A game, series and possibly season could have gone sideways for Denver on Saturday night.

Troy Terry ensured that it didn’t. The junior, who seems to save his best for the biggest stages, scored two third-period goals – his first two points in five games against Colorado College this season – to lift the Pioneers past the Tigers, 3-2, in an NCHC quarterfinal at Magness Arena.

The comeback from a 2-1 third-period deficit set up a decisive Game 3 on Sunday.

“It’s a big emotional advantage for us that we have to channel and use tomorrow,” Terry said. “We have to put that game behind us. We’ve made them defend them a lot the last two games, and in a long series like this it gives us the advantage. It’s going to be the game plan, grind them down right from the start.”

The Tigers (15-16-5) sandwiched special teams goals around a power-play snipe by Henrik Borgström to carry their second lead of the game into the third period.

Terry evened the score at 2 on a controversial goal that went in off his skate just 2:17  into the third.

“I definitely put my foot out to try to stop the puck. Their defenseman tried to clear the puck and it went off my skate into the net,” Terry said. “I was trying to tell (the referee) I put my foot out but their guy shot it off me.

“When you get that many shots, we earned a goal. That was the bottom line. It was a long time coming from all lines.”

The Pioneers (19-9-8) finished 49 shots on goal – one night after amassing 37 – with Terry and Borgström accounting for 12 of them.

What Terry’s first strike was to greasy goals, his second to goal scorers’ tallies.

An excellent breakout pass from Ian Mitchell found Terry at the Pioneers line. The junior weaved through the neutral zone and into circle to the left of Alex Leclerc (46 saves).

Using a defender as a partial screen, Terry snapped off a shot that beat Leclerc.

“They (DU’s top players) took it to another level,” DU coach Jim Montgomery said. “We’re fortunate to have the elite players we do, and when they play like that it’s hard to handle.”

From there, the Pioneers continued to sustain offensive zone pressure, draining much of the final 5:31 off the clock.

In a game full of momentum swings, the first ones came late in the first period.

With 6:55 to play, Blake Hillman‘s shot from the left point eluded Leclerc, but after a lengthy review the goal was disallowed due to goaltender interference.

“(The message was) just keep going, don’t get frustrated. That’s been our motto,” defenseman Adam Plant said. “Last night it didn’t work out. Keep going, keep attacking and in the end it should work out. It did tonight.”

Just 3:36 later, with the Pioneers on the second of their three power plays, Tigers wing Trey Bradley knocked the puck free at the CC line and outraced DU’s defense for a backhand-forehand breakaway goal with 3:19 to play.

Little more than a minute later, the penalty box filled with players after Plant checked a Tigers player into the boards and a mini-melee ensued. Plant, who was down on the ice for a few minutes after getting cross checked while on the ice, was among the five players who served time in the sin bin.

“I liked the way we played with emotion, but we didn’t get emotional,” Montgomery said. “We could have because it was a heated game, and also there were some calls that didn’t go our way, especially early. We played a team game. I liked how hard and how resilient we were.”

The Pioneers evened the score 2:06 into the second on Borgström’s short-side snapper over Leclerc’s glove. The strike ended a 158-minute, 17-second goal drought against the Tigers.

“It was important us to get the puck to Henrik Borgström,” Montgomery said, adding that the boost from that goal may bode well for Game 3. “You can tell our power play doesn’t have confidence because our guys were making passes when we had full possession. They were putting pucks on walls. I think with the success we had today I think our power play will be better tomorrow.”

Tigers defenseman Kristian Blumenshein restored the Tigers’ lead with 2:20 to play when he took a feed from Bradley in the high slot and patiently stick handled to daylight before firing over the blocker of Tanner Jaillet (25 saves).

That set the stage for a Pioneers period to remember.

“That’s the playoffs. Momentum changes are going to happen all game, you just have to stay on top of it and try and take advantage when you have momentum,” Plant said.

Refreshed

You’d have to go back to a 3-3 tie at North Dakota to find Terry scoring. Yes he had a four-assist game last Friday against Miami, but take that way and he had three assists in the other seven games since. In the middle of that, however, he was electric for Team USA at the Olympic Games, getting a team-high five assists.

Still, it’s been a taxing run for the Anaheim Ducks draft pick.

“St. Cloud weekend (Feb. 23-24) was tough for me, and last weekend I felt decent and even last night I thought I generated quite a bit,” he said. “But it’s my job to score and I can’t be satisfied with just generating chances anymore.

“I was generating chances tonight and trying not to get frustrated. It felt good to have them go in.”

Notable

The Pioneers made one change to their lineup, inserting sophomore Erich Fear on defense in place of freshman Griffin Mendel. Fear was paired with captain Tariq Hammond.

Around the NCHC

Minnesota Duluth and North Dakota advanced to next weekend’s Frozen Face-off, while eighth-seeded Miami forced a third game against top-seeded St. Cloud State. The third-seeded Bulldogs shut out sixth-seed Western Michigan, 2-0, and the fourth-seeded Fighting Hawks edged Omaha, 4-3 in overtime. The RedHawks toppled the Huskies, 3-2, in overtime.

Denver’s three stars

1. Troy Terry. The junior played his best game in several weeks and scored two clutch goals in the third period.
2. Henrik Borgström. An important first goal and an assist on the tying goal. He, Terry and Jarid Lukosevicius were on top of their games.
3. Ian Mitchell. The freshman had the primary assists on DU’s first and last goals.

Upcoming

The Pioneers will play host to the Tigers in a winner-take-all series on Sunday at 6 p.m. at Magness Arena. AM 1600 will have the broadcast, while NCHC.tv will carry the telecast.

©First Line Editorial 2017-18