DENVER – The No. 1 University of Denver hockey team dropped its first game of the season on Friday night with a 3-2 loss to the Arizona State Sun Devils at Magness Arena.
The Pioneers (12-1-0, 2-1-0 NCHC) and Sun Devils (5-7-1, 2-3-0 NCHC) wrap up their two-game weekend series on Saturday at DU. Game time is at 6 p.m. MT and will be broadcast on NCHC.tv and regionally on Altitude 2.
Artem Shlaine had two goals for ASU—opening the scoring 35 seconds after the opening faceoff and then tallying the go-ahead and game-winning marker with 45 seconds left in regulation.
“I thought ASU played very well; physically, they were engaged,” said Richard and Kitzia Goodman Hockey Head Coach David Carle. “I thought they were on top of us in their O-zone forecheck. They created a lot of turnovers; we fed into those turnovers a bit in our rush play. Fed into a game that they wanted to play for the first two periods, we didn’t have a lot of offenses on time. The only real shining part of our game through two periods was special teams. Our power play score and the PK had run perfect.”
Denver’s loss ends a school-record and season-opening 12-game winning streak and a stretch of winning 21 straight outings dating back to March 9 versus Colorado College. The overall winning streak was the longest across multiple seasons in the team annals and one shy of matching the program record of 22 straight games that the squad won to finish the 1967-68 season en route to a championship.
Senior captain Carter King led Denver with two goals while sophomore defenseman Zeev Buium contributed two assists. Senior Jack Devine and junior Aidan Thompson also had helpers.
DU goaltender Matt Davis finished with 27 saves on 30 shots faced.
King tied the game twice for the Pioneers, evening the score with a wrist shot on a power play with 4:27 left in the first period and then again off a loose puck at the top of the crease with 4:01 remaining in the final frame.
Bennett Schimek netted the other goal for the Sun Devils off a breakaway at 7:20 of the middle stanza to give ASU the 2-1 lead. Arizona State goaltender Luke Pavicich stopped 30 shots as DU finished with a 32-30 edge in shots.
The Pioneers outshot the Sun Devils 14-5 in the third period and ended with a 55-38 advantage in total shot attempts in the contest.
Friday’s outing marked the 13th all-time between the western schools since they first began play in 2017 and the first as NCHC foes. ASU joined Denver in the conference as the NCHC’s ninth member this season.
UP NEXT: The Pioneers conclude their home series with ASU Sun Devils on Saturday at 6 p.m. MT before going on their second bye of the season. DU then heads out for a season-long, three-game road swing at Western Michigan on Dec. 6-7 and Colorado College on Dec. 13.
POSTGAME NOTES
- DU and Arizona State were meeting for the first time as NCHC opponents as the Sun Devils are in their first season as members of the conference.
- Denver scored on the power play for the 10th straight game dating back to Oct. 19 vs. Northeastern. It is the longest streak by the Pioneers since the start of the 2021-22 season.
- Aidan Thompson stretched his career-long and season-opening point streak to 13 games (9g/12a) after registering an assist.
- Jack Devine is now on a four-game assist/point streak (0g/6a).
- Devine had an assist and now has 128 career points (45g/83a) to move into sole possession of 42nd place on the school’s all-time scoring list.
- Zeev Buium recorded his 50th assist of his career in his 55th career game.
- Cale Ashcroft played in his 50th career game.
- ASU picked up its first win in Denver as the Pioneers are now 6-1-0 all-time against the Sun Devils at Magness Arena.
- DU’s school-record 12-game season-opening win streak came to an end.
- The Pioneers’ 21-game overall winning streak dating back to March 9 against Colorado College was the second-longest in program history and one shy of tying the 22-game run that the team went on from Jan. 5-March 16, 1968 en route to the program’s fourth national championship. The 21-game stretch was the longest winning streak across multiple seasons in the school annals.
- The Pioneers had their 10-game home winning streak dating back to Feb. 24 come to an end.
- Goaltender Matt Davis had his personal-record 20-game win streak end. His 11-game win streak this year was the longest in-season by a DU netminder since Tanner Jaillet also won 11 straight outings from Jan. 21-March 10, 2017.
GOAL SUMMARY
1st Period
0:35 ASU (0-1) – Artem Shlaine opened the scoring after a wraparound chance got through Matt Davis during a scramble in the crease.
15:33 DU (1-1) – PPG, Carter King found twine on a wrist shot in the high slot off passes from Zeev Buium and Aidan Thompson.
2nd Period
7:20 ASU (1-2) – Bennett Schimek tallied on a breakaway.
3rd Period
15:59 DU (2-2) – Carter King knocked in a loose puck near the goal crease.
19:15 ASU (2-3) – Artem Shlaine beat the DU goalie with a wrist shot from the slot.
QUOTABLES
Richard and Kitzia Goodman Hockey Head Coach David Carle
On the game: “I thought the first shift was indicative of the game; it’s a net-front, block-out situation. I don’t think we were emotionally engaged into the game as we were a week ago up at North Dakota. I think we took our foot off of the gas and got a hungry team coming in here that isn’t really scared of anyone. They’re the new kids on the block; they’re here to make their mark, and they don’t really care where they’re playing or who they’re playing. They took it to us for majority of the night and deserve to win.”
On Arizona State’s game plan: “There are really good coaches in college hockey. They watch what we do, and there’s a lot more film today than there was four weeks or four games into the year. They’ve been able to see tendencies, what gives us success. Obviously tried to counteract some of what we thought they were going to do. For the most part, I thought they obviously deterred us from doing that up until the third period here we did get some looks and get some more offensive zone time. Credit to them and their preparation and their attention to detail because it was at a higher level than ours for the majority of the night, and like I said, they deserve to win the hockey game.”
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