{"id":4339,"date":"2003-03-14T20:11:41","date_gmt":"2003-03-15T02:11:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2003\/03\/14\/pioneers-stifle-parise-grab-game-one-4-1\/"},"modified":"2010-08-23T11:54:51","modified_gmt":"2010-08-23T16:54:51","slug":"pioneers-stifle-parise-grab-game-one-4-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/recaps\/2003\/03\/14\/pioneers-stifle-parise-grab-game-one-4-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Pioneers Stifle Parise, Grab Game One, 4-1"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Denver Pioneers scored two goals 33 seconds apart in the third period to take a 4-1 victory from North Dakota in the first game of the WCHA best-of-three series.<\/p>\n

“A lot of things went well for us tonight,” said Denver coach George Gwozdecky. “We got the first goal on a very fortunate bounce. We were able to build on a lead. We got excellent goaltending from Adam Berkhoel. And that was probably the best third period we’ve played in quite a while.” <\/p>\n

\"Pioneer<\/p>\n
Pioneer junior goalie Adam Berkhoel stopped 16 of the 17 shots he faced in Denver’s 4-1 victory over North Dakota Friday night. (Patrick C. Miller)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Goaltending problems continued to plague the Sioux as starting goalie Marc Ranfranz gave up two goals on five shots and Jake Brandt, who replaced him at 13:28 of the first period, surrendered two goals on 10 shots. <\/p>\n

Anemic offense didn’t help UND’s cause. The Pioneers smothered North Dakota’s top line, featuring the high-scoring duo of Zach Parise and Brandon Bochenski, who have combined for 57 goals and 114 points. However, for the third time this season, Denver held the line without a goal.<\/p>\n

The Pioneers scored first with a power play goal at 3:22 of the opening period. Freshman defenseman Brent Skinner’s backhand from the point eluded Ranfranz and found its way into the net.<\/p>\n

“I kind of got walled off,” Skinner said. “I had the puck on my backhand and fired it on net. You just hope for the best when that happens.”<\/p>\n

Then at 13:28 of the first, Skinner passed back against the grain to sophomore forward Luke Fulghum, who fired a quick wrist shot over Ranfranz’s shoulder from the top of the right circle.<\/p>\n

“With two bad goals in playoff hockey, you’re usually not going to win,” said UND coach Dean Blais. “It puts more pressure on everyone. You’re not relaxed to make plays.”<\/p>\n

In the second period, the Sioux closed the gap to 2-1 with junior center David Lundbohm’s 14th goal of the season. Kevin Spiewak’s centering pass from behind the net found Lundbohm alone in the slot and he buried his shot.<\/p>\n

Although UND outshot Denver, 7-4, in the second period and had better scoring opportunities, the Sioux couldn’t beat Berkhoel, a trend that continued for the remainder of the game.<\/p>\n

The third period began with both teams knowing that the next goal might determine the game’s outcome. In a three-on-two rush, the Sioux lost the puck in a tangle of skates and sticks in front of UND’s goal. Pioneer junior wing Lukas Dora found it and slammed it past Brandt to put Denver up 3-1 at 14:08.<\/p>\n

Just 33 seconds later, Kevin Doell, Denver’s leading scorer, split the Sioux defense and roofed a shot over Brandt. His unassisted goal gave the Pioneers an insurmountable 4-1 lead.<\/p>\n

UND’s frustration boiled over at game’s end when Sioux freshman forward Mike Prpich was given a five-minute major and game disqualification for cross-checking a Pioneer player.<\/p>\n

“Like coach said after the game, we didn’t play real smart,” said Sioux captain Ryan Hale. “We worked hard, but we just didn’t make plays.”<\/p>\n

The Pioneers were more than satisfied with the victory in Grand Forks.<\/p>\n

“It was a good win for us,” Gwozdecky said. “I expect an even harder battle tomorrow night out of both teams.”<\/p>\n

Hale expects that, too.<\/p>\n

“Everybody knows in the back of their minds that if we lose, the season’s over. We have to look at it that way,” he said.<\/p>\n

The Pioneers and the Sioux meet at 7:05 p.m. Saturday night at Engelstad Arena for the second game of the series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Denver Pioneers scored two goals 33 seconds apart in the third period to take a 4-1 victory from North Dakota in the first game of the WCHA best-of-three series. “A lot of things went well for us tonight,” said Denver coach George Gwozdecky. “We got the first goal on a very fortunate bounce. We […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4339"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4339"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=4339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}