Union Falls at Denver in Battle of Ranked Teams

Final	1	2	3	Final
Union (9-4-5)	1	0	0	1
Denver (9-7-3)	3	0	0	3

Scoring Summary
1st - 05:33	PP - Drew Shore (Denver)
1st - 07:55	PP - Joey LaLeggia (Denver)
1st - 11:47	Shawn Ostrow (Denver)
1st - 14:45	PP - Welsh, Jeremy (Union)

Union	Denver
G: Jeremy Welsh - 1 A: 2 Players (#9, #22 - 1) Sh: 3 Players (#9, #21, #22 - 4) Sv: Troy Grosenick - 23	G: 3 Players (#15, #21, #26 - 1) A: David Makowski - 2 Sh: 2 Players (#23, #26 - 4) Sv: Juho Olkinuora - 42

TEAM STATISTICS	Union	Denver
Power Plays	1 for 3	2 for 4
Shorthanded Goals	0	0
Penalties (min)	4 (8)	3 (6)
Shots on Goal	43	28
Face Offs Won	37	35

full stats

DENVER, CO – No. 10 Union men's hockey (9-4-5) surrendered three goals in the first 11:47 of the first period, including two on the power play and No. 15 Denver (9-7-3) held on to beat the Dutchmen,  3-1, in front of 6,053 fans at Magness Arena.

Junior forward Jeremy Welsh scored his team leading 13th goal later in the opening period with Union on the power play, but the Dutchmen were unable to cut further into the Denver lead despite outshooting the Pioneers 43-28 for the night, including a 17-4 shot advantage in the third period.

Union's best chance to score came early in the final frame, when Matt Hatch's breakaway backhand shot was stopped by Denver goaltender Juho Olkinuora just over one minute into the third period.

The loss ended Union's six game unbeaten streak, and the Dutchmen fell to 2-2-2 against ranked opponents this season.
Olkinuora made 42 saves on the night, while Union's Colin Stevens stopped two of four shots in the first period before giving way to Troy Grosenick, who stopped 23 of 24 shots.

The Dutchmen surrendered three goals in the first period for the second time this season, chasing sophomore goaltender Colin Stevens after two early power play goals.

Denver leading scorer Drew Shore got things started for the Pioneers on the man advantage with Union's Trevor Mingoia in the penalty box for goaltender interference.  Shore scored from the wing at 5:33 to put the home team up 1-0 on its second shot of the game.
Just over two minutes later, with Union serving a too-many-men bench minor, Denver's Joey LaLeggia took a pass from Nick Shore, and beat Stevens from straightaway at 7:55, giving the Pioneers a 2-0 lead.

After the goal, Union head coach Rick Bennett summoned Grosenick to replace Stevens in net.

Denver built its lead to 3-0 at even strength on a nice play by Chris Knowlton. Knowlton skated around the Union net on a wrap around, but fed Shawn Ostrow at the last moment, setting up a tap-in goal at 11:47.

Sophomore forward Jeremy Welsh scored his seventh power play goal of the season at 14:45 to cut into the Denver lead. Welsh took a pass from Mat Bodie and beat Olkinuora low with a slapshot from straightaway. The goal was Welsh's 19th career power play tally, moving the junior into a tie for third with Mario Valery-Trabucco '10 on the school's career power play goal list in the Division I era.

Union had several chances to cut into Denver's lead in the second period. With Denver's Scott Mayfield in the penalty box for hooking, freshman forward Trevor Mingoia nearly put in a rebound off a Welsh shot from the point, but Olkinuora made a pad save and Denver cleared the puck.

Freshmen defenseman had an empty net to shoot at and nearly put in his own rebound, but the puck skipped over his stick at the 12:00 mark. Denver's Drew Shore skated back the other way on an odd-man rush and fired a shot off the outside of the post for the Pioneers' best scoring chance of the period.

Union will take on No. 6/5 Colorado College tomorrow night in Colorado Springs in a game that begins at 7:07 (MT).