DENVER – The No. 1-seed Denver Pioneers hockey team opens the postseason this weekend as they host the No. 8 Miami RedHawks in the NCHC Quarterfinals at Magness Arena.
 
The best-of-three series begins on Friday at 7 pm. MT, while Saturday's contest is at 6 p.m. MT. If necessary, Sunday's game will be played at 6 p.m. MT. All three outings will be broadcasted on NCHC.tv.
 
Denver won a share of the Penrose Cup as NCHC regular-season champions with North Dakota last weekend, but the Pios are the top seed for the playoffs after having more conference wins than the Fighting Hawks (18-17).  The Pioneers won by 5-0 and 5-2 scores in the home-and-home set versus Colorado College last week to secure the trophy.
 
On Friday night in Colorado Springs, five different Pios scored and Kyle Mayhew (1g/1a), Massimo Rizzo (0g/2a) and Cameron Wright (1g/1a) all had multi-point outing. Goaltender Magnus Chrona made 19 saves for his sixth shutout of the season.  On Saturday, seniors Ryan Barrow, Cole Guttman and Brett Stapley all scored while Carter Savoie had a three-point night (2g/1a).  Freshman Matt Davis started his fourth game in goal and stopped 24 shots to improve to 3-1-0 on the year.
 
DU won all four games against Miami this season, picking up 4-1 and 7-1 victories at home on Nov. 19-20 before winning 5-4 in overtime and 4-2 on Jan. 28-29 in Oxford, Ohio.  In the Jan. 28 contest, Guttman scored twice in the final 3:03 to force overtime and then had the primary assist on Mike Benning's game-winner in the extra frame—all occurring in a five-minute span.
 
The Pioneers are 24-13-3 all-time against Miami and are 19-8-3 in conference play.  DU owns a 11-5-3 mark at home in the all-time series, winning each of the last five contests at home.  The Pioneers will be facing the RedHawks for the first time in the NCHC Playoffs since the teams met in both the 2014 (W 4-3) and 2015 (L 6-3) in the NCHC Frozen Faceoff in Minneapolis, Minnesota; the schools have never played in the quarterfinal round.  They have faced off in two other postseason matchups, meeting in the 2004 and 2009 NCAA Tournament.
 
SCOUTING MIAMI: The Hawks went 4-19-1 during the conference play in 2021-22, finishing in eighth place with 17 points.  Overall, Miami posted a 7-25-2 record during the regular season.  The RedHawks swept Omaha at home on Feb. 11-12 but finished the regular season going 1-5 in their final six contests, winning its last game on Feb. 26 vs. Minnesota Duluth (4-0).  Derek Daschke leads the team in scoring with 27 points and 24 assists this year, while Matthew Barbolini is first on Miami with 10 goals. Goaltender Ludvig Persson has played the most games in net this year, sporting a 6-21-2 record, 3.89 goals-against average, .894 save percentage and one shutout.
 
CONNECTIONS: Ryan Barrow played on the Langley Rivermen with Alec Capstick from 2015-2017 … Sean Behrens and Jack Devine were teammates with Red Savage at the U.S. National Team Development Program for the past two seasons … Connor Caponi spent two years as a teammate with Joe Cassetti with the Waterloo Black Hawks from 2018-2020 … Cole Guttman (Los Angeles), Kyle Mayhew (Anaheim Hills) and PJ Fletcher (Dana Point) are all from Southern California … Guttman was a teammate with Miami's Scott Corbet from 2016-2018 with Dubuque Fighting Saints … Justin Lee was teammates for half a season with Matthew Barbolini with the Lincoln Stars in 2018-19 … Carter Mazur played on the Tri-City Storm with Nick Donato from 2019-2021 … McKade Webster played with Dylan Moulton on the Green Bay Gamblers in 2019-20 ... Cameron Wright played his previous four seasons in the state of Ohio with Bowling Green State University.
 
