GREELEY, Colo. (01/27/2012) – The No. 4 University of Colorado men’s
Division II ice hockey team used four power play goals and
held off a late Northern Colorado rally for the 6-4 victory on
Friday night at the Greeley Ice Haus.
“Our power play pulled through,” said CU captain Alex
Lencioni, who scored twice in the game – both times on the man
advantage. “We had a lot of power play goals tonight and I was
pretty impressed with our special teams. It helped us get the
win.”
The Buffaloes finished 4-for-9 on the power play while not
allowing any goals on the Bears’ 10 chances with the extra
skater
“I was proud of the team and how we held UNC scoreless on the
power play,” Lencioni said. “We had a lot of penalty kills and
that shows the character of our team.”
Chase Komatz and Sam Kinney each had a goal and an assist in
the contest, while Reilly O’Brien and J.P. Park also scored
for CU. Charlie Coleman and Cody Glickman both finished with
two assist nights, and goaltender Alex Pomerleau made 23 saves
on 27 shots in the victory, improving his season record to 5-
3-0-1.
The Buffs opened the scoring with two goals in the first five
minutes of the game – the first by O’Brien just 34 seconds in,
and the second by Lencioni at 4:54 of the period.
Brandon Pougnet cut Colorado’s lead in half with a wrist shot
over Pomerleau’s left shoulder midway through the opening
stanza, but Lencioni returned the Buffs’ advantage back to two
with a goal three minutes later.
Komatz pushed the CU lead to three after a great individual
effort with 11:12 left in the second period. With the puck in
the Northern Colorado left corner, Komatz stole the puck,
broke past two Bears defensemen in front of the net and
wrapped it past goaltender Brian Van Dyke for the score. The
goal was Komatz’s 16th of the season and marks the 12th
straight game in which he has found the back of the net at
least once.
UNC forward Jake Kleiner made the score 4-2 after 40 minutes
with a late goal in the middle stanza.
Kinney picked up his third tally of the season on the power
play 4:22 into the third before Ryan Meyer scored twice for
the Bears, cutting the CU lead to one with 4:47 to play.
Following Meyer’s second goal, Colorado coach Shawn Sullivan
called a timeout to refocus his squad and it worked with Park
scoring 33 seconds later to give the Buffs some insurance.
Pomerleau and the CU defense held strong in the final minutes
to secure the Buffaloes 12th win in their last 13 contests and
sweep the four-game season series with the Bears. Colorado’s
record improves to 19-6-0-1 on the season while Northern
Colorado loses their 14th game in a row, dropping their mark
to 3-18-0-1.
The Buffs will look to go for win No. 20 of their 2011-12
campaign tonight (Saturday) at 7:30 p.m. when they host
Lindenwood University (ranked No. 4 in the ACHA Central
Division) at the CU Ice Arena. Colorado will play a home-and-
home series with No. 3 Colorado State next weekend, beginning
on Friday in Fort Collins and concluding on Saturday in
Boulder.
Admission to all Division II games at the CU Ice Arena is $5
for the general public and $3 for students with a Buff
OneCard.
A live video broadcast of the Colorado-Lindenwood game will
available on the CU Buffs Hockey Network at
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/cubuffshockey.
Scoring Summary
First Period
19:24 CU – Reilly O’Brien, assisted by Chase Komatz and
Charlie Coleman
15:06 CU – Alex Lencioni, assisted by Cody Glickman and Brian
Kelly – PP
10:19 UNC – Brandon Pougnet, unassisted
7:23 CU – Alex Lencioni, assisted by Cody Glickman and Jase
Richardson – PP
Second Period
11:12 CU – Chase Komatz, assisted by Sam Blass and Charlie
Coleman
3:24 UNC – Jake Kleiner, assisted by Jake Reiner – SH
Third Period
15:38 CU – Sam Kinney, unassisted – PP
12:00 UNC – Ryan Meyer, assisted by Corbin Fitzgibbons
and Matt Gebing
4:47 UNC – Ryan Meyer, unassisted
4:14 CU – J.P. Park, assisted by Sam Kinney and Bill Haege
Shots on Goal
CU – 31
UNC – 27
Power Play Chances
CU: 4-for-9
UNC: 0-for-10
