DU IN TITLE GAME

Pios to meet St. Cloud State

ST. PAUL, MINN.» It’s been 49 weeks since the University of Denver hockey team beat Minnesota Duluth for the NCAA title in Chicago last spring. But judging by the on-ice action Friday, little has changed for either team.

The Pioneers received goals from Henrik Borgstrom, Colin Staub and Adam Plant, along with 25 saves from Tanner Jaillet, and posted a 3-1 victory over the Bulldogs, advancing to the title game of the NCHC’s Frozen Faceoff.

Denver will face regular-season champion St. Cloud State on Saturday night, with each team already ensured to play in the NCAA Tournament next week.

As they have done since that meeting in Chicago almost a year ago, the Pioneers frustrated Duluth during Friday’s game, getting excellent goaltending and keeping the highly-touted Bulldogs’ power play from making a difference.

“It was a good team win. I thought we started off exactly the way we wanted to play in the first period,” Pioneers coach Jim Montgomery said. “We lost our edge when we took an unnecessary penalty there, but after that I thought our penalty kill effort played great hockey for us.”

The Pioneers took a 10-4 advantage in shots into the first break courtesy of a pair of power plays, one of which gave them a lead. Borgstrom posted his teamleading 22nd goal of the season after a pass from Ian Mitchell. With Jarid Lukosevicius posted at the top of the crease blocking the view of Duluth goalie Hunter Shepard, Borgstrom’s long-range wrist shot hit eluded the goalie’s glove and caught the net just inside the right post.

“You can’t give that team that much room,” Bulldogs coach Scott Sandelin said of the first period. “In some ways, we were fortunate that it was only 1-0 after one.”

The Bulldogs tied the game on their first power play early in the second period on a slap shot by Scott Perunivich, but Denver went back ahead when Staub’s shot took advantage of Shepard getting knocked down by one of his own defensemen.

Plant scored an empty-net goal in the final minute, as Duluth managed just five goals in five meetings with Denver this season.

Brett Groehler, Special to The Denver Post University of Denver goalie Tanner Jaillet makes one of his 25 saves Friday, blocking this shot by Minnesota Duluth forward Ryan Tufte at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn.