The fall quarter just ended at the University of Denver, and the progress report for the school’s hockey team looked pretty good Friday night.

The No. 7 Pioneers got 39 saves from Devin Cooley, his fifth game in a row with more than 35 saves, and three players scored their first goal of the season in a 3-1 non-conference victory against No. 9 Providence at Magness Arena.

Denver (7-3-1) killed off six of seven power plays by one of the top teams in the country with the man advantage, but most importantly, it seized – and held – a lead in the third period.

“(Against Minnesota Duluth last) Saturday night we were up 3-0 and we ended up losing. Tonight we were up 3-1 and we managed to hold it which shows our group is growing and learning lessons from past weekends,” said Pioneers captain Colin Staub, who gave his team a 1-0 lead with 3:31 to play in the second after it had been badly outshot to that point.

Penalty parade

The Friars (7-4-1) notched the first 11 shots on goal in the second period and 14 of the first 15 at one point, largely thanks to a stream of DU penalties.

“Our penalty kill did a great job,” said DU coach David Carle. “We leaned on them way too much tonight, as we have the better part of this young season.”

Providence could have had as many as nine minutes of power play time in the first 11 minutes of the second had it not taken a minor during that stretch. So much time at a man disadvantage would catch up to most teams.

“It’s tough,” Staub said. “We only play six or seven forwards and three or four defensemen (on the PK), that cuts out half our lineup. When you kill for more than half of a period, it becomes difficult to maintain momentum.”

Staub, whose line frequently was matched against Providence’s top trio at even strength, was forced into extra duty on the penalty kill. Ironically, he scored 16 seconds into a Friars penalty kill. Les Lancaster fired away from the high slot and Staub redirected it past Hayden Hawkey (27 saves).

“The most important thing is we got on the scoreboard in a tough game against a tough team,” Staub said. “(After finally scoring) you can take a breath now. You start gripping your stick a little tight, start overthinking things, it just lets you get back to just playing.”

More firsts

Staub’s PK tag team partner and checking line center, Jaakko Heikkinen, put DU ahead for good 7:52 into the third during a delayed penalty on Providence. The Friars had scored off a rush with one second left on a DU penalty at 5:04 of the period.

Heikkinen’s goal came after he drew a call a couple of minutes later. Defenseman Michael Davies danced around a couple of Friars defenders near the blue line and dropped a pass to Jarid Lukosevicius on the right wall. The senior found Heikkinen alone in the slot, and the sophomore wasted no time rifling it past Hawkey.

“It was a long time coming,” Heikkinen said. “So much time on the PK was tough for us, but we had momentum five on five, we matched up well and created a lot of chances against them.”

Despite Providence’s 40-30 shots on goal advantage, the Pioneers actually outshot the Friars by the same margin, 26-16, at even strength.

“We’re really happy with our five on five play and our ability to close out a game, learning lessons from last weekend,” Carle said. “We continued to skate and attack the game in the third period. Our bench didn’t get rattled (when the Friars tied it).”

Tyler Ward capped the scoring with a tap-in goal on a beautiful tic-tac-toe play with fellow freshmen Slava Demin and Brett Stapley. Demin drove down Main Street, found Stapley on the inside edge of the right circle, and Stapley fed Ward on Hawkey’s back door. In addition to being his first NCAA goal, it was Ward’s second point of the game after he garnered a secondary assist on Staub’s goal.

Mr. Consistency

Cooley, as he’s done so often this season, kept the door slammed shut. Time and again he stopped point-blank shots, including a doozy with 5:45 left and the Friars mounting a bit of an offensive.

“He’s been great for us all season. He’s been our backbone,” Staub said. “You look at the stretch we’ve had. A lot of those wins are because of him. Even the games we’ve lost, we’ve been in them because of him. Our record shows how good our goaltending has been.”

Cooley had to be Friday. Eight of Providence’s 11 first-period shots were from the circles down. The Friars outshot DU 16-8 in the second, when six more chances were at close range, and 13-11 in the third, when nine more shots came from that area.

“Devin was great. Again he made some saves he shouldn’t have,” Carle concluded.

Special intermission

Ryan Straschnitzki and Jacob Wasserman, two survivors of the Humboldt Broncos’ deadly bus crash on April 6 near Armley, Saskatchewan, returned to the ice together for the first time since the accident on Friday night.

Both players, who were partially paralyzed in the crash which claimed the lives of 16 Broncos, coaches and support staff, participated in a sled hockey game during the first intermission. The event was organized by Dawg Nation Hockey Foundation.

Straschnitzki and Wasserman will drop the ceremonial first puck at the Colorado Avalanche-Dallas Stars game at Pepsi Center on Saturday, which also is when former DU coach Jim Montgomery will make his first regular-season appearance in Denver as the Dallas Stars’ coach.

Notes

The Pioneers opted to dress a 13th forward (freshman Jared Resseguie) instead of seven defensemen as they had the past several games. Resseguie is a penalty-killing ace, and the Friars have one of the nation’s best power plays (23.6 percent). … The Pioneers struggled in the face-off circle, winning just 29 of 68 draws (42.6 percent). That’s particularly devastating for a team that was killing so many penalties and fancies a puck possession M.O.

Denver’s three stars

1. Devin Cooley. He made 39 saves, 23 from close range.
2. Jaakko Heikkinen. His first goal of the season is a game winner and he was even on face-offs during an otherwise rough night for the Pioneers in the circle.
3. Colin Staub. Follow the leader. The captain’s first goal of the season helped change the tone of this game.

Up next

The teams conclude their series Saturday at 7:07 p.m. at Magness Arena.

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