No. 2 Denver (10-4-4) vs. Merrimack College (4-9-4)

Friday 7:05 p.m.

TV / Radio: Altitude 2 / 104.3 FM

Series: Denver leads, 2-0, and it has not allowed a goal to the Warriors in either meeting, the most recent of which was in October 2013.

Overview

Ten first-half wins is nothing to sneeze at, but there seems to be some question about which Pioneers team will show up on a given night. Will it be the one that picked up three of four points at Notre Dame, had road sweeps in Boston and Duluth and a home one vs. No. 1 St. Cloud State, or will it be the one that has blown leads at Western Michigan and at home vs. North Dakota and Dartmouth? The latest was a loss right before a one-week Christmas break that left a bad taste. … After a rough start, Merrimack has points in three of its past five games. … The Warriors play at Colorado College on Saturday night, while the Pioneers play host to Air Force.

Denver update

After an early season offensive eruption, the Pioneers have just 13 goals in the six games since the calendar flipped to December. Twice they’ve scored four goals in that span and those came in a tie to CC and the 5-4 loss to Dartmouth. In the other four games they have five goals yet won three of those games and tied the fourth. Team defense most likely was one point of emphasis at practice this week. … Denver still averages 3.50 goals per game (fifth-most in D-I). … The Pioneers’ penalty kill has not allowed a goal in December (16 for 16 on kills), and they are the least-penalized team in D-I (7.72 minutes per game). Their power play heated up vs. Dartmouth, mainly the second unit, which had freshmen Kohen Olischefski and Jaako Heikkinen tally. … Henrik Borgstrom and Troy Terry lead the Pioneers with 24 points, while Dylan Gambrell has 21. Borgstrom’s 13 goals are five more than Terry has. … Senior Tanner Jaillet (9-3-4, 2.22, .919) has been a workhorse in net for DU, starting 16 of its first 18 games. He will set a school record for games played with 13 more appearances. … Expect senior defenseman Adam Plant, who has missed six games because of an upper-body injury, to return to the lineup.

Merrimack update

Special teams tell a lot about the Warriors, whose power play hits at 22.1 percent (14^th in D-I) but whose penalty kill stops just 72.6 percent of foes’ chances. Not good news against a DU power play that connects 26.3 percent of the time (5th) and now has two effective units. … Senior forwards Jace Hennig (4 PPGs) and Brett Seney (3 PPGs) and sophomore Sami Tavernier (4 PPGs) do much of the damage on the man advantage. Hennig and Seney lead the team with 15 points while senior defenseman Jared Kolquist has 14 points. … Craig Pantano has been the more effective of the Warriors’ two junior goaltenders. Pantano is 4-4-2 with a 2.38 goals-against average and a .915 save percentage to Drew Vogler’s 0-5-2, 3.90 and .873 numbers. … The Warriors have yet to win a game when trailing after either the first or second period.

How it could go down

Can DU get – and hold – an early lead? It has to be asked after how the first half ended. The Pioneers usually pick up steam in the second half under Jim Montgomery, but it remains to be seen if the history of the past two seasons will repeat itself. Still, if the Pioneers play strong team defense it’s hard to see them losing this game.

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Copyright First Line Editorial 2017