DENVER – The No. 1 University of Denver hockey team hosts the Lindenwood Lions this weekend at Magness Arena in the Pioneers' final games before the holiday break.
 
Friday's contest begins at 7 p.m. MT and will be televised regionally on Altitude 2, while Saturday's outing starts at 6 p.m. MT. Both games will also be broadcasted on NCHC.tv.
 
The Pios are beginning a season-long, six-game homestand, which also features matchups against Alaska Fairbanks on Jan. 6-7 and Miami on Jan. 13-14. Denver is in a stretch where it is playing 10-of-12 contests at home.
 
DU is coming off its only two road games during this stretch and swept its NCHC series at Minnesota Duluth last weekend. The Pioneers posted comeback wins each night, rallying from a two-goal deficit to win 3-2 in overtime on Friday before earning a 4-3 come-from-behind win in OT on Saturday.
 
Denver is on a season-long, five-game winning streak and has picked up wins in eight of its last nine outings. The Pios have won their last six road outings, sweeping series at Miami, North Dakota and Duluth—their longest road winning streak since Jan. 21-March 4, 2017.
 
This weekend marks the first-ever NCAA meeting between Denver and Lindenwood, but the two teams did meet in an exhibition prior to last season at Magness Arena when the Lions were an ACHA club. LU opened the scoring in that contest, but DU tallied the next nine markers in a 9-1 victory.
 
Lindenwood owns a 4-10-0 record in its inaugural NCAA season, with victories versus Air Force on Oct. 14, Bentley on Oct. 28 and a road sweep of Army on Nov. 4-5. LU is set to play its first games since falling by 4-3 and 5-1 scores on Nov. 18-19 at Wisconsin. The Lions are in a stretch of playing 16-straight road contests, and the NCAA independent will only play four home games all season.
 
The Pios are 6-2-0 in non-conference play this season and have won 17 straight non-NCHC matchups at Magness Arena since Oct. 18, 2021. Denver is first in the NCHC standings with 23 points and an 8-2-0 record (2-1 in OT).
 
 
SCOUTING THE LIONS: The Lions made their Division-I debut in a 4-0 loss on Oct. 1 vs. then-No. 2 Minnesota in Minneapolis, but the squad earned its first-ever victory two weeks later with a 7-6 defeat of Air Force on Oct. 14 in their home opener. LU also picked up a 7-3 win at Bentley on Oct. 28 and swept its road series at Army on Nov. 4-5. David Gagnon leads the Lions in scoring with 16 points (6g/10a) and in assists with 10, while Hunter Johannes is the top goal scorer with seven tallies (7g/4a). Lindenwood has used three different goaltenders this season, with Trent Burnham seeing most of the action. In seven games, Burnham has a 3-4-0 record, 4.03 goals-against average and .911 save percentage.
 
 
CONNECTIONS: Forward McKade Webster and goaltender Jack Caruso are from St. Louis, Missouri, the closet major city to Lindenwood (St. Charles) … DU hockey strength and conditioning coach Matt Shaw is also from St. Louis … Jared Wright and the Lions' Joe Prouty are from the same hometown in Minnesota (Burnsville) … Kyle Mayhew (Anaheim Hills) and Jackson Wozniak (Cypress) are both from Orange County, California … DU's Matt Davis, Carter King and Rieger Lorenz and LU's Kieran Ruscheinski are all from Calgary, Alberta … Mike Benning and Lindenwood's Aidan Yakkimchuk are both from St. Albert, Alberta … Yakkimchuk played on the AJHL Drumheller Dragons with Brett Edwards (2018-19) and Kent Anderson (2019-21) … Tyler Haskins played with Trent Burnham with the USHL Sioux Falls Stampede in 2020-21 … Rieger Lorenz was a teammate of Coltan Wilkie with the AJHL's Okotoks Oilers in 2020-21.
 
TRIO OF PIOS INVITED TO USA CAMP: Denver will be without a trio of its players this week as defensemen Sean Behrens and Shai Buium and forward Jack Devine take part in Team USA's training camp for the 2023 IIHF World Junior Championship.  The Pioneer trio traveled to Plymouth, Michigan, after last weekend's games in Duluth for the camp and will be among 32 players looking to make the U.S.'s 23-man roster.  All three players attended USA Hockey National Junior Evaluation Camp in the summer as well.
 
The U.S. training camp goes through Saturday before the Americans play two exhibition games versus Canada prior to the holidays.  The 2023 World Juniors run from Dec. 26-Jan. 5 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Moncton, New Brunswick.
 
Behrens and DU teammate Carter Mazur represented the United States in August at the revamped 2022 World Junior Championship in Edmonton, Alberta.  Behrens only played in one game due to injury, while Mazur was named one of the best three players on Team USA after he ranked second in the tournament with five goals and finished second on the squad with seven points (5g/2a). 
 
BACK-TO-BACK OT WINS: Denver earned consecutive overtime wins against Minnesota Duluth with a 3-2 victory on Friday before a 4-3 defeat on Saturday. It was the first time that DU played back-to-back overtime games since Jan. 17-18, 2019 when it tied Omaha both nights (1-1, 2-2).  The Pioneers last won consecutive overtime contests on March 11-17, 2012 when they did it three times in a row, defeating Wisconsin (3-2), Michigan Tech (3-2) and Minnesota Duluth (4-3 2OT) in the WCHA Playoffs.
 
The last time the Pioneers won back-to-back contests in OT during the regular season was Dec. 27-28, 1996 vs. Maine (4-3) and Yale (3-2) in the Denver Cup. Jan. 16-22, 1993 at Minnesota Duluth (2-1) and Wisconsin (5-4) marked the last time that DU posted back-to-back OT wins on the road, and the only other time in program history that Denver won in OT against the same opponent in a weekend series was Nov. 25-26, 1977 at Minnesota Duluth, winning 4-3 on the first night and 5-4 in the finale.
 
