DENVER – The No. 6 Denver Pioneers hockey team lost 5-2 to the No. 15 Maine Black Bears in a non-conference series opener on Friday night at Magness Arena.
DU (12-7-1, 8-2-0 NCHC) pushed hard in the third period by tallying twice, but Maine (12-7-1, 6-5-0 HEA) used three goals in the frame to hold on for the victory.
“Their puck pressure is really good,” said Denver Richard and Kitzia Goodman Hockey Head Coach David Carle. “There were times where our talk could’ve been better to break pucks out a little bit cleaner, where we don’t have to give them the puck back and then chase it, but I did like a lot of, truthfully, of what we did tonight, especially on 5-on-5 through the first two periods. They had some plays that found their way in the back of the net, some dirty goals.”
The teams conclude their weekend series on Saturday at 6 p.m. MT in what will also be both squads’ final non-conference outings of the regular season. The game will be broadcast on NCHC.tv, and limited tickets are still available.
Junior defenseman Boston Buckberger had a goal and an assist for the Pioneers while freshman forward Kyle Chyzowski registered a pair of helpers for a multi-point night as well and stretched his career-long point streak to five contests. Rookie Kristian Epperson also tallied and junior Sam Harris had an assist for DU.
Pioneers goaltender Quentin Miller made 29 saves, as Maine outshot Denver 34-31. His counterpart Albin Boija on the other side of the ice also stopped 29 shots.
Thomas Pichette had three points in the contest for Maine on two goals and one assist, with both markers coming in the third frame. Buckberger tallied his sixth goal of the season 2:28 after Pichette’s first of the night at 5:12, and Epperson also netted his sixth of the campaign midway through the period and just 46 seconds after Pichette’s last marker.
Denver outshot Maine 13-7 in the third period, but the Black Bears did a good job of clogging up shooting lanes as eight of their 19 blocked shots came in the last 20 minutes, with several in the last four minutes while Miller was pulled for the extra attacker.
“We had a lot of good looks; desperation was good in the 6-on-5,” Carle said. “Their goalie made a lot of real good saves tonight. They were desperate in front of their net, blocked a lot of shots all night long, that was also indicative of the 6-on-5.”
Lukas Peterson and Sully Scholle opened the scoring for Maine in the second period after the teams played a scoreless opening stanza. Brandon Holt tallied an empty-net goal with 59.4 seconds left in regulation and also had an assist in the contest.
DU went 1-for-3 on the power play, which included a five-minute major in the second period. The Pios successfully nullified its only penalty on the net.
UP NEXT: Denver wraps up its series against Maine and concludes the first half of its season-long four-game homestand on Saturday at Magness Arena. The Pioneers return to NCHC play and host defending national champion Western Michigan next weekend, Jan. 9-10.
POSTGAME NOTES
- Junior Kieran Cebrian played in his 100th game for the Pioneers on Friday night; he is the fourth member of DU’s junior class to reach this milestone.
- Kyle Chyzowski recorded his first career two-assist contest and his second multi-point game of the season. He is on a career-long, five-game point streak with three goals and three assists.
- Boston Buckberger registered his fifth multi-point performance of the season and now has 15 points (6g/9a) in the past 13 games since Nov. 1 and seven points (3g/4a) in the past six outings.
- Freshman Payton Nelson appeared in his second game of the season.
- Eric Pohlkamp suited up for Denver, two days after playing in the Spengler Cup Championship Game with the U.S. Collegiate Select Team in Davos, Switzerland. He racked up three points (2g/1a) in four games with USCS.
- Freshman Brendan McMorrow did not play as he was with Team USA at the 2026 IIHF World Junior Championship in Minnesota.
- Hagen Burrows’ three-game (2g/1a) streak ended.
- Denver began a season-long, four-game homestand and is set to play nine of its next 12 and 11 of its final 16 matchups of the season on home ice. The Pios will have eight-of-10 games in the month of January at Magness Arena.
- The Pioneers entered the game ranked fourth in the NCAA in both goals for and goals against (tied) per game. Maine was tied for fifth in the country in goals/game.
- Maine was visiting DU for the first time since the Pioneers won 3-1 to claim the Ice Breaker Tournament championship on Oct. 8, 2022.
- Denver is now 4-2-0 in the last six games against Maine and 10-14-0 all-time against the Black Bears.
- The Pios are now 10-4-0 against teams from the Hockey East Association since the start of the 2023-24 campaign.
GOAL SUMMARY
1st Period
No Scoring
2nd Period
3:41 Maine (0-1) – Lukas Peterson’s shot from the point got through traffic and ended up in the back of the net.
8:44 Maine (0-2) – Sully Scholle scored on a wrist shot during a rush after Owen Fowler forced a turnover in the neutral zone.
3rd Period
5:12 Maine (0-3) – Thomas Pichette scored in front after taking a pass from the right-wing wall by Justin Poirier.
7:40 DU (1-3) – PPG, Kyle Chyzowski found Boston Buckberger all alone near the crease, and Buckberger one-touched a shot into the net off the pass.
9:35 Maine (1-4) – Thomas Pichette scored on a wrister from the slot after corralling the loose puck.
10:21 DU (2-4) – Kristian Epperson poked the puck past the Maine goalie following a centering feed by Boston Buckberger from the right circle
19:01 Maine (2-5) – ENG, Brandon Holt scored into an open net from his own zone.
QUOTABLES
Richard and Kitzia Goodman Hockey Head Coach David Carle
On Maine’s aggressive penalty kill: “They certainly were—great call from up top by [director of hockey operations] Will [Healey] to challenge the play. I liked our discipline; we only took one penalty on the night. We, obviously, drew a few and unfortunately we were only able to capitalize on the one. The five-minute major in the second (period), certainly, with the long change left them wanting more, but unfortunately we weren’t able to make them pay on that.”
On what to work to earn the series split on Saturday: “I didn’t like our third period, obviously. We scored but then we gave up a goal. We scored enough to tie up the game, but we gave up two easy goals that I thought were preventative, so just keeping our discipline and trying to stick with it. We have another battle tomorrow; they are a really good hockey team that you can’t relax against. And that’s why they’re a great team to play, and it’s making us better.”
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