No. 7 Denver (5-2-1, 2-2 NCHC) vs. No. 1 Minnesota Duluth (8-1-1, 2-0 NCHC)

7:07 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Magness Arena

TV/radio: Altitude2/104.3 FM (both nights)

Series: 124-77-12

Last season: The Pioneers went 5-0 vs. the Bulldogs, including a semifinal win at the NCHC’s Frozen Face-off

Overview

Denver’s early season gauntlet continues with a visit from the hottest team in Division I hockey. UMD’s eight victories in a row are the longest active streak in D-I, and how they’re doing it has been impressive, outscoring foes by a 3:1 ratio and fielding special teams that both are in the top 10 percent of all D-I programs this season. … Do-it-all defenseman Scott Perunovich leads UMD with 14 points, while captain Parker Mackay has six goals. Junior goaltender Hunter Shepard has a 1.84 GAA to go with a .916 save percentage while starting every game. … Denver played No. 2 St. Cloud State tough last weekend, falling 4-3 on back-to-back nights. The continuing theme of DU’s offense is the top six is doing nearly all of the goal scoring – particularly the first line of Jarid Lukosevicius (12 points), Emlio Pettersen (12) and Cole Guttman (9). Guttman had three goals last weekend, and second-line center Brett Stapley, the NCHC’s rookie of the week, also had three points. Pettersen, Guttman and Stapley all are freshmen. … Lukosevicius will look to continue his Cy Young-like success against the Bulldogs. He’s 8-0 (as in 8 goals, 0 assists) vs. the Bulldogs and also has scored in all eight DU games this season.

Three keys for Denver

Get – and hold – the lead – Taking early leads has been no problem for Denver. The Pioneers have scored first in six of their first eight games (the pair vs. Alaska were the exception). Keeping the lead has been more of a problem. In each of their past three games they’ve surrendered leads. When Duluth gets the lead, it doesn’t give it back.

Limit penalties – If the Pioneers have a repeat performance of Saturday’s game at St. Cloud, when they took 10, it will be a long night. The Bulldogs’ power play connects 27 percent of the time. The other hazard with doing this is the players who get a lot of PK time can get worn down and thus are less effective at five on five.

Secondary scoring – At some point, the Pioneers will get scoring from somewhere other than the top two lines. This would be a good weekend for that.

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