DENVER – The No. 4 Denver Pioneers hockey team hosts the No. 11 Providence College Friars for a two-game set at Magness Arena this weekend for homecoming. Friday's contest begins at 7 p.m. MT, while Saturday's outing is at 6 p.m. MT and features Denver raising its 2022 national championship banner to the rafters beforehand.
Both outings will be streamed live on NCHC.tv.
The Pioneers are coming off an 0-2 weekend at the then-No. 13 Massachusetts Minutemen, falling 4-2 last Friday and 3-0 on Saturday. DU outshot UMass by a total of 77-39 over the weekend, including by a 47-15 margin in Friday's loss.
Denver (2-2-0) now returns home where it has gone 36-7-2 since the start of the 2019-20 campaign, including sweeping the opening weekend on Oct. 7-8 when it defeated then-No. 11 Notre Dame and Maine to capture the Ice Breaker Tournament championship.
Providence will be visiting the Mile High City for the first time since Nov. 23-24, 2004 when DU earned a 3-1 win and 4-4 tie. The Pioneers are 7-10-3 all-time against the Friars and sport a 4-4-1 mark at home and a 3-0-2 record at Magness Arena.
The teams played once last season on Oct. 22, 2021 in Rhode Island, with PC erasing a three-goal deficit in the third period to earn a 6-5 win.
Providence is off to a 3-0-0 start in the 2022-23 campaign and is coming off a 2-1 win vs. then-No. 7 Northeastern in its Hockey East Conference opener last Saturday.
This weekend's matchup marks Denver's fourth and fifth-straight games against a Hockey East team. The Pioneers open their conference play the following weekend on Oct. 28-29 at Miami.
MINI BANNERS: The first fans that enter Magness Arena for Saturday's game will get a mini replica 2022 national championship banner, courtesy of Polidori Sausage. Doors open at 5 p.m.
CONNECTIONS: Casey Dornbach and Providence's Luke Johnson are both from Edina, Minn., while
Mike Benning and Taige Harding are both from St. Albert, Alberta … DU's
Kent Anderson and
Matt Davis and PC's Max Crozier are also all from the same hometown (Calgary, Alberta) … PC goalie Philip Svedeback and Denver goalie
Magnus Chrona are both from Stockholm, Sweden … Svedeback also played on the USHL's Dubuque Fighting Saints last season with Denver's
Tristan Lemyre and
Lucas Olvestad …
Carter Mazur and Guillaume Richard played on the Tri-City Storm for two seasons from 2019-2021 …
Tristan Broz and Cody Monds were teammates with the USHL Fargo Force in 2020-21 …
Shai Buium played on the USHL Sioux City Musketeers in 2020-21 with Bennett Schimek …
Sean Behrens and
Jack Devine played with Chase Yoder and Brett Berard at the U.S. National Team Development Program in 2019-20 and played with Brady Berard at the NTDP in 2020-21.
SCOUTING THE FRIARS: Providence has started the season 3-0-0 and is coming off a 2-1 win vs. No. 7 Northeastern on Saturday in its Hockey East opener. The Friars opened the campaign with a 6-1 victory vs. Sacred Heart on Oct. 7 and began play last week by defeating Clarkson 5-2 on Thursday. PC's four goals against on the year are tied for the second fewest in the nation, and the program presently has the NCAA's second-best power play (40%). Riley Duran leads the team with four goals and five points, while Patrick Moynihan (3g/1a) and Cody Monds (1g/3a) have recorded four points each this year. Goaltender Philip Svedeback has played all three games for Providence and owns a 1.33 goals-against average and .945 save percentage this year.
DARN GOOD DORNBACH DEBUT: Fifth-year senior
Casey Dornbach began the season on a three-game point streak (3g/2a), including tallying twice in his Denver debut on Oct. 7 versus Notre Dame. Appearing in his 100th career game on Oct. 8 against Maine, Dornbach joined the Pioneers this past summer after spending the previously four years at Harvard where he served as the Crimson's team captain in 2021-22 and graduated with his bachelor's degree in May.
