Playing with the No. 1 ranking in Division I hockey for the first time in five and a half years, Denver ran into a brick wall on Friday night. Its name was Ryan Larkin.

Larkin, Miami’s freshman goaltender, stopped 38 of 39 Pioneers shots on goal to spark the RedHawks’ 1-1 tie with DU. The Pioneers (7-2-2, 3-0-2) collected an extra point for NCHC standings purposes when freshman Henrik Borgstrom scored a sudden-death shootout goal after the teams played two scoreless overtimes.

The Pioneers extended their unbeaten streak to nine games (7-0-2), while Miami collected a point for the first time in six outings.

Miami (3-6-3, 0-4-1 NCHC) scored on its first shot on Tanner Jaillet, when senior Anthony Lewis wrangled the puck away from Troy Terry and dropped a pass to defenseman Grant Hutton, who blasted a shot over Jaillet’s shoulder and barely under the bar.

Terry, however, exacted some revenge in kind in the second period when he stood the puck and beat Larkin with a nice dipsy-doodle move. And that was it for the scoring until Borgstrom’s tally.

“I thought we played a good game, so we have to be happy about that,” Terry said. “It wasn’t the outcome we wanted because we felt we dictated the game. We felt like the shots told the story of the game.”

Jaillet continued his impressive run of games allowing one or two goals (its now up to eight in a row), making 20 saves.

Opportunity knocks

On the rare occasions Larkin was caught out of position or at least moving, DU couldn’t finish. Terry said that has to change Saturday.

“That’s something we have to focus on tomorrow. Just focus on the chances we have and capitalize on them better,” he said.”

As much as the Pioneers’ speed seemed to give them an advantage in possession time, Larkin was there as the equalizer.

“Their goalie played well. I have to give it to their goalie,” Terry said. “I had another one where I had an open net and I hit it off the post. Just little things like that, we’ve got to focus and not grip our sticks and make sure we finish those.”

The Ritt Stuff

Evan Ritt entered his senior season having played a total of 10 games. He played his eighth game of this season, tying a career high, and was a noticeable physical presence centering the fourth line.

Shooting gallery

It might not surprise you to see defenseman Will Butcher be one of the Pioneers’ leaders in shots on goal. Nor would forward Jarid Lukosevicius be a total surprise. But freshman forward Kevin Conley? Yes, he joined the other two with five shots on goal, and he easily had that many hits. Defenseman Adam Plant, who was involved at both ends of the ice all game, had four shots. So four players manufactured nearly as many shots (19) as Miami’s entire team (21).