DENVER -- The Western Michigan hockey team fell at No. 10/12 Denver in a wild 5-4 shootout at Magness Arena on Friday night.
The Broncos took a 3-0 lead only to see the Pioneers score four straight goals before Chris Dienes tied it up with 2:37 left in the third period. Emil Romig netted the game-winning goal just 45 seconds later.
DU outshot WMU 35-28 on the night and 25-12 after the first period. Western Michigan went 1-for-4 on the power play and the Pioneers went 1-for-3 with the man advantage.
Kenney Morrison gave the Broncos a 1-0 lead with a power play goal at 3:47 in the first period. Colton Hargrove passed it to Chris Dienes after winning a draw in the DU zone. Dienes fed Morrison at the center point and the junior defenseman blew one past Denver goalie Tanner Jaillet for his third goal of the season.
At 8:10 Sheldon Dries pushed the lead to 2-0 with his third goal of the season. Dries created a turnover in the Pioneer zone and found Nolan LaPorte in the slot. LaPorte fired a shot that was saved by Jaillet but Dries punched in the rebound just left of the slot.
Justin Kovacs netted hist first goal of the season in his 100th career game at 13:16 in the first period to give the Broncos a 3-0 lead. Kovacs picked up the puck from Will Kessel at the DU blue line and faked Pioneer defenseman Matt VanVoorhis to create a breakaway and buried it.
Just 2:01 later Joey LaLeggia netted the first of two goals on the night for the star defenseman. The senior beat Hafner on his stick side from the left point to cut the lead to 3-1.
Denver cut the lead to 3-2 53 seconds later at 16:10 in the first period on Ty Loney's first of two goals on the night. VanVoorhis fired a shot from the left point and it deflected off of a DU forward in the slot and right to Loney in the right circle and he buried it for his third goal of the season.
Loney tied the game at 10:51 in the second period on a power play goal. Will Butcher took a shot from the left point and Loney redirected it into the net.
LaLeggia gave the Pioneers a 4-3 lead at 17:52 on his second of the night. He took the puck from the right slot down to the right circle and fired it past Hafner.
The Broncos tied it up at 4-4 on Dienes' first of the season. Kessel won the draw directly back to Dienes and the sophomore defenseman fired it into the back of the net.
The two teams meet again on Saturday nigth at 9 p.m. The game can be seen live on NCHC.tv and heard on the Bronco Radio Network.
