Men's Ice Hockey | January 23, 2019
THIS WEEK
Western Michigan returns to the friendly confines of Lawson Ice Arena to host No. 4/3 Denver on Friday and Saturday at 7:05 p.m.
LAST WEEK
The Broncos went on the road to No. 2 St. Cloud State and suffered their second sweep of the season, falling to the Huskies 3-0 and 5-3.
Western Michigan was shutout for the first time this season in Friday's loss. After a scoreless first period SCSU netted two goals in the opening 10 minutes of the second to jump out to a 2-0 lead. WMU goalie
Trevor Gorsuch kept the Broncos close, finishing the game with 34 saves, but the Huskies added an empty-net goal with 53 seconds remaining, as the Broncos were unable to get anything past David Hrenak.
On Saturday the Broncos struck first, taking a 1-0 lead at 8:55 in the first period.
Dawson DiPietro slid the puck past Hrenak after a feed from
Colt Conrad for his second goal of the season. However, the Huskies struck back and added four goals in the second period to put the game out of reach.
Jade McMullen pulled one back at 12:02 in the third period to cut the lead to 4-2 but SCSU added an empty-net goal with 2:06 remaining.
Lawton Courtnall also added a late tally for the Broncos.
THE DENVER PIONEERS
• THE SERIES: After sweeping the Broncos back in November, the Pioneers lead the all-time series at 16-7-1. Most of WMU's success against DU has come at Lawson Ice Arena, where the Broncos are 6-5-0, including a sweep of the then No. 1 ranked Pioneers last season.
Senior forward Jarid Lukosevicius has done the most damage against Western Michigan than any other Denver player. Lukosevicius has 15 points on eight goals and seven assists in just 11 games against WMU.
Colt Conrad leads all Broncos with eight points on three goals and five assists against DU, while
Hugh McGing has seven on four goals and three assists in eight games.
Wade Allison has averaged a point per game against the Pioneers, tallying five goals and one assists for six points in six games.
• THE LAST TIME: WMU opened National Collegiate Hockey Conference play at Denver back on Nov. 2-3, falling to the Pioneers 5-2 and 4-3, in overtime.
Lukosevicius had a hat trick in the opening game of the series. WMU went down 1-0 early to a Lukosevicius short-handed goal. The Broncos tied it up twice in the second period on two goals by
Hugh McGing but Lukosevicius and Liam Finlay tallied in the second half of the period to send DU to the locker room with a 4-2 lead. Lukosevicius completed the hat trick midway through the third period.
In the weekend finale the Pioneers had a 2-0 lead heading into the third period. The Broncos scored three-straight to open the first 10 minutes of the final stanza to take a 3-2 lead.
Josh Passolt struck first at 3:54, followed by
Mattias Samuelsson at 6:53.
Paul Washe gave Western Michigan its lone lead of the series. Emilio Pettersen tied it up at 3-3 with 2:30 left to go before Lukosevicius netted his fifth goal of the weekend 2:40 into overtime for the game-winner.
• SCOUTING THE PIONEERS, AGAIN: After WMU's loss to St. Cloud State, the Pioneers tied Colorado College, 4-4, on Saturday to tie with Clarkson for the nation's current longest unbeaten streak at eight games. DU is 7-0-1 during the stretch and 7-1-2 in its last 10. The team's last loss came on Dec. 7 at North Dakota, 4-1.
Junior forward Liam Finlay leads the team in scoring with 24 points on 10 goals and 14 assists for the Pioneers, who average 3.43 goal per game to rank ninth in the nation. Freshman forward Emilio Pettersen leads the team with 16 assists and has five goals for 21 points, while Jarid Lukosevicius is the team-leader in goal scoring with 13 to go with seven assists for 20 points. Sophomore Ian Mitchell is the top point man from the blue line with 15 on three goals and 12 assists. In total, the Pioneers have 10 players with at least 10 points.
When the two teams played back on November, it was Devin Cooley that started both games between the pipes for the Pioneers. Colley has started 14 of the team's 21 games this season with a 8-4-1 record, a 2.08 goals against average and a .929 save percentage. However, freshman Filip Larson has started the past four games for Denver. Larson was recovering from an injury back in November and was unavailable to face the Broncos. The Detroit Red Wings' draft pick is 6-0-2 in seven starts this season with a 2.18 goals against average and a .919 save percentage. The two have combined for the 12th-best defense in the country, allowing just 2.19 goals per game.
DU's power play ranks 27th in the nation at 19.1 percent (18-for-94). Lukosevicius and Petteren are the tied for the team lead with four power play goals each. Finlay has three on the season, while Mitchell and Slava Demin each have two.
OODS AND ENDS
• WMU is 8-2-1 this season at Lawson Ice Arena, sitting just two wins shy of matching its total from the 2017-18 season.
•
Dawson DiPietro netted his second goal of the season in Saturday's 5-3 loss at St. Cloud State, snapping a 15-game drought.
• The five goals WMU gave up in Saturday's lost was the most since giving up five at Denver on Nov. 2.
WATCH PARTY
The WMU Blue Line Club will once again be hosting a watch party at Niskers Char-Grill and Hockey Bar on Feb. 2 as the Broncos take on Omaha at 8 p.m.
ON THE HORIZON
WMU heads back out on the road to travel to Omaha next Friday and Saturday for a pair of games at 8 p.m. Both games will be available on NCHC.tv and can be heard live on the Bronco Radio Network. Western Michigan has a bye week after the trip to UNO but returns to action hosting North Dakota on Feb. 15-16. Friday's game will be live on CBS Sports Network and the puck drop has been moved to 6:0 p.m. Saturday's game will start at 7 p.m. Tickets are available by calling 1-888-4-WMUTIX and online at www.wmubroncos.com/tickets.
