In Denver’s first ever home game on Halloween, there were one too many tricks opposed to treats inside Magness Arena.

A goal by Dimitry Kebreau with just over a minute left to play in overtime gave Alaska Anchorage (1-4-0) a 4-3 win over the No. 6 Pioneers (3-2-2) on Friday night, despite DU out-shooting the Seawolves 49-20.

“Congrats to them, first and foremost,” Pios coach David Carle told The Denver Gazette. “We had the looks. I think the easy thing to say is we need to score more, but trying to dig deeper into things, I didn’t love our third period. We pushed a lot in the second and (it’s) a tie game at home going into the third. We had some looks in the third, but it wasn’t the same kind of jump or push that we had in the second.”

Denver junior Kieran Cebrian opened the scoring just under the halfway point of the opening period, but a game misconduct penalty on top defenseman Eric Pohlkamp shortly later gave Alaska Anchorage a 5-minute power play to try and even up the game and the Seawolves did just that with a little over minute left on the man advantage.

There were 14 total penalties in the game, 7 apiece, and it made for a disjointed first 2 periods, in particular, as each team had multiple power play chances, but UAA’s first period goal was the only on the man advantage for either team all night as DU went 0-for-5.

“It’s different, but sometimes guys love it. Guys who are on the power play love it. Guys who aren’t, it’s a little bit harder for them,” Carle said. “You don’t get to pick the script of the game and how it’s gonna unfold. It’s challenging, but they played in the same game and found a way to make the key stops or the one key play on their power play to put it in the back of the net.”

Senior Rieger Lorenz got a shorthanded goal to give the Pios a 2-1 lead in the second period as he drew a penalty going toward the net and converted the program’s first penalty shot goal since 2002. But the Seawolves evened things back up at 2 goals apiece a few minutes later on the first of 2 goals by defenseman Joey Potter.

After falling behind early in the third period, DU finally got a breakthrough and tied the score up at 3 with 1:20 left in regulation on a goal by sophomore James Reeder. 

It’s the first time DU has lost back-to-back games since it lost 3straight in late November and early December last season. After scoring 7 goals in a win on the road against then-No. 9 Boston College last Friday night, the Pios have managed just 3goals on 86 shots in the 2 games since. 

“I thought it was a similar case with Northeastern last Saturday night,” Carle said. “Stuff goes your way, you’re trying to find solutions to your problems. I think the easy thing is to say, ‘Yeah, we need to score more.’ You’re trying to use the adversity as much as you can.”