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Denver Beats No. 1 North Dakota 4-1

DENVER (AP) - Denver University goalie Evan Cowley made 29 saves and assisted on a goal as the Pioneers beat North Dakota 4-1 Saturday to extend its winning streak against No. 1-ranked teams to three games.

The 11th-ranked Pioneers will try for another sweep on Saturday. They swept Minnesota Feb. 10-11, 2012, the last time they faced a No. 1-ranked team.

"There were some holes in everybody's games," UND coach Dave Hakstol said. "Every night is like a playoff game and you can't have holes in your game. Mistakes ended up in the back of our net."

The Pioneers took a 2-0 lead into the third period. Josiah Didier scored in the first period and Quentin Shore on the power play in the second for the Pioneers (10-4-0, 4-2-0). Shore's goal snapped a streak of 23 straight penalty kills by UND (12-4-2, 5-3-1), which saw its three-game win streak end. Joey LaLeggia made it 3-1 at 7:51 of the third and Will Butcher added an empty-netter with 1 second left.

Bryn Chyzyk scored a goal and goalie Zane McIntyre made 25 saves for North Dakota.

North Dakota killed off a five-minute major but lost Mark MacMillan to a game misconduct at 7:08 of the first period. MacMillan came into the game as UND's most prolific scorer against the Pioneers with eight points in nine games.

"We couldn't find the right answer losing MacMillan that early. We couldn't consistently generate anything," Hakstol said.

Denver scored first when Didier took a drop pass from Gabe Levine and beat McIntyre at 18:31 of the period. Denver outshot UND 12-7 in the first period but UND had a 30-28 lead overall. Denver missed three open nets in the closing minutes before Butcher scored at 19:59.

Cowley was credited with an assist after Shore redirected a long pass from Ty Loney past McIntyre on the power play at 12:49 of the second period. Shore's sixth goal of the season ended a streak of 23 straight penalty kills by UND.

Denver was 2-for-6 on the power play, while UND went 0-for-3. North Dakota finally got on the board at 4:05 of the third period. Bryn Chyzyk set up in front of the net where he picked up a rebound of a Connor Gaarder shot and backhanded it past Cowley.

(© Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.) 

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