The Pioneers improved to 2-1-0 in overtime conference games this season and 3-1-0 in overall in extra time, their most OT wins in a campaign since 2018-19 (4-2-5 in OT).
 
MASS-IVE GOALS: Sophomore forward Massimo Rizzo had his career-long goal streak end at four games after being held without a marker on Saturday at Minnesota Duluth. However, Rizzo did record an assist in Saturday's contest to stretch his point streak to five games (4g/1a), one shy of matching his career long. His four-game goal streak was the longest of the season by a Pioneer and matching the 2021-22 season high from Carter Mazur (Nov. 12-20, 2021). Rizzo leads Denver in scoring with 23 points (8g/15a) in 18 games this season. He now has 59 points (19g/38a) in 57 career contests.
 
STREAKING:

• Goaltender Magnus Chrona is on a season-long five-game winning streak.
• Massimo Rizzo is on a five-game point streak (4g/1a).
• Defenseman Mike Benning is on a season-long, five-game point streak (3g/5a).
• Jack Devine is on a three-game assist/point streak (0g/3a).
• Carter Mazur has tallied in consecutive outings and is on a three-game point streak (2g/1a).

 
LAST WEEKEND NOTABLES

• Denver has won three straight games vs. Minnesota Duluth and is now 131-88-13 all-time in the series and owns a 48-44-8 mark on the road against the Bulldogs.
• The game-winning goals of Tristan Broz and Aidan Thompson over the weekend were their first career overtime tallies. Broz's goal was his first game-winner at Denver, while Thompson's was his first game-winning marker of his career.
• The Pioneers improved to 3-1-0 in overtime games this season.
• Denver has now won eight of its last nine games (8-1-0).
• DU earned its fifth and sixth comeback wins of the year.
• Carter Mazur tallied in both games and has tied his career high with 14 goals on the season.
• Goaltender Magnus Chrona recorded an assist on Massimo Rizzo's goal on Friday for his fifth career helper and first-ever primary assist. Overall, it was his first assist since Feb. 25, 2021 at Colorado College.
• Chrona has won his last four starts dating back to Nov. 25, tying a season long (Oct. 21-29).
• The Pioneers and Bulldogs were meeting for the first time since DU ended UMD's 2021-22 season in the NCAA West Regional Final on March 26 in Loveland, Colorado.

 
NON-CONFERENCE SUCCESS: The Pioneers have now won 17 consecutive home non-conference matchups since Oct. 18, 2019 and are 21-0-2 in the last 23 non-NCHC games at Magness Arena dating back to Dec. 30, 2017.
 
Overall, Denver will play 12 non-conference games against seven different opponents this season and has one more series remaining versus a non-NCHC squad after this weekend vs. Lindenwood: Alaska Fairbanks on Jan. 6-7.
 
The Pioneers previously played home games against No 11 Notre Dame and Maine on Oct. 7-8, No. 11 Providence on Oct. 21-22 and Arizona State on Dec. 2-3.  The season-opening contests vs. Notre Dame and Maine marked the only time before the postseason that Denver will play two different opponents on back-to-back days.  DU's only two road non-conference contests took place with a series at No. 13 Massachusetts on Oct. 14-15.
 
HOME SWEET HOME: Denver is opening a season-long, six-game homestand this weekend and is in the back half of a stretch of playing 10-of-12 contests at Magness Arena. The homestay is separated by the two-week holiday break, as the Pios won't play again after Saturday until after the New Year when they host Alaska Fairbanks on Jan. 6-7. Denver owns an 8-2-0 record at home this season and has won its last three games in its friendly confines. Minus the two bus trips down to Colorado College for games on Feb. 4 and March 4, the Pioneers only have two more road trips out of the state during the regular season, with their next being Jan. 20-21 at St. Cloud State.
 
BATTLE AT BALL ARENA: The Pioneers' game on Friday, Jan. 27 against rival Colorado College has been moved from DU's Magness Arena to downtown Denver's Ball Arena, home of the 2022 Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche. Buy Tickets
 
On the heels of Denver earning the moniker of being "Hockey Capital USA" with national championships at the NHL, college, high school and pee-wee level, the game vs. CC will mark DU's first regular-season contest at the NHL arena.  The Pioneers did play an exhibition outing at the then-called Pepsi Center on Oct. 6, 2012 vs. the University of British Columbia to accommodate a U.S. Presidential Debate that occurred the same week at Magness Arena.
 
The Pioneers and CC Tigers have met 332 times previously in their history, presently the second-most played rivalry in college hockey behind only Michigan and Michigan State (333 games).  Fans who previously had tickets for the Jan. 27 game at Magness Arena will be reseated in a comparable location at Ball Arena.
 
HOME-ICE ADVANTAGE: The Pios are 32-5-1 in their last 38 contests in their own rink and sport a 40-9-2 record at Magness Arena since the start of the 2019-20 campaign.  Denver went 17-1-1 during the 2021-22 season in its own barn and had a 22-1-1 mark in games in the state of Colorado, including winning both matchups at the Denver-hosted NCAA West Regional in Loveland, Colorado.
 
MONTH-BY-MONTH: DU owns a 4-0-0 mark in December and guaranteed itself a greater-than .500 record for the 10th straight month dating back to the start of last season. The Pioneers have gone at least .500 in 13 straight months since January 2021.
 
IN THE POLLS: Denver ranks No. 1 in country in both the DCU/USCHO.com and the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine polls for the second straight week.  Pioneers have been ranked in the top four all season and have earned at least one No. 1 spot in eight previous weekly polls.  DU entered this week No. 4 in the Pairwise Rankings.
 
 
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