A few trends continued Friday night at Magness Arena, none of them good if you’re a fan of No. 4 Denver.

The Pioneers were held to one goal for the third game in a row and they remained without a regulation win in five NCHC games after falling, 2-1, to a spirited No. 20 Western Michigan team that came to town a depleted roster.

DU (8-3-2, 0-3-2-1 NCHC) also dropped its third in a row at home.

“This one hurts,” Denver coach David Carle said. “We’re in a hole right now. There’s no one else that’s going to dig us out. It’s up to the 26 guys in the room and the staff, and so we’ve got to believe, we’ve got to fight, we’ve got to work these things out. There’s no other way to do it.”

Slow start

Denver was undone by two goals in the first 10:57 of the game, both of which followed turnovers by defensemen. Mattias Samuelsson, a Buffalo Sabres draft pick, scored just 2:21 in after a sequence that began with a DU exit getting intercepted at the blue line.

Magnus Chrona (31 saves) made a point blank stop but the puck eventually found Samuelsson in the left circle and he rifled it upstairs for a 1-0 lead.

The second goal came when Slava Demin lost control of the biscuit right in front of Chrona and forward Ethen Frank roofed a backhander that Chrona had no chance on.

“On those two goals it was a lack of puck support and urgency, we’ve got to get the puck out of our zone,” Carle said. “Obviously both were costly.

“Unfortunately it took those two goals to see it, but we started moving the puck better up the ice,” Carle said. “I’m proud of the way the guys did respond to play Denver hockey and we get ourselves back into it.”

Turning the tide

If the first period was marked by self-inflicted wounds, the second was a different story. The Pioneers won more races to pucks, sustained pressure and generally played with more fire.

“When we play fast and direct you see good things happen, like in the whole second period,” Carle said. “We need to try and have that be a consistent thing for us. Now the last couple Saturdays haven’t been too good for us, so we need to turn the page. Our backs are against the wall, we’re in a hole, we’ve got to fight out of it.”

They outshot the guests 15-5 in that frame and halved the score on Jaakko Heikkinen‘s third goal of the season with 9:46 to play. Heikkinen, again one of Denver’s better players, collected a rebound of his own shot and patiently lifted into an opening left by freshman Brandon Bussi (35 saves).

“I think it was our simplicity in getting pucks north, receiving or breaking into space, our puck pressure was good,” Carle said. “We overwhelmed them, we out-changed them. You saw a lot of chances, and we’d have liked to capitalize on a couple more and been able to close the gap and at least go into the third even, but that wasn’t the case.”

What man advantage?

Neither team scored on the power play, but penalties played in an interesting role in the third period.

Demin was given the gate after his hit on WMU captain Hugh McGing was ruled contact to the head with 8:09 to play. DU killed off the ensuing five-minute disadvantage with Chrona making several stellar saves.

Seconds after that, WMU forward Jamie Rome leveled DU center Cole Guttman after the latter had passed the puck shortly after entering the Broncos zone. Rome, however, was given a two-minute minor with 2:17 to play. The Pioneers couldn’t capitalize on that, even with Chrona pulled for an extra attacker for the final 1:15.

“I thought our power play was actually pretty good, we got a lot of looks but just things aren’t going in,” Finlay said. “You have to pick your spots, get in front of the goalie’s eyes a little more.”

Nowhere to go but up

So Denver finds itself looking up at most of the league three weekends in. It has just 3 points courtesy of ties the previous two Fridays and is in seventh place.

A particularly disappointing part of this Friday’s loss was the fact the Broncos (7-4-2, 3-1-1-1) came to town with several players injured, including two Philadelphia Flyers draft picks – forward Wade Allison and freshman defenseman Ronnie Attard. They also were without second-leading scorer Drew Worrad and co-captain Josh Passolt, a duo that has combined for 16 points.

So what will it take for the Pioneers to get back on track and at least give themselves a chance in the league?

“We’ve just got to fight more,” Finlay said. “We have to come back tomorrow with a with a better attitude than we had today. Take the positives from today and eliminate the negatives.”

Notable

DU’s top power play had a different look in the first period. Forwards Guttman and Emilio Pettersen were replaced by Heikkinen and Kohen Olischefski. Guttman and Pettersen returned to the unit in the second period. … Junior winger Jack Doremus got into his fourth game of the season. “I thought Jack Doremus provided a good spark for us,” Carle said. The Pioneers dressed 13 forwards and six defensemen.

©First Line Editorial 2019