Buoyed by their highest national ranking ever, the No. 12 Grand Canyon University Women's Hockey team marched through the state of Colorado over the weekend, winning three of four games in less than 48 hours. The Lopes swept the University of Denver, winning, 7-1, on Friday night before coming back for a similarly offense-driven 7-3 win Saturday night. In between those games, the Lopes traveled to Boulder, Colorado, to defeat the University of Colorado in thrilling fashion, 5-4, Saturday afternoon, before the Buffaloes spoiled the perfect road trip with a 3-2 win Sunday morning. While the loss snapped the Lopes' season-long four-game winning streak, the Lopes are now 6-5 on the year, which is the first time the team has been above the .500 mark since last November.
 
Friday:  GCU 7, Denver 1
 
While most will stare at the season-high seven-goal performance and the 'hat trick' for Lopes' sophomore forward Reese Gingrich, Lopes' Head Coach Natalie Rossi was also beaming about the defense, which held the Pioneers scoreless for the first 51 minutes of the contest, and allowed DU just 16 shots on goal.
 
"We're pushing ourselves to handle the hard things in order to be great," Rossi said. "That's our message as coaches, and we've been saying it almost every day. It rang true this weekend."
 
Gingrich set the offensive tone early with an unassisted goal 90 seconds in and another lamplighter with 14 minutes left. Emmie Wahlgren and Elaine Richardson then took the lead, doubling the Lopes' advantage with goals over the next 20 minutes. In the third, it was GCU freshman Rory Arteaga ringing up her second and third goals of the year before Gingrich finished the scoring with goal #3 with two minutes left. Lopes' freshman goalie Olivia Cronin was stellar in her first-ever college game between the pipes, allowing a single DU goal midway through the 3^rd period after the outcome was long decided, and finishing with 15 saves.
 
Saturday:  GCU 5, Colorado 4
 
Annabelle Koethe helped the Lopes play the Buffs to a 2-2 tie throughout the first two periods with her 3^rd and 4^th goals of the season.
 
Then the fun began.
 
In a "never a dull moment" third period, GCU's Micah Summer – who assisted on both of Koethe's early goals – broke the 2-2 tie with a goal of her own (on a Koethe assist) with 15:09 left. CU's Melina Atwood came back five minutes later to tie it, then the Lopes' offense kicked into gear with seven minutes left, wearing down Buffs' netminder Zoe Watson with multiple shots in a row until Sydney Boucher (on assist passes from both Koethe and Summer) slapped it through to give GCU the lead back. The Lopes started stalling the puck in the final three minutes before Atwood stole it near center ice and weaved it past GCU goalie Hannah Schneidmiller to bring things even with 1:51 left in regulation. The Buffs seemed content with heading to overtime until Lopes' freshman Taylor Klassen grabbed possession at GCU's blue line, weaved through four defenders and slapped it past Watson for the gamewinner with 1:34 left.
 
Koethe finished with two goals and two assists, while Summer had three assists to go along with her lone score.
 
Saturday:  GCU 7, Denver 3
 
Four hours later, the Lopes' bus pulled back into DU's campus for the second game of the night, but GCU showed no signs of fatigue nor lack of adrenaline. Gingrich broke a 1-1 tie with her 6^th goal of the campaign with two minutes left in the first period, and the Lopes exploded from there, with Koethe and Arteaga combining to score the next three goals of the game to put things out of reach. Koethe added her second goal of the night early in the 3^rd period, and Arteaga closed out the day's scoring with her hat trick goal with nine minutes left. Koethe had an assist to go along with her two goals, and Belle LaCombe added a goal and an assist. Meanwhile, Cronin was again strong in goal, saving 27 of 30 shots.
 
Sunday:  Colorado 3, GCU 2
 
The rigors of the busy weekend finally showed Sunday morning as the Lopes' offense couldn't match the intensity of the first two days and never led. The teams remained scoreless for the first 28 minutes of play until CU's Zaya Sax broke the tie, and teammate Celine Long started the 3^rd period with an insurance goal.  Undeterred, the Lopes battled back to tie midway through the final frame with two goals in a 26-second stretch – courtesy of LaCombe and Alyssa Olson. Once again, the teams seemed destined for overtime until the Buffs got a power-play opportunity late in the game, and Elena McCloskey's unassisted goal with 1:14 left tagged GCU with the loss. The Buffs narrowly outshot GCU, 25-24, but it was the only time on the weekend the Lopes didn't own that advantage. Schneidmiller saved 22 shots in the losing effort.
 
"My big thing on the trip? Balance!" said Rossi. "13 players with points, 11 players with goals over the weekend. We've made this trip every non-COVID year of our existence, and we've never taken three wins home until now. That says a lot about the growth of this team."
 
The Lopes finally return home to AZ Ice Arcadia this Friday and Saturday, November 18 and 19, when they'll host yet another team from the Centennial State - Colorado State University - in a two-game set. Puck drop is scheduled for 8:15 PM on November 18, and 7 PM the next night.