No. 7 Denver’s 2-1 victory over hated rival North Dakota was equal parts redemption and gumption.

Coming off a game in which he was pulled after allowing five goals in a period and a half, freshman Filip Larsson was spectacular against the Fighting Hawks, stopping 45 shots on Friday night.

“Filip was the best player on the ice, it wasn’t close,” DU coach David Carle said. “He was great all night. He made the saves he was supposed to and a lot he wasn’t.”

Larsson was particularly brilliant right off the bat, making 19 saves in a first period that very easily could have gotten away from the Pioneers (15-6-3, 7-6-1-1 NCHC). The workload didn’t bother him one bit.

“All goalies like that, seeing so many shots helps you get into the game,” the Detroit Red Wings draft pick said.

He added that while North Dakota brought a lot of pressure, DU could have done more to mitigate at least some of it.

“They were good but also it was on us,” Larsson said. “We were playing like we did at Western Michigan when we lost 5-1. We weren’t ready for such a good team and we got a wake-up call in between the first and second period by coach.”

Take two

For as much as North Dakota (13-12-1, 7-8 NCHC) outplayed Denver at times in the first period, the Pioneers still emerged with a 1-0 lead courtesy of a Jake Durflinger goal on the backdoor of Adam Scheel (25 saves) that was set up by a nice left-to-right cross-slot pass by Jaakko Heikkinen.

“It started with (defenseman) Erich Fear jumping up in the play and getting it to Jaakko. Jaakko cut to the middle and made a great play,” Durflinger said. “I was just in the right spot at the right time.”

Fellow sophomore Ryan Barrow made it 2-0 only 2:48 into the second period on what was just DU’s seventh shot of the game (North Dakota had 22 at that point).

The between-periods message and that goal combined to give the Pioneers more jump in their game, and it was needed against the feisty Fighting Hawks.

“It was a tight-checking game, really physical at times. I’m really proud of our response in the second period after our poor first period,” Carle said. “We weathered the storm. They came out with a lot of jump, winning a lot of battles, which is a credit to them.

“In the second we started moving our feet, we put pucks to space, we were on our toes a little more and we were able to take the play to them a little bit, draw some power plays, generate some chances.”

Rivalry reminder

Larsson was in the middle of – literally – a play that summarized large swaths of the game. At the game’s halfway point, North Dakota forward Gavin Hain (ironically rhymes with pain) drove the net and nearly put the netminder through it.

Fear and Hain then exchanged pleasantries in a game that was getting more heated by the moment and then got some alone time to reflect upon it.

“I didn’t really know what happened,” Larsson said. “It sure helps when you have a guy like Erich standing up for you. Stuff like that can wake the entire team up.”

It did as the Pioneers had their only period with a shots edge (16-12). The rough stuff is par for the course in these games.

“It’s North Dakota-Denver, it’s going to be like that every time,” Durflinger said. “We did a pretty good job staying calm. Yeah there were some penalties, but I don’t think there were too many undisciplined ones.”

Finishing move

North Dakota finally dented Larsson with 5:10 to play when Collin Adams scored after an eight-car pileup in the crease. The goal was reviewed and allowed to stand, unlike a goal call for the visitors 54 seconds into the third that was overturned when it was ruled the shot hit the pipe.

Denver also had to weather an extra Fighting Hawks attacker for much of the final 2:35, until their sixth minor – what appeared to be a high hit by Mark Senden on Jarid Lukosevicius effectively ended that strategy and gave Denver – and its goaltender – the shot in the arm they were seeking.

“I had a tough game last weekend, I let in five goals and got pulled,” Larsson said. “I wanted to bounce back and I think I did that.”

Notes

The Pioneers switched up all of their lines, moving Barrow and later Liam Finlay with Emilio Pettersen and Cole Guttman. The duo’s usual left wing, Lukosevicius, was with Brett Stapley and Finlay and later Colin Staub. Durflinger started with Heikkinen and Tyler Ward, while Staub was with Tyson MacLellan and Kohen Olischefski. “We weren’t happy with our weekend at Western Michigan, and sometimes that happens, you’ve got to change things up,” Durflinger said. “Guys had a jolt of energy playing with new guys.” … The Fighting Hawks were without two of their top seven scorers – defenseman Colton Poolman (11 points) and forward Grant Mismash (9).

Denver’s three stars

1. Filip Larsson. He recovered from a rough outing last Saturday to stop 45 shots and do his best Henrik Lundqvist impersonation.
2. Emilio Pettersen. The freshman was all over the ice, generating chances and separating foes from pucks.
3. Jake Durflinger. The wing was another in-your-face presence and put the Pioneers up for good 8:48 into the game.

Up next

The series concludes Saturday at 7:07 at Magness Arena.

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