No. 3 Denver Picks Up Big Shootout Point vs. Miami

February 24, 2024February 24, 2024 Admin

DENVER – The No. 3 University of Denver hockey team tied the Miami RedHawks 3-3 on Friday night at Magness Arena and earned a key point in the conference standings by winning the shootout.

Denver won the best-of-three tiebreaker 1-0. The game is officially recorded as a tie, but the Pioneers gained two of a possible three points in the NCHC playoff push. DU is presently tied with Colorado College for third place in the conference standings with 33 points.

“Proud of the guys and their effort,” said Richard and Kitzia Goodman Hockey Head Coach David Carle. “They laid it on the line, and unfortunately It wasn’t enough to win in regulation.”

The Pioneers (20-8-3, 11-6-2 NCHC) and RedHawks (7-19-3, 1-16-2 NCHC) square off again on Saturday at 6 p.m. MT in the series finale in Denver.

Junior Jared Wright registered two goals for the Pioneers while freshman Sam Harris scored for the second consecutive game. Junior Tristan Broz tallied in the opening round of the shootout to give DU the edge while goaltender Matt Davis didn’t allow a marker on any of MU’s three attempts in the skills competition.

Davis finished with 23 saves, as Miami tallied twice on the power play in the contest.

Matthew Barbolini had two goals for the RedHawks, as he opened the game’s scoring at 13:04 of the first period during a man advantage and then notched the tying marker on a redirection with 2:57 left in the third stanza. Raimonds Vitolins recorded a power-play goal as well that cut DU’s lead to 3-2 in the final regulation period.

Wright scored his first of the night with 1:29 left in the opening frame to even the score at 1-1 at the first break, and Harris buried a wrist shot on a rush midway through the second period to give the Pios a 2-1 advantage after 40 minutes of play.

Wright tallied again off a feed from freshman Zeev Buium at 10:27 of the third stanza before Miami found the back of the net twice in the final eight minutes to force a 3-on-3 overtime.

Denver held possession for much of the OT period and outshot MU 2-1 but couldn’t get any past goaltender Bruno Bruveris in the five-minute stanza. Bruveris finished with 33 saves and went 1-for-2 in the shootout.

The Pioneers outshot the RedHawks 36-26 overall in the outing and had a 69-51 edge in total shot attempts.

UP NEXT: The Pioneers and RedHawks wrap up their weekend set and regular-season series on Saturday at 6 p.m. MT.

POSTGAME NOTES

Denver is now 1-2 in shootout this season and is 3-1-3 in overtime games this year.
Jared Wright scored twice for his third career multi-goal game and the first of the season. He last tallied twice on Dec. 3, 2022 vs. Arizona State.
Sam Harris scored in consecutive games for the first time in his career and is also on his first three-game point streak (3g/1a).
Jack Devine is on a four-game assist/point streak (0g/5a) and recorded his 45th point of the season.
Kent Anderson played in his 50th career game.
Goaltender Matt Davis made his 13th consecutive start, a season long by a DU netminder.
Miko Matikka was giving a five-minute major penalty and game misconduct for hit to the head at 5:52 of the first period.
Denver previously had won 12 straight games against Miami dating back to the start of the 2021-22 campaign and had an 11-game home winning streak that began on Feb. 23, 2019.

GOAL SUMMARY
1st Period
13:04 MU (0-1) – PPG, Matthew Barbolini tapped in a tic-tac-toe passing from the left side.
18:31 DU (1-1) – PPG, Jared Wright tapped in the puck at the top of the crease after cross passes from Shai Buium and Jack Devine.

2nd Period
10:33 DU (2-1) – Sam Harris buried a wrist shot on a rush from that went short-side, glove-side.

3rd Period
10:27 DU (3-1) – Jared Wright knocked in the puck from the left side after Zeev Buium skated around the zone with the puck.
12:14 MU (3-2) – PPG, Raimonds Vitolins redirected Rihards Simanovics’ shot from the blue line into the net.
17:03 MU (3-3) – Matthew Barbolini tallied on a deflection at the top of the crease.

Overtime
No Scoring

Shootout (1-0 DU)
R1 – MU Ryan Sullivan, missed
R1 – DU Tristan Broz, score
R2 – Raimonds Vitolins, missed
R2 – Sam Harris, missed
R3 – John Waldron, missed