday at 7:05 p.m. at Magness Arena. The Falcons defeated to Colorado College, 6-3, on Friday. Merrimack heads south to play CC.