April 7, 2005

COLUMBUS, OHIO - After Denver and Colorado College had tied for the WCHA season championship, split four games with each other, and played a scintillating 1-0 game won by Denver for the league playoff crown, a tight, tense battle was anticipated for Thursday's first NCAA Frozen Four semifinal. But Denver had other ideas.

The defending champion Pioneers connected on six of 12 power-play opportunies for all their goals and stunned Colorado College 6-2 before 17,116 paid attendance at Value City Arena in Schottenstein Center on the Ohio State campus. It will be the ninth time Denver has reached the NCAA title game, and the Pioneers are 6-2 in those matches, most recently one year ago.

Luke Fulghum scored a pair of first-period goals to stake the Pioneers to a 2-0 lead and establish a cadence of two goals in each period for Denver. Gabe Gauthier scored two later goals to build a 5-1 lead and finish off whatever drama remained. Defenseman Matt Carle had a goal and two assists, and Adrian Veideman finished the scoring with one last power-play goal in the final minute. Defenseman Brett Skinner added three assists for Denver.

Colorado College got a second-period goal from Brian Salcido and a third-period goal from James Brannigan, also both on power plays. But if it was a power-play duel, Denver's 6-for-12 clearly overmatched CC's 2-for-8.

Denver will take a 31-9-2 record into Saturday's championship game against another WCHA opponent, because Minnesota and North Dakota met in Thursday night's second semifinal.

Colorado College ends its season at 31-9-3, and could take little satisfaction from the fact that, at even strength, the game was a scoreless standoff, and that the Tigers outshot Denver 43-29. But Denver coach George Gwozdecky switched his pattern and went with freshman goaltender Peter Mannino, who usually plays the second game of each weekend with sophomore Glenn Fisher getting the first game. Mannino responded with a brilliant performance, stopping repeated close-in chances by the Tigers, whose even-strength edge in rushes and chances was rendered moot.

"Peter Mannino was terrific in goal," said Gwozdecky. "He was one of our top stars, if not our best player in the game. I made the decision to go with Peter strictly based on today's game. Peter has had more success against this opponent. Parts of our game, we did a good job - especially on the power play - but in other areas, it wasn't our best. No disrespect to out opponent; they played hard, generated countless scoring chances, and Peter was outstanding.

"One thing we were able to do was get the shooting lanes open on the power play. It was a game when our power play was very effective. It's rare when there are that many goals scored in a game, and none are at even strength. But a couple of good bounces went our way."

Gwozdecky said he hasn't decided about Saturday's goaltender. Mannino said he has a close friendship with Fisher. "This was a good call tonight, but , me and Glenn have become good friends," said Mannino. "We've played every other game all year. I've never played two games back to back all year."

Mannino even got an assist on the game's final goal, for good measure. That might have been the last indignity for the Tigers, whose goaltender had been the WCHA's best all season. "I feel bad for Curtis," said CC coach Scott Owens. "He's been the guy who's carried us so often this season, but he got hung out to dry a little today."

CC, one of the least-penalized teams in the WCHA and the country, was nailed 14 times for penalties by CCHA referee Matt Shegos, who called the game tightly, and also issued 10 penalties to the Pioneers.

"I thought we moved, skated pretty well, and got to the net better than in our previous two games against them," said Owens. "But we shot ourselves in the foot with some of the penalties, and we could never quite make the big play happen to get going. It's tough when you have to kill off 12 penalties, and you're one of the least-penalized teams in the country.

"We had killed 22 of the last 23 penalties against them, but the roof fell in today. Some things were called a little different than what we were used to, and we were a little dumb some of the time. I thought we got frustrated, and lost our composure a little bit for a while there."

The game started like a typically tight chess-match between the two storied rivals. But Fulghum rushed in and beat defenseman Lee Sweatt, deking outside and cutting inside to come in alone and score on McElhinney. If that was a dazzling rush, his second goal, 1:32 later, was one of the good bounces coach Gwozdecky was talking about.

"I got a pass from Matt Carle and was able to get past their defenseman," said Fulghum. "Then I scored five-hole on McElhinney."I was lucky on the second one, because Brett Skinner got off a great shot on net from the blue line, that probably would have gone in on its own, but it hit off my behind and went in."

Carle's power-play goal from center point made it 3-0 at 6:05 of the second period, but CC rekindled memories of rallying from a similar 3-0 deficit against Michigan in a 4-3 Midwest Region final victory when Salcido's shot from the blueline glanced in to spoil Mannino's shutout midway through the second period.

That 3-1 count was as close as CC could get, however, as Gauthier scored from the right circle on a 4-on-3 power play 10 seconds before the second period ended. The Pioneers had a two-man advantage when Gauthier deflected Jeff Drummond's pass to the goal-mouth from deep on the right at 5:42 of the third period, making it 5-1.

"Their older defensemen played so confidently and moved the puck so quickly," said Owens. "It's a great-shooting team, and they changed the shooting angles and got the puck through from the blue line. It was a credit to Denver."

The Tigers continued to skate and generate opportunities, but Mannino - who had shut out CC in both the final regular-season game to gain a share of the league title and in the Final Five championship match -- remained solid. The Pioneer defense also continued to squelch CC's league-best scoring tandem of Marty Sertich and Brett Sterling, but Brannigan finally connected for a Tiger goal when he spun and scored with a rebound at 13:02 of the third.

"Going into the game, I knew Peter had our backs covered," said Gauthier. "He has so much poise and confidence, he doesn't play like a freshman. And he gives us great confidence offensively and defensively."

Veideman's closing goal was on a 2-on-1, when he carried in on the left, faked a shot, then shot, and beat McElhinney.

"We came for two games, and we're very disappointed," said CC defenseman Mark Stuart. "It was fun, and a great experience coming to the Frozen Four, but it's definitely too short."

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