ST. PAUL, Minn. — The No. 1-seed Denver Pioneers hockey team takes on the No. 4 Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs on Friday afternoon at the Xcel Energy Center in the NCHC Frozen Faceoff Semifinals.
Denver will be playing its first afternoon and neutral-site contest of the season as game time is set for 3 p.m. MT, and it will be televised nationally on CBS Sports Network. The conference tournament championship game is on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. MT.
The Pioneers will be going for their third NCHC Frozen Faceoff championship after winning the title in 2014 and in 2018. DU is the only team in the conference to reach the semifinals in every year of the tournament's existence.
Denver is coming off a two-game sweep of the No. 8-seed Miami RedHawks in the best-of-three quarterfinal round last weekend, stretching its win streak to five games. On Friday, the Pios used two power-play goals and had five different goal scorers to top the RedHawks 5-2. On Saturday,
Cole Guttman had two goals and two assists, while
Mike Benning,
Carter Mazur and
Massimo Rizzo also tallied for the Pioneers in a 5-1 victory.
Minnesota Duluth went 19-15-4 during the regular season and sports a 10-10-4 mark in conference play. The team's last four games came against in-state rival St. Cloud State, with the last two serving as games in the NCHC Quarterfinals. After splitting the regular-season finale at home, the Bulldogs posted 5-2 and 4-3 victories last weekend in St. Cloud, becoming the only road NCHC team to win its quarterfinal series. Noah Cates scored the game-winner in overtime last Saturday to secure UMD's spot in the conference final four.
DU went 2-2-0 against Duluth during the regular season, with both teams splitting the weekend set on home ice.
The Pios last played UMD in the Frozen Faceoff semifinals in 2019 in St. Paul and are 4-4-0 against the Bulldogs at neutral-site games. Denver owns a 3-1 all-time record in this tournament at games at Xcel Energy Center.
LAST WEEK NOTABLES
- The Pioneers completed the six-game season sweep of Miami, which included winning five games in regulation.
- Denver is now 22-1-1 this season when leading after the second period.
- DU has held opponents to 30 or fewer shots in each of the last six games.
- The Pios fired 44 shots on Saturday, marking the 17th time this season they have fired 40 or more shots on goal.
- Denver had 10 power-play chances on Saturday, tying a season high.
- Cameron Wright recorded his 30th point of the campaign, setting a new career high.
- Bobby Brink has registered a point in 19 of the last 20 games.
- Cole Guttman scored DU's sixth short-handed goal of the season on Saturday and his second in an eight-day span.
- Thirteen different Pios found their way onto the scoresheet last weekend.
SNAP SHOTS
- The Pioneers will be playing their first neutral site game of the season and their first since last year's NCHC semifinals in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
- Ryan Barrow is expected to play in his 164th career game with the Pioneers, which will tie him for second all-time in program history.
- Bobby Brink, who leads the nation in scoring, was named a top-10 finalist for the Hobey Baker Award. He is on a five-game point streak and has points in 19 of his last 20 games and in 26 of his last 28.
- Magnus Chrona has wins in each of his last three games, allowing a total of three goals against. The goaltender