Offense wasn’t the problem for No. 5 Denver on Friday night at St. Cloud State. Stopping the high-powered No. 2 Huskies was.

St. Cloud scored the final three goals of the second period – and the game – to overcome a 3-1 deficit and beat the Pioneers, 4-3, in the first game of an NCHC series.

“In the second period we gave up too much free offense and you can’t do that against a team like St. Cloud State,” DU coach David Carle said. “Ultimately, the better team won tonight.”

Huskies defenseman Jimmy Schuldt snapped the winner short side and upstairs on Devin Cooley with 2:10 to play in the second period. It was the only blemish on DU’s penalty killers in five chances.

Fast start

Denver built leads of 1-0, 2-1 and 3-1 by using its speed to force the Huskies’ defense into repeated turnovers.

Freshman Cole Guttman gave DU its first lead 9:21 into the game off a feed from Jarid Lukosevicius, but Nolan Walker answered just 1:13 later with the first of his two goals (and three points).

Brett Stapley intercepted the puck near the St. Cloud blue line and beat David Hrenak (21 saves) to stake the Pioneers (5-1-1, 2-1 NCHC) to a 2-1 lead.

Stapley then set up Emilio Pettersen’s power-play goal 1:35 into the second. DU went 1 for 3 on the man advantage.

Going in reverse

Just as he had in the first period, Walker struck just 39 seconds later, again off an assist from Ryan Poehling. Seven minutes later, the Huskies (8-1, 3-0 NCHC) tied it on senior Patrick Newell‘s career-high seventh goal, which Walker set up. Schuldt finished the scoring a little over 10 minutes later.

Cooley, who made 35 saves, had to make nine in the third period, but DU could not dent Hrenak, who improved to 6-0 in the final frame.

Denver’s three stars

1. Brett Stapley. The freshman had a goal and an assist.
2. Devin Cooley. He made 35 saves and was under seige at times.
3. Cole Guttman. The freshman gave the Pioneers their first lead.

Up next

The teams complete their series Saturday at 5:07 p.m. at St. Cloud. AM 1600 will carry the broadcast, and NCHC.tv has the webcast.

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