Dogs Split with Denver

NSO – NEWS RELEASE

The University of Minnesota Duluth hasn’t been swept in a National Collegiate Hockey Conference series in almost a year and the Bulldogs certainly want to keep it that way.

After falling 3-2 to the University of Denver one night earlier, No. 7 UMD bounced back Saturday night with a gritty 4-2 triumph at Magness Arena to remain in the thick of the NCHC title hunt. Nine different skaters collected points in the victory, just UMD’s second in its last seven games (2-4-1), including senior right winger Adam Krause and sophomore left winger Alex Iafallo, who both scored once and assisted on another goal.

After junior defenseman Andy Welinski (on a wrister from the left point) and Denver’s Zac Larrazza traded first-period goals, UMD, which never trailed the entire night, took the lead for good at 7:51 of the second period when Dominic Toninato scored off a rebound. It was the team-leading 14th goal of the season for the sophomore center and his first in seven games. Iafallo’s easy tap in eight minutes later put the Bulldogs up 3-1, but Quentin Shore’s power play goal 4:36 into the third period cut the deficit in half. With 56 seconds remaining in regulation and Denver’s goaltender pulled for an extra attacker, Krause buried a shot into the empty Pioneer net to move UMD to 15-10-1 overall and 9-6-1-0 in the NCHC.

For the second straight night, the Bulldogs held a slight shot advantage edge (36-33) over No. 11 Denver and also went 0-for-2 on the power play.

Notes: Tonight marked the end of a stretch in which UMD was away from home for eight of its last 10 regular season games and 10 of 12 outings overall (two exhibition bouts at Lakehead University). The Bulldogs have played at AMSOIL Arena just twice (vs. Western Michigan two weekends ago) since Dec. 6 … UMD will host Northern Michigan University next Friday and Saturday night in its final non-conference assignments of 2014-15 … Andy Welinski now has seven goals this season — a career high and the fifth most of any defensemen in the country. Both he and junior center Tony Cameranesi skated in their 100th career games Saturday  … UMD is 0-for-15 on the power play over the past five games and has connected on just four of its last 49 opportunities with the man advantage going back to Nov. 15 … Junior left winger Austin Farley has picked up a team-best six points (three goals and three assists) in eight lifetime outings against Denver … UMD rookie Kasimir Kaskisuo, who finished with 31 saves, and North Dakota junior Zane McIntyre are the only two NCHC goaltenders who have played in every minute of their team’s conference games thus far.

q