A season packed with high expectations came to a crashing halt three wins short of the ultimate goal for Denver on Sunday night.

The Pioneers ran into a stout Ohio State defense and lost, 5-1, in the NCAA Midwest Regional final at Allentown, Pa.

There will be no third consecutive trip to the Frozen Four, nor a national championship repeat because the Pioneers could not solve the region’s top-seeded Buckeyes.

“I thought we were ready. I thought our effort was really good,” a solemn coach Jim Montgomery said. “You just have to tip your hats to Ohio State. They were better than us tonight in every facet – face-offs, their rush defense, their rush offense, their penalty kill was really good.

“They deserve to move on. (If) they play like that they’re going to be national champions. We were hard pressed to generate anything offensively.”

Though the Pioneers ended up with a 31-24 shots on goal edge, 17 of those came in the third period, when they were trying to rally from 2-0, then 3-1 deficits. DU nearly doubled OSU in total shots, 60-33, but one difference was the Buckeyes blocked 19 of the tries.

On the occasions they didn’t, redshirt junior goaltender Sean Romeo was in position to make the save. The Buckeyes did a good job clearing pucks out and not allowing Denver’s high-octane offense to get its trademark puck possession game in gear.

“They executed their game plan well. We couldn’t execute what we wanted to do,” DU captain Tariq Hammond said. “They were clogging up the middle. They had three guys back all the time.

“We tried everything in the book to get going and it just wouldn’t work.”

Ohio State (26-9-5) will move on to play Minnesota Duluth in the Frozen Four, while fellow Big Ten members Michigan and Notre Dame will square off in the other semifinal on April 5 in Saint Paul, Minn.

After a more or less even – and scoreless – first period Sunday, the Buckeyes  took control in the second on hard work goals by Dakota Joshua (3:47 in) and Kevin Miller (with 4:29 to go). Both times the goal scorers reached a loose puck first and fired away.

That only reinforced their resolve to keep DU on the outside and battling to gain the offensive zone.

The Buckeyes salted the game away with three goals in a 4:49 span of the third period, and they came from some unlikely sources.

Defenseman Matt Joyeaux scored just his second goal and eighth point of the season when he joined a rush late and beat a Denver defender to a spot to Tanner Jaillet‘s right to tip a pass from Tanner Laczynski in at 9:27.

Denver (23-10-8) re-ignited some hope about 2 minutes later when Tyson McLellan tapped in a nice cross-crease pass from defenseman Ian Mitchell. Mitchell had wheeled from the right point behind the net to Romeo’s right before finding McLellan.

But Ohio State essentially extinguished the comeback 30 seconds later on another drive to the net. After a DU turnover, Miller scored his second goal of the game, and third of the weekend, when he took a feed from Christian Lampasso from below the goal line to beat Jaillet from the slot.

The Pioneers pulled Jaillet with more than 6 minutes remaining but Mason Jobst capped the scoring with an empty-net goal with 5:44 to go.

That put Denver in the rare position of playing out the clock in a meaningful game.

Last call?

The final buzzer also begged the question if this was the final game for the talented trio of Pioneers forwards Henrik Borgström, Dylan Gambrell and Troy Terry. Their returns for this season sparked mile-high expectations of a national championship repeat.

One has to wonder how much the pressure to repeat, amplified by speculation about their futures weighed on the trio. If it did, it rarely showed up in their play.

Borgström, a 2016 first-round pick of the Florida Panthers, finished with team highs of 52 points and 23 goals. He fired a team-high nine shots, seven on goal, on Sunday, but didn’t find as much room as usual to maneuver.

Gambrell, a 2016 second-round pick of the San Jose Sharks, was the last of the three to inform the coaching staff he would return last summer. He had 43 points while playing parts of the season in a shutdown role. If this was his final game for DU, it’s one he’ll want to flush as soon as possible because not only was he minus-3, but he won just 4 of 18 face-offs.

Terry, a 2015 fifth-round pick of the Anaheim Ducks, had the brightest spotlight, coming off 2017 World Junior Championship heroics, then starring for Team USA at the recent Olympic Games. The Highlands Ranch native finished with a career-high 48 points, including a second assist on McLellan’s goal Sunday.

A wild-card to depart is junior defenseman Blake Hillman, a 2016 Chicago Blackhawks sixth-round pick whose play stepped up demonstrably in all three zones this season. He also was minus-3 on Sunday, which came as a surprise given he typically comes to life in the NCAA Tournament and was the regional MVP two seasons ago.

Seniors into the sunset

In addition to Hammond and Jaillet, defenseman Adam Plant and forward Rudy Junda have played their final game for DU.

MORE: Salute to Denver’s 2018 seniors

Hammond and Plant overcame injuries to tighten up the Pioneers’ defense, while Junda scored the first six points of his college career while playing 33 games after playing in 12 combined his first three seasons at DU.

Jaillet ends his time tied for the program’s all-time wins total (82) with AD Ron Grahame and as its all-time leader in games played. He also probably will want to flush Sunday’s game from the memory banks. The four goals he allowed were the most he had surrendered since a Jan. 5 game at Miami. He had allowed two or fewer in 15 of the next 19 starts and arguably played even better than he did last season, when he won the Mike Richter Award as the nation’s top goaltender.

“I want to thank our senior class,” Montgomery said. “These four young men – the growth in them as people, players and leaders, having won 105 games the last four years. I can’t thank them enough for what they’ve done for our program.

“The true sign of character is leaving a place better than when you arrived and that’s what they did for the University of Denver and Denver hockey.”

By the numbers

In addition to Borgström, Terry, Hillman and Junda, four other Pioneers set career highs for points -juniors  Jarid Lukosevicius, Colin Staub, Logan O’Connor and Sean Mostrom. … Lukosevicius cracked the 20-goal barrier for the first time as well, netting 21.

Stay tuned

Jaillet is one of five finalists for this season’s Richter award, and Borgström is in the final 10 for the Hobey Baker Award. I would have to think each could make the final three. I would also expect both to get some All-America consideration. In addition, Mitchell, who finished with 30 points, might be in line for some national freshman recognition as well.

©First Line Editorial 2017-18