October 12, 2008
Denver Takes Hall of Fame Game From Irish
CHN Staff Report
DENVER — With a lot of attention focused on some big early non-conference games back East, Denver made a statement of its own in a game between a pair of teams picked to finish first by CHN in their respective conferences.
Denver, hosting the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Game on Saturday, got two goals from hometown freshman Luke Salazar and defeated Notre Dame, 5-2 in front of 6,066 fans in Magness Arena.
Tyler Ruegsegger, Patrick Wiercioch and Anthony Maiani also scored for DU.
"It was an interesting game, because I thought they really carried the play and gave us all kinds of problems in the first period," Denver head coach George Gwozdecky said. "We were fortunate to come out of the first period with a tie. The thing I liked was that I really thought we got better as the game went on."
The teams headed into the first intermission tied 1-1. Billy Maday beat DU netminder Marc Cheverie at 3:30 of the opening frame, but Ruegsegger notched a power-play tally at 13:57 to even the contest.
"We just wanted to come out and work hard. We worked on some things in practice, getting some rebounds and things like that," said Ruegsegger. "It was a tough start to the game, so I think to get that first goal on the board was important to us."
