The Seventh Period puts a bow on No. 1 Denver’s weekend sweep of No. 6 Boston College

First Period

The stars were out … and so were the scouts. Not only was the weekend series at Magness Arena an excellent matchup of two of Division I hockey’s top teams, but it also provided more than a small glimpse into the future. Eighteen NHL draft picks dressed in the series, including 11 for Boston College. The BC group included 2019 first-rounders Matt Boldy (Minnesota), Spencer Knight (Florida) and Alex Newhook (Colorado). Boldy and Newhook are forwards, while Knight was the first goaltender taken in June’s draft. The Eagles had a second Avalanche draft choice in  defenseman Drew Helleson. I was thoroughly impressed by the 6-foot-3 Helleson, and Knight obviously is a special goaltender, combining size (6-3) and athleticism. Boldy has a tremendous shot. Newhook was better Saturday than Friday and seemed solid in a lot of phases.

Second Period

DU’s contingent of draft picks also fared well, particularly goaltender Magnus Chrona, who pitched his second shutout of the season Friday, and defenseman Ian Mitchell. Chrona (Tampa Bay) stopped 45 of 49 shots on goal for the weekend, including all 23 he saw Friday. … Mitchell wasn’t “officially” one of the three stars either night, but I thought he played pretty well on the whole and extremely well at times. He played heavy minutes in all situations and wasn’t shy about joining – or leading – the rush out of the defensive zone. With an assist Friday and a goal Saturday, the junior captain has at least a point in every game this season. Three other DU draft picks – Bobby Brink (Philadelphia), Cole Guttman (Tampa Bay) and Brett Stapley (Montreal) all scored goals – but a fourth forward, Emilio Pettersen (Calgary), really jumped out to me. Pettersen, who plays at high speed all the time, was consistently involved at both ends of the ice and drew assists on the winning goal Friday and what proved to be the tying one Saturday.

Third period

Over the summer former DU coach Jim Montgomery told me how important it was for his teams to have two reliable scoring lines and what a key role that played in back-to-back Frozen Four runs in 2016 and ’17. From my vantage point in the press box, his successor might have three this season. In fact, the Pioneers got goals from every line this weekend. That’s a departure from what turned out to be a bit of a top-heavy lineup last season. Think about this: Stapley essentially is centering a third line with juniors Ryan Barrow and Kohen Olischefski, each of whom has scored this season, and Barrow very nearly added a few more over the weekend. The top line of Brink, Guttman and Pettersen was expected to be strong, but the second trio of seniors Tyson McLellan, who had three goals on the weekend and was announced as the NCHC’s Forward of the Week, and Liam Finlay, who got his first goal after seven assists, and sophomore transfer Hank Crone has very effective. That line, not the top one, has the most points (18) on the team through six games.

Fourth period

One reason the Pioneers generated nine goals against a top-10 team was they got a lot more quality scoring chances from the slot, either through quick passing or collecting rebounds. One frustration with the team a season ago was they didn’t get to scoring areas as often as they needed to. That seems to have changed. With such a skilled lineup, the temptation will be there to overpass, and it was at times over the weekend, but the early returns are Denver has corrected something I thought was a real issue at times – getting into scoring areas.

Fifth period

A sore spot for DU early this season was its power play, but the Pioneers also eased quite a few concerns there by scoring Friday’s lone goal in the first 59 minutes on Guttman’s power-play tally and then added three more man-advantage strikes Saturday (McLellan, Mitchell, Brink). Denver’s power play is 18th in D-I, clicking at 20.7 percent. … The penalty kill has been lights out. It allowed its first goal of the season on Saturday (while killing off five more). It’s 96 percent kill rate is better than all but four teams, and two of those have only played two games and the other two have only played four.

Sixth period

If I have a concern, and I expressed this in the Double Trouble podcast with LetsGoDU’s Nick Tremaroli on Saturday night, it’s that Denver relies on its top-four defenseman a substantial amount. Freshman Justin Lee was spotted from time to time, often with Mitchell, but the bottom pair didn’t play a lot after the midpoint of either game. Senior Erich Fear‘s return from injury will help, but it appears Mitchell and sophomore Slava Demin and senior Micheal Davis and junior Griffin Mendel are going to play a lot. In the grind of the NCHC season that could become a bit of an issue at times.

Seventh period

In the Seventh Period, they rested. At least they do this week. DU is off this weekend before playing host to a resurgent Niagara program on Nov. 1-2.

©First Line Editorial 2019