SHUTTING OUT CC: Denver had a 287:35 shutout streak of Colorado College that dated back to Feb. 25, 2021 end at 1:28 of the third period on Saturday night.  The Pioneers had posted four straight shutouts of the Tigers since last season, including clean sheets in each of the first three matchups this year.  Magnus Chrona was in net for each of the first four shutouts but didn't play on Saturday, so his shutout streak of 246:07 against Colorado College is still intact.
 
PENROSE CUP CHAMPIONS: The Pioneers claimed its second Penrose Cup as NCHC regular-season champions with a weekend sweep of CC and North Dakota winning in overtime on Friday and falling in regulation on Saturday to Omaha.  The only other time that DU won the trophy was in 2017 when it went on to win its eighth NCAA National Championship.  It is the Pioneers' 14th regular-season title as they won 12 as a member of the old WCHA.
 
HOME COOKING: DU is 15-1-1 at home season and had a season-opening unbeaten streak of 15 games (14-0-1) that ended on Feb. 12 vs. Minnesota Duluth.  The 15-game run was the longest in recent history and the third-longest in program history to begin a campaign on home ice, with only the 1960-61 (23-0-1) and 1967-68 (19-0-0) squads having longer unbeaten stretches.  The Pios, who started the year 8-0-0 at home, are 22-3-1 in their last 26 games in their friendly confines and own a 32-7-2 record at Magness Arena since the start of the 2019-20 campaign.
 
SAVOIE FORWARD OF THE WEEK: Carter Savoie was named the NCHC Forward of the Week on Monday after totaling four points (2g/2a) in the series vs. CC.  After recording an assist in Friday's matchup, he had his sixth three-point game of the season on Saturday with two goals and an assist.  This is the fourth time this year that he's won the award.
 
TWENTY SOMETHINGS: Sophomore Carter Savoie and fifth-year senior Cameron Wright lead the team with 20 goals this season, the most by a Pioneer since Henrik Borgstrom had 23 and Jarid Lukosevicius had 21 in the 2017-18 season.  Denver is the only team in the nation with two, 20-goal scorers, with Savoie and Wright ranking tied for sixth in the nation in markers.  Savoie ranks fifth in the country in goals per game (.62) while Wright is first in tallies among players that transferred over the summer (played the previous four seasons at Bowling Green).
 
NCAA LEADER: Junior forward Bobby Brink leads all players in the country in scoring with 53 points (14g/39a), the most by a Pioneer player since Drew Shore also had 53 in 2011-12.  He has seven more points that second-place Nathan Smith of Minnesota State (46).  Brink's 37 assists are the most by a DU skater since Matt Carle had 42 in his Hobey Baker-winning campaign of 2005-06.
 
MONTH BY MONTH: Denver finished February with a 5-3-0 record, marking the fifth-straight month this season that it posted a winning record (above .500).  The last time DU had a winning record in each of its first five months was in 2018-19 when it did in all six (October-March) en route to the NCAA Frozen Four.
 
UP FOR THE HOBEY: DU senior Cole Guttman, junior Bobby Brink and sophomore Carter Savoie are among an initial 77 players nationally to be nominated for this year's 2022 Hobey Baker Award, which is given annually to college hockey's top player.  The list will be cut down to 10 players on March 17 and the three "Hobey Hat Trick" finalists will attend the award ceremony on Friday, April 8 during Frozen Four festivities in Boston.
 
PIONEERS IN THE POLLS: Denver remains at No. 3 in the country in both the DCU/USCHO.com and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine men's college polls, marking the fifth straight week the team was in that position in both polls.  In the Pairwise rankings that help decide the National Tournament field, DU is also third in the country.
 
 
TICKETS: NCHC Playoff tickets are available now by clicking here. NCAA Regional tickets are also available for the Loveland Regional by clicking here.
 
CORONAVIRUS UPDATES: Masks are required at all indoor athletic events. For the latest University of Denver updates on the coronavirus, click here.

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