Remember the recent narrative about how Denver couldn’t solve Colorado College goaltender Alex Leclerc after the junior allowed just two goals in three games and basically carried the Gold Pan to Colorado Springs almost by himself?

On Saturday, the No. 5 Pioneers flipped the script and tamed the Tigers, 6-1, in the NCHC Frozen Faceoff’s consolation game as five players had multi-point games, topped by defenseman Ian Mitchell‘s four-point outburst.

In light of Minnesota Duluth’s stirring 3-2 double overtime victory over top-ranked St. Cloud State for the NCHC’s title Denver (22-11-5) rebuilding some momentum might get lost in the shuffle heading into the NCAA Tournament, the pairings of which will be announced at 5 p.m. today on ESPNU.

The six goals matched a season high – attained twice previously, at home vs. Alabama Huntsville and at Wisconsin. The outburst was the most since DU scored five against Miami a month ago.

“”It was a good game for us,” DU coach David Carle said. “I liked our execution offensively. It was the first time in awhile we’ve been able to execute like that. I thought everybody was talking with and without the puck and it made our ability to execute with it a lot easier. Hopefully it allows us to build some offensive confidence as we go into the tournament.”

Sitting at No. 8 in the Pairwise rankings, the Pioneers are expected to receive a No. 2 seed in one of the four regionals. And it’s entirely possible that they could end up in one with NCHC rival SCSU or UMD, who sit first and second in the Pairwise and demonstrated to anyone watching college hockey over the weekend that they will be in a short conversation of the teams to beat.

As for Saturday’s thrashing of CC (17-20-4), the Pioneers received big games from several key players who hadn’t dented the scoresheet in a while, a welcome sign heading into next weekend’s NCAA regional.

• Liam Finlay had a two goals and an assist, building his team-high point total to 35. He had one point in his previous eight games and one goal in his past 13.
• Brett Stapley‘s two assists were his first points since Jan. 26, although the freshman missed seven games in that span.
• Tyson McLellan, the third member of that line, had a goal among his career-high three points and established a new career high with 12 points. He has been one of the Pioneers’ steadier scorers down the stretch with eight points in the past 10 games.
• Mitchell’s two-goal, two assist outburst tied a career high and came after he’d had one point in his past five games, the same situation Emilio Pettersen was in before his two assists.
• And senior Jarid Lukosevicius‘ team-high 18th tally, which started the goal bonanza, was his second in seven games.

Sophomore Devin Cooley made 22 saves and the Pioneers, who outshot the Tigers 29-23, evened their season record against their rivals to 2-2-1 in the “non-conference” conference game.

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