DENVER — Brett Stapley and Reid Irwin each scored twice to lead 14th-ranked Denver to a 6-1 victory over Colorado College Saturday night at Magness Arena.
Stapley opened the scoring with a power-play goal at the 7:32 mark of the first period. He took a back pass at his own blue line, skated through center ice and placed a wrister from the top of the right circle past CC goalie Dominic Basse.
Basse did his best to keep the Tigers in the game the remainder of the period, including an outstanding save on a partial breakaway by Griffin Mendel with two minutes left in the opening frame.
Carter Savoie put the Pioneers ahead 2-0 with a power-play goal of his own at the 7:11 mark of the second period. He took a feed from Mike Benning and put a shot from the right circle over Basse’s shoulder.
A couple of minutes later, the Tigers (3-5-2) had a couple of great looks as freshmen Jordan Biro and Marc Pasemko each nearly missed cutting the Denver lead in half.
Brian Hawkinson did just that with his first goal as a Tiger, completing a 2-on-1 with Josiah Slavin at 12:26 of the middle frame. The junior transfer from Miami University gathered Slavin’s pass in front of DU goalie Corbin Kaczperski and beat him between his legs.
Denver regained a two-goal lead when Reid Irwin scored with just 11.8 seconds left in the second period for a 3-1 advantage.
The Pioneers (4-7-1) added three goals in the final period and Matt Vernon relieved Basse after Irwin notched his second of the game to make it 5-1 just over five minutes into the stanza. Stapley collected his second of the contest with an unassisted goal at the 7:29 mark.
Kaczperski and Basse each finished the game with 17 saves.
The teams will resume the Battle for the Gold Pan with another home-and-home series next weekend. Friday’s game begins at 7:07 p.m., at Magness Arena.
