No. 1 Denver Downs No. 19 Northeastern 5-2 in home opener

DENVER The No. 1 University of Denver hockey team used a three-goal second period to defeat the No. 19 Northeastern Huskies 5-2 Friday night in the home opener at Magness Arena.

Denver (3-0-0) and Northeastern (1-1-0) conclude their weekend series Saturday at 6:00 PM MT. The Pioneers will raise their 2024 NCAA National Championship flag during a pregame ceremony prior to puck drop at 5:45 PM MT. Tickets for the match are sold out.

Five different Pioneers scored among first-year students Jake Fisher registering a goal and an assist in front of a crowd of 6,837, the largest attendance for a home opener in program history. Second defender Boston Buckberger had two helpers when he was a freshman Hagen Burrows also recorded the first points of his collegiate career with a pair of assists.

“I thought it was a really good performance from our boys, I obviously liked our start,” said Richard and Kitzia Goodman Hockey Head Coach. David Carl. “I think we fed into the crowd. Great atmosphere. The student section was incredible all night. I thought our discipline was really good. We didn't let the emotion of the evening get to us so much. I thought it worked in in a lot of ways, things that we worked on during camp, we definitely saw that in a lot of areas. Yeah, there's things to nitpick about, but it's hard to do that with the effort that we put in and. the performance and the results we have achieved.”

Juniors Samu Salminen And Jared Wrightsecond year Sam Harris and oldest Carter King also applied to Denver. Goalkeeper Matt Davis stopped 15 of 17 shots.

DU led 1-0 after the first period after King's marker and led 3-1 in the second period Tory Pitner was given a five-minute major and misconduct for face masking. The Pioneers shut down the offense by allowing just two shots on the extended man disadvantage and had some good short-handed looks of their own.

Wright was the benefactor of a fortuitous jump for his second tally of the year at 2:44 of the middle period and Salminen also notched his second goal of the campaign after a redirection for a big shot from Eric Pohlkamp early in the third.

Cam Lund and Dylan Hryckowian scored the markers for the Huskies and NU goalie Cameron Whitehead made 40 saves.

Each of DU's five goals was equally strong after the team scored half of their 10 goals on the power play in the final series on Oct. 5 and 6 in Alaska Anchorage.

Denver fired 45 shots on goal on the season and limited Northeastern to just 17, including allowing just three in the first period and four in the third.

NEXT: The Pioneers wrap up the homecoming weekend series with Northeastern on Saturday at 6 p.m. Denver concludes its four-game homestand against former WCHA foe Wisconsin next weekend.

POSTGAME NOTES

• Denver is now 16-5 all-time against Northeastern and 9-2-0 at home in the series. The Pios have won eight games in a row in the series, which resumed for the first time since January 4, 2004.
• The Pioneers are now 52-18-5 all-time in home openers and have a mark of 19-4-2 in the first game of the season at Magness Arena. Denver also improved to 13-2-2 in its last 17 home openers.
• DU has won 12 straight games dating back to March 9 against Colorado College. It is the third-longest multi-season winning streak in program history.
• Zeev Buium, Jack Devine, Carter King And Aidan Thompson all stretched their opening points streak to three games.
• Jack Devines assist was his 113th career point, which puts him in sole possession of 70th on the school's all-time list.
• Hagen Burrows recorded a pair of assists for his first collegiate points and multi-goal game.
• Jake Fisher scored his second goal of the season and added an assist for his first career two-point game.
• DU's 45 shots on goal were a season high and surpassed the previous record of 38 set Oct. 5 in Alaska Anchorage.
• The Pioneers outscored the Huskies 15-3 in the first period, the largest shot differential in a game this season (previous: 11, 1st period, Oct. 6 at Alaska Anchorage).
• Denver had a sellout crowd of 6,837 people at Magness Arena, the third largest in school history and the largest to watch a Pioneer home opener.

PURPOSE SUMMARY
1st Period

5:16 DU (1-0) Carter King took a backhand pass from Aidan Thompson onto the ice during a rush and knocked the puck over the goalie's pad.

2nd Period

1:55 DU (2-0) Zeev Buium danced through the crease before sliding the puck to his right Jake Fisher threw it into the gaping net.
4:29 NOW (2-1) Cam Lund scored on a 2-on-1 after a Denver giveaway in its own zone.
5:47 DU (3-1) Sam Harris went top shelf with a wrist shot from the slot.
2:44 PM DU (4-1) Jared Wright's centering pass through the slot that came off a Huskies player's skate and into the net.

3rd Period

2:31 DU (5-1) Eric Pohlkamp shot from the top of the circle was directed forward by Samu Salminen.
11:07 NU (5-2) Dylan Hryckowian tapped in a centering pass while standing at the top of the crease.

QUOTABLES
Richard and Kitzia Goodman hockey head coach David Carl
On Eric Pohlkamp and new boys: “I think with all the new guys there are things they can learn. It helps that he was there [World] junior team. The best thing about Eric is that he watches his film through practice. He wants to learn. He wants to adapt as quickly as possible to our playing style and what we want to do, so we are very happy with him. I think he's done a good job, but I don't think he's close to where he's going to get.”

In the team compared to previous years: “I think they seem very hungry and motivated to try to build on what we did a year ago. I think you've seen that in our first three outings. There's no drop in work rate. There might be a lack of details at times or execution, but their intensity and their mentality to do everything and work through it has been really good They're easy to coach so far We're definitely going to hit bumps in the road and setbacks throughout year That will be good for us, but I think we are off to a very good start.”

Sophomore forward Sam Harris Quotes
About the two freshmen Jake Fisher And Hagen Burrows on his line: “They are young and good people. It's all about details and moving our feet and staying in the moment, not getting too high or too low.”

On Jake Fisher And Hagen Burrows' strengths: “They're both agile players. They also have a bit of spirit, which is great. I'm a brave kid. They're fast and know how to move the puck well. They clearly know how to score.” It's fun to play with them.”

About his goal: “I got the puck in the neutral zone, got a guy coming at me from the right side, passed to Hagen, he bumped it to Fish, and then I was late as a trailer. Fish saw me, I called for it, moved it over and went to the middle, shot, scored.”

Second defender Eric Pohlkamp
About joining a new team and adjustments: “One thing I'm blown away by is how competitive these guys are. I came here for just a few weeks in the summer and these guys, the work they put in is insane, and they came from the national championship, but they had still hungry When you get there it's great I think this team has a lot of guys that are really driven their shoulder Jack Devine who is a seventh-round draft pick and has now made somewhat of a name for himself. It's cool, it's really cool to play here, and I saw the crowd tonight, so it's pretty crazy.”

About the team's puck moves and goals: “Yeah, it's something I've never seen before. I mean, we never skated backwards as a defender in the middle. We always tried to jump to the middle and get back on. The transition was great, and the coaching The staff here is also world-class.”

CARDS: A limited number of tickets are available for Denver hockey's 75th anniversary in 2024-25. Click here to purchase and for more information.