DENVER - The No. 5 Denver Pioneers hockey team begins a home-and-home series against the Colorado College Tigers on Friday night at Magness Arena. The teams then close out the set on Saturday in Colorado Springs as DU makes its first trip to the new Robson Arena on the CC campus.
Friday's game has a new start time of 8 p.m. MT and will be televised nationally on CBS Sports Network. Saturday's contest begins at 6 p.m. MT and can be viewed regionally on AT&T Sportsnet Rocky Mountain and online at NCHC.tv.
This is the first of two series this season between the in-state rivals, with the winner of the yearly meetings taking the Gold Pan trophy. Denver has won the Gold Pan in each of the past two seasons and 15 years overall.
The Pioneers went 3-1-0 against the Tigers last season, which included winning each of the last three matchups.
Denver is coming off a weekend sweep of the then-No. 15 Omaha Mavericks, winning 5-2 on Saturday and 4-0 on Sunday.
Carter Mazur (0g/3a),
Massimo Rizzo (1g/2a) and
Cameron Wright (2g/1a) all had three points in Saturday's victory, while
Carter Savoie helped lead Denver's scoring punch on Sunday with a goal and two assists. After stopping 20 shots the first night, goaltender
Magnus Chrona made 31 saves to earn his second shutout of the season and the fifth of his career.
DU is 10-1-1 in its last 12 games and own a 10-0-1 mark at Magness Arena, the fourth-longest unbeaten streak to begin a campaign in program history.
CC has won three games in a row, including 5-1 and 4-3 victories against Miami in its last series on Jan. 7-8. The Tigers are 6-11-3 on the season and own a 3-6-1 mark in conference play.
The Pioneers have played no opponent more often than the CC Tigers, as the squads get set for the 329th and 330th all-time meetings this weekend. DU leads the all-time matchups with a 186-121-21 record.
North Dakota is Denver's next most-common opponent, with those teams having met 302 times previously. Michigan and Michigan State have currently played 329 times against one another, believed to presently be the most in college hockey history.
AWARDS SWEEP: Denver picked up all four NCHC Players of the Week awards on Monday, becoming the first team to sweep the weekly honors since North Dakota for the week of Nov. 25-Dec. 1, 2019. Each of the three skaters combined for multiple points over the two games last weekend, as
Carter Savoie was named Forward of the Week for a league-leading third time this season (1g/3a),
Sean Behrens was named Defenseman of the Week (0g/3a) and
Carter Mazur picked up Rookie of the Week honors (1g/3a).
Magnus Chrona earned his second Goaltender of the Week award of the season and the third of his career after stopping 51-of-53 shots in the series vs. Omaha. DU has won 16 NCHC Player of the Week awards, by far the most in the conference this season.
HOBEY BAKER NOMINATIONS: DU's top line of senior
Cole Guttman, junior
Bobby Brink and sophomore
Carter Savoie have all been nominated for the 2022 Hobey Baker Award, which is given annually to college hockey's top player. The three Pios are among 77 national players to be up for the award, which begins with a first round of voting from now until March 6. It also includes a fan vote, which accounts for 1% of the vote. Ten players will then be chosen for another round of voting from March 17-March 27, with three finalists being selected. The Hobey Baker Award will be announced on Friday, April 8 during Frozen Four festivities in Boston.
HOME COOKING: Denver is 10-0-1 on home ice this season, with its 11-game unbeaten streak being the fourth-longest to begin a campaign in school history. Only the 1973-74 (11-0-1), 1967-68 (19-0-0) and 1960-61 squads (23-0-1) have had longer home unbeaten stretches to start a year. Denver began the season on an eight-game winning streak, which was longest in the modern era and tied for the third-longest to start a campaign in the team annals (also 1958-59). The stretch was also the longest ever at Magness Arena, which first opened for the 1999-00 season.
PIONEERS IN THE POLLS: Denver moved up one spot to No. 5 in the DCU/USCHO.com coaches' poll and stayed put at No. 6 in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine media poll this week. In the Pairwise rankings, DU has been in the top 10 for much of the past two months, being as high as No. 2 on Jan. 3. The Pioneers are currently No. 3 in the Pairwise.
ALL THE POINTS: Pioneers have registered points in bunches recently as a player has recorded three or more points in each of the last four games, including:
- Consecutive four-point performances from Bobby Brink (1g/3a) on Dec. 31 and Brett Stapley (1g/3a) on Jan. 1.
- Three straight games with a player registering three assists in a contest, as Brink and Cole Guttman both had three helpers on Dec. 31, Stapley recorded a trio of assists on Jan. 1 and Carter Mazur picked up three apples on Jan. 15.
- Seven different players registering three or more points in one of Denver's last four contests.
- Carter Mazur (0g/3a), Massimo Rizzo (1g/2a) and Cameron Wright (2g/1a) each posting a three-point performance on Jan. 15, the third time this year that DU has had at least three players pick up a trio of points in a game (also Oct. 8 vs. Arizona State & Oct. 16 vs. Air Force).
SCHEDULE CHANGES: DU is coming off its second consecutive weekend where it had its original games postponed due to COVID protocols—this time versus St. Cloud State—but unlike Jan. 7-8, the Pioneers were able to play games as they hosted Omaha instead. The Mavericks' initial opponent last week was North Dakota, but the Fighting Hawks had similar issues as SCSU, thus making UNO a perfect partner for Denver (the teams had to make up a previous series anyways). To make the schedule work, DU will now play St. Cloud on Feb. 4-5, while the series versus Omaha that was slated for Feb. 25-26 in Denver will now take place in Nebraska.
MILESTONES: Senior
Brett Stapley appeared in his 100th career game on Sunday vs. Omaha, becoming the second Pioneer on the roster to reach the century mark this season (
Cole Guttman, Oct. 8 vs. Arizona State). Fifth-year seniors
Ryan Barrow (147) and
Cameron Wright (164) have also appeared in more than 100 NCAA contests.
The following players have upcoming milestones:
FRESHMEN AT THE TOP OF THE CHARTS: Denver's
Massimo Rizzo and
Carter Mazur are among the top scoring freshmen in the country, as both players are tied for the second-most goals by a first-year player with 10 each. Only Ohio State's Georgii Merkulov has found the back of the net more than DU's duo (12). In points, Rizzo is tied for second among freshmen with 24, trailing only Arizona State's Josh Doan (29), while Mazur is tied for fifth with 22 points.
AMONG THE TOP TEAMS: Denver is
first in the nation in scoring, averaging 4.7 goals per game. The Pios have scored four or more goals in 16-of-20 contests this season, including in all 14 wins and in all 11 games at home. DU also
ranks second in the NCAA with 37.2 shots for per game, as only Penn State averages more (38.2). The Pioneers have also been strong on limiting defensive chances, as they are
eighth in the country shots against per game at 25.0. DU has held opponents to 30 or fewer shots in 16-of-20 games. Denver and Quinnipiac (3rd in shots for, 1st in shots against) are the only two teams in the country that rank in the both the top 10 in shots for and shots against.
