A second consecutive tie – this one 2-2 – was followed by a second consecutive shootout victory, but for No. 1 Denver, the weekend series against Miami left a feeling of wanting.

Yes, the Pioneers (7-2-3, 3-0-3-2 NCHC) picked up the extra point in the NCHC standings for a second night in a row and extended their unbeaten streak to 10 games. Yes, goaltender Tanner Jaillet again was superlative, stopping 24 shots and running his streak of allowing no more than two goals to 10 games. And yes, DU enjoyed another massive shot advantage (51-26).

Denver’s Dylan Gambrell scored on a forehand-backhand-forehand move in close to the Miami goal in the fourth round of the shootout.

“It’s at home. I’m disappointed in myself and the team’s performance,” senior captain Will Butcher said. “There were glimpses where we played really well and glimpses and lapses that should never happen. I think we’re a lot better team than what we showed this weekend, and I think the mood is down right now in the sense of we underperformed.”

In regulation and two 5-on-5 overtimes the Pioneers launched 90 shots on goal to 47 for Miami, yet emerged with a total of three goals.

Troy Terry had put DU ahead 2-1 with 5:57 to go in the second when he tracked down a rebound by Miami goalie Ryan Larkin (49 saves), turned and fired from the inside left hash mark. But the RedHawks charged back in a third period in which they dominated, tying it on Ryan Siroky‘s goal off a rebound that sat just off Jaillet’s left pad with 4:09 to go.

“I give them a lot of credit. I thought they were incredibly resilient,” DU coach Jim Montgomery said of Miami. “I thought they stuck to their game plan a lot better than we did. In the third they changed it up, they came at us and we didn’t handle it very well. We didn’t move pucks very effectively, forwards and defensemen, especially out of our zone and into their zone at the blue line.”

Jaillet made several huge stops down the stretch, in particular with the glove stop on Grant Hutton with 3:22 to go in the second overtime and a couple of dandies in the closing seconds. The RedHawks outshot the Pioneers, 8-1, in the 3-on-3 second OT.

“Tanner’s been unbelievable,” Montgomery said. “If there’s a goalie playing better than him in the country, hats off to him because Tanner’s been unbelievable.”

Gambrell put DU 3:02 into the game with a power-play shot from his off wing in the left circle. The strike came while the Pioneers were in the midst of a 5-minute power play after senior assistant captain Evan Janssen was leveled by a high hit from  Miami’s Conor Lemirande just 51 seconds into the game.

 

Janssen will miss an undetermined amount of time with the upper-body injury. It marked the second Saturday in a row the Pioneers lost a senior in the game’s opening minutes to an injury. Forward Emil Romig suffered a broken bone in his lower leg vs. North Dakota.

“Your senior leader goes down and you just want to go out there and pick him up,” Butcher said. “You hope he’s all right. It was a blindside hit; I didn’t see what happened. I just pray he’s all right and recovers quickly.”

The injury bug

Janssen’s injury, combined with Romig’s, will test the Pioneers’ depth. Both are speedy, both kill penalties, and both can play up and down the lineup.

Montgomery, who also coached Janssen at Dubuque in the USHL, has often referred to the senior as one of his security blankets because he’s always in the right position and offers versatility to play any role that’s asked of him.

“Every team goes through injuries,” Montgomery said. “For us to lose two guys who are leaders up front like they are and hard to play against every night, it’s gonna make us have to play some guys that just aren’t ready probably for that. We have no other choice, we have to go with guys who are inexperienced.”

The goal drought

Jaillet’s play has made the Pioneers’ lack of offense tolerable. The junior has allowed just one goal seven times in the past 10 games and two goals the other three. Not coincidentally, DU is 7-0-3 in that span.

“The last two weekends he’s been our best player, and we’ve needed him to be our best player back there,” Butcher said. “We’re having trouble scoring goals right now, and with him playing well back there it gives us a chance to win games.”

Still, when DU is consistently holding foes to shot totals in the low to mid 20s while generating many more shots (25 more Saturday and 18 more Friday), the lack of goals is frustrating.

“It’s happened all year. It happened last year in the first half. Then we went from about 1.8 goals to 3.5 in the second half,” Montgomery said. “The thing that concerns me about this group is they don’t move the puck as well as last year’s group. Even when we weren’t scoring last year we were sharing the puck.”

Gambrell said a combination of puck luck and more determined play might be the answer.

“A few times we were missing a few bounces,” he said. “Overall we’ve got to get better at getting to the net front and really bearing down, getting pucks to the net.”

Penalties

One night after the officiating crew called just three minors business picked up considerably. There were 10 penalties called through the game’s first 24 minutes and 12 overall.

As it has much of the season, the proliferation of penalties wrecked the flow of the game.

But the final two could have decided the outcome. With 3:05 to go in the first overtime, Terry was pulled down. But DU couldn’t convert. Seconds after Miami killed off that penalty, the Pioneers took a tripping call that carried over into the second OT.

Next up

DU travels to Air Force on Friday before returning home to face Wisconsin on Saturday.