DENVER – (RV) Omaha Hockey (14-10-1, 10-4-1 NCHC) continued its seven-game unbeaten streak as it officially tied with No. 5 Denver (18-6-1, 7-5-1 NCHC) but won the longest shootout the NCHC has ever seen after 16 rounds when senior defensemand and captain Nolan Krenzen put a bow on the game in the opening game "Mile-High City" on Friday night at Magness Arena.
The Mavericks record of 7-1-1 this past month was their best January in program history.
Junior goaltender Simon Latkoczy made 39 saves and was named the game's first star in his 75th career game (74th start).
The Mavericks were able to come out and match the pace of the defending national champions.
For the third straight game, Omaha potted the game's first goal.
Junior defenseman Jacob Guevin circled to the center near the blue line in the Denver zone with under 20 seconds left with the man advantage. Guevin gave it off to his right, and junior forward Cam Mitchell took the puck.
Mitchell returned it to the junior defenseman, who ripped a shot that bounced off Denver's netminder Matt Davis.
The puck took a favorable roll and fell onto the stick of graduate forward Sam Stange, who buried it with 11 seconds remaining on the power play at 11:42 in the first period.
Stange is on a four-game point streak as he has tallied six (2G-4A) since Jan. 18.
Omaha only had one power play in the contest.
In the second period, forward Kieran Cebrian did not want to waste a minute, so he tied the game 40 seconds into the middle frame, making it 1-1.
Junior forward Jacob Slipec played an electric shift, protecting the puck in the Denver zone while trying to create magic.
While the puck seemed to have slipped away, Slipec corralled it behind the cage and sent it to the other side, where freshman forward Liam Watkins managed to catch Davis off guard and make it 2-1 for the Mavericks less than halfway through the period.
Four of the game's six goals were scored in the second period, and the Mavericks scored two consecutive goals in the middle 20.
In the game's 34th minute, junior forward Tyler Rollwagen led a charge down center ice, where he dumped it off to graduate forward Brock Bremer in the neutral zone.
Bremer was slippery and skated down the right side. He took a chance and found the back of the net from the circle.
That was Omaha's final goal (of regulation) as Denver scored 19:35 into the second period and then just 1:12 into the final period.
Overtime saw many back-and-forth scoring opportunities, with each team putting four shots on goal in the extra five-minute time slot. However, for the first time all season, Omaha ended a matchup in a tie.
In the 16-round shootout, senior forward Zach Urdahl scored on Davis in the first round, while Denver didn't add one.
Forward Aidan Thompson put one past Latkoczy in the third round to make it 1-1.
Slipec then put Omaha back in front immediately after making the shootout 2-1 in the fourth. However, forward Jack Devine found the back of the net and made it 2-2 in the fourth round.
Nobody scored again until round 10 when junior forward Garrett Pinoniemi made it 3-2, but Boston Buckberger became the shootout's first defenseman to put one in the net to tie it 3-3.
We did not see another goal scored in the shootout until Krenzen skated right to left and put a shot up between the circles, landing on the top left shelf over Davis's glove side.
The captain's wrister ended the record-breaking shootout at Magness Arena.
Omaha is back at Magness Arena tomorrow to close its series against the Pioneers. Puck drop is set for 6 p.m. MT/7 p.m. CT.