NON-CONFERENCE MATCHUPS: DU will play 12 non-conference games against seven different opponents this season. The Pioneers hosted then-No 11 Notre Dame and Maine on Oct. 7-8 and will face Providence (Oct. 21-22), Arizona State (Dec. 2-3), Lindenwood (Dec. 16-17) and Alaska Fairbanks (Jan. 6-7) at Magness Arena later this year. DU's only two road non-conference contests took place with a series at No. 13 Massachusetts on Oct. 14-15. The season-opening games against Notre Dame and Maine marked the only time before the postseason that Denver will play two different opponents on back-to-back days.
PIONEERS IN THE NHL: Denver had 12 players make NHL Opening Night rosters, tied for the second-most in the conference (Minnesota Duluth). North Dakota (15) was the only NCHC school with more alumni in the NHL on opening day than Denver.
Among the Pioneers that started the season for their respective NHL clubs are
Bobby Brink (Philadelphia) and
Carter Savoie (Edmonton) from the 2022 national championship squad, though both players were on injured reserve. Dylan Gambrell (Ottawa), Danton Heinen (Pittsburgh), Scott Mayfield (New York Islanders), Ian Mitchell (Chicago, IR), Trevor Moore (Los Angeles), Logan O'Connor (Colorado), Emilio Pettersen (Calgary, IR), Paul Stastny (Carolina), Troy Terry (Anaheim) and Jason Zucker (Pittsburgh) were the other 10 players to make NHL rosters.
WELCOME TO DU: Six of Denver's seven incoming freshmen made their NCAA debuts on opening weekend, with forwards
Tristan Lemyre,
Rieger Lorenz and
Jared Wright and defenseman
Kent Anderson playing on Oct. 7 vs. Notre Dame while winger
Tyler Haskins and rear guard
Lucas Olvestad skated on Oct. 8 vs. Maine. Lorenz picked up his first career point with an assist in the contest versus the Irish. Forward
Aidan Thompson is the only member of the Pioneers' 2022 freshmen class that hasn't played yet, but that is due to a lower-body injury he suffered during USA Hockey's National Junior Evaluation Camp in August.
CAPTAINING THE SHIP: Senior defenseman
Justin Lee was named the 93rd captain in program history on Sept. 22 after serving as an alternate during the 2021-22 campaign. Lee, who is serving as a captain for the first time in his career, will be flanked by three alternate captains in senior
Kyle Mayhew, junior
McKade Webster and sophomore
Carter Mazur.
IN THE POLLS: Denver is ranked as the No. 4 team in the country in both national polls after DCU/USCHO.com and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine released their latest rankings on Monday. The Pioneers began the first few weeks of the season at No. 1 in both polls. Prior to finishing the 2021-22 campaign as the No. 1 team in the nation, the last time DU ranked in the top spot was early November 2019.
FAVORITES OF THE NCHC: The Pioneers were voted first to win the NCHC regular season in the conference's annual preseason media poll, announced on Sept. 21. DU has been voted the preseason favorite one other time in NCHC history, as that was prior to the 2017-18 campaign following the Pios' previous national championship win.
PRESEASON HONORS: Denver had four players named to the NCHC Preseason All-Conference Team with senior goaltender
Magnus Chrona, junior defenseman
Mike Benning, sophomore defenseman
Sean Behrens and sophomore forward
Carter Mazur picking up honors. Mazur (22-of-23 votes) and Chrona (21-of-23 votes) were close to being unanimous choices. This is the first time that a team had four players named to the NCHC Preseason All-Conference Team since Minnesota Duluth also had four in 2019.
PIONEERS IN THE DRAFT: Four DU players were selected this past summer in the 2022 NHL Draft, led by incoming freshman
Rieger Lorenz at No. 56 overall by the Minnesota Wild. Fellow freshmen
Aidan Thompson (No. 90, Chicago) and
Jared Wright (No. 169, Los Angeles) as well as sophomore
Jack Devine (No. 221, Florida) were also picked. The Pioneers have 12 NHL Draft picks on this year's roster, tied for the third-most in the country, as only Harvard (15) and Minnesota (14) have more.
INKING DEALS: Seven players from Denver's 2021-22 team inked professional contracts in the days, weeks and months following the team's national championship victory.
TICKETS: Single-game tickets, as well as five-game packs are on sale now. Full and half-season ticket packages are also available.
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