A lockdown took place in Omaha on Tuesday.

The state of Nebraska didn’t impose it. The eighth-ranked Denver Pioneers did.

DU (3-4) held NCHC rival Western Michigan to just 14 shots on goal en route to a hard-fought 3-2 victory. The game was Denver’s first of four in six days as the league heads toward the conclusion of its three-week pod. Grad transfer Corbin Kaczperski stopped 12 shots for his first Denver victory in his first start. Captain Kohen Olischefski broke a 2-2 deadlock 3:16 into the third period.

Coming off a third-period meltdown against Minnesota Duluth on Saturday, the Pioneers collectively cleaned up their act on Tuesday, coach David Carle said.

“We didn’t take one stick penalty. We were disciplined with our sticks and our puck pressure,” Carle said. “We held onto pucks as well as we have in the early going.”

Here are three observations from the game:

No room at Baxter Arena

The Pioneers established that space would be hard to come by early on, holding WMU to just eight shots in the first two periods.

“They did a really good job shutting down the blue line,” Broncos forward Jason Polin said.

A bigger factor, said Carle, was how his team held up against Western’s dangerous transition game.

“Our rush D was a lot better,” Carle said. “The defensemen’s gaps were as good as they’ve been. The D-men did a good job negating their rush most of the night.”

One exception was WMU captain Paul Washe‘s fourth goal of the season just 33 seconds into the third. He got behind both Denver defensemen, took a stretch pass from Poulin in the neutral zone and solved Kaczperski.

First line shines

Olischefski scored the winner after an offensive zone face-off to the right of Austin Cain (23 points). Two WMU players converged on Carter Savoie and Olischefski got loose in front of Cain and had the goalie’s clearing attempt bounce off him past the stunned net minder.

That capped a dominant night for the top line, which also contributed center Cole Guttman‘s goal 2:59 into the game, another power-play strike – the Pioneers’ eighth in seven games. That DU trio contributed 12 of the team’s 26 shots on goal.

“Their sticks were really good, their puck pressure was really good, and that feeds the best parts of their games,” Carle said. “They created a lot of turnovers for us.”

Staying ahead of the game

The Broncos (2-5-1-0) followed Guttman’s goal with Ethen Frank‘s fifth of the season 3:37 later, but defenseman Kyle Mayhew took the puck from Jack Doremus along the boards, jumped into the WMU zone and chipped the puck past Cain with 2:53 to go in the first period.

The junior credited Doremus and Hank Crone, who created some chaos in front of the net, for paving the way for his first tally of the season.

“Both forwards opened it up for me,” Mayhew said, noting a subtlety that keyed him it was time to activate.

“The D that came out (on him) looked flat footed. I threw a fake in there. Really, it’s just a read. If the puck is bouncing to a D, our forward may jump on it. If they possess the puck and hit their own forwards I may not be able to make that play.”

Notes: Defenseman Michael Benning, who has six points in his six NCAA games, missed the game with an injury. Carle expects him to return before the pod games conclude. … Western had more face-off wins (38-30) and blocked shots (20-12).

Next game: Denver will play Miami on Thursday night at 6:35 p.m.

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