No. 1 Denver overcame a strange sequence near the end of the second period and went on to a 6-3 NCHC victory over Omaha on Saturday night at Magness Arena.

The Pioneers had built a 4-1 lead on successive goals by Mike Benning, Massimo Rizzo and Casey Dornbach and appeared headed to a five-minute power play when the Mavericks called for a review.

During a lengthy review for a hit by Cameron Berg on McKade Webster that was confirmed as a major, Omaha asked for a review of an earlier hit by the Pioneers’ Sean Behrens. Remarkably, Behrens was given what amounted to a matching major. Seconds later, Rizzo took a cross-checking minor and Omaha’s Jack Randl scored his second goal of the game and 13th of the season shortly before the second intermission. Omaha then pulled to one in the first minute of the third period when Matt Miller scored his third goal in two nights.

While that sequence could have completely changed the trajectory of the game, the Pioneers (10-4, 6-2 NCHC) regrouped and iced it on Tristan Broz’s power-play goal off a terrific cross-slot saucer pass from Jack Devine and Aidan Thompson’s empty-netter.

Benning also had DU’s first goal, and both of his tallies were things of beauty. His first went over the blocker of Omaha goalie Jake Kucharski (29 saves), who looked more human after shutting out DU on Friday.

Randl’s first goal for Omaha (6-6-2, 2-3-1) evened it later in the first period.

Magnus Chrona made 23 saves for Denver, which plays host to Arizona State next weekend.

Black Friday

Omaha scored the game’s only three goals in the seven minutes of the second period, the final two by Miller. Kucharski made 22 saves. Chrona made a season-high 37 stops for Denver.

Read more at DU’s official website.

©First Line Editorial 2022