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DENVER STORMS BACK IN THIRD TO STUN BULLDOGS 4-3 SATURDAY

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Denver's Juho Olkinuora stonewalls Bulldog winger Justin Crandall's scoring attempt on a breakaway during the first period Saturday night.

Credit: Dave Harwig

With last night’s 3-0 loss the University of Denver still stinging, the University of Minnesota Duluth men’s hockey team entered Saturday night’s series finale with the Pioneers in need a bounce back game.

But a good start and two separate two-goal leads weren’t enough to grab a win in the rematch as Denver rallied with three goals in a 1 minute, 31 second stretch in the third period to escape Duluth with a 4-3 win and a series sweep.

It was just the second sweep UMD has suffered this year, and first time UMD has been swept at home since Oct. 14-15, 2011. UMD is now 5-6-1 at AMSOIL Arena this year, 2-8-2 on Saturday night and 8-9-3 in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association – putting them five points behind Denver.

“Last night was definitely tough, and we played a great game tonight up until the end,” sophomore center Caleb Herbert said. “We were getting up the ice real well tonight, everyone was moving their feet, but it just kind of collapsed on us at the end. With six minutes left we still have the lead, and just fell apart.”

Herbert, freshman left winger Austin Farley and freshman center Tony Cameranesi scored for the Bulldogs by the 16:20 mark of the middle period to give UMD a 3-1 lead entering the third.

Just 65 seconds in, Herbert took a pass at the right circle, wheeled around and fired a high shot over Denver goalie Juho Olkinuora’s blocker and in to give UMD’s it’s first goal of the night and weekend.Farley added a power-play marker 31 seconds into the second when he knocked home a Cameranesi pass to put the Bulldogs up 2-0, and then Cameranesi scored late in the second on after a beautiful passing play.

But in the third, the Pioneers waited out a bundle of penalties before striking in rapid succession to leave the 6,600 at AMSOIL Arena stunned.

Shawn Ostrow scored his second of the night at the 13:40-mark to pull the Pioneers within one. Then, just 36 seconds later, Chris Knowlton scored off a tough turnover to tie it, and then Nolan Zajac netted a power-play goal to give Denver the lead for good.

“You can take a game like this and get back at it on Monday, or you can let it get to you and ruin your season,” Herbert said. “We have to come back on Monday and just get back to work, that’s all we can do.”

The Bulldogs (10-13-3, 8-9-3) are back in action next weekend when they host Minnesota State on Friday and Saturday night. Puck-drop is scheduled for 7:07 p.m. both nights.

"We just have to look back and bear down in those kinds of situations,” senior defenseman Wade Bergman said. “We have to make sure we come out ready to go to finish the game. We didn’t do that tonight, and we’ll definitely be correcting that for next week. All we can do now is learn from this one and take it into next week and be better.”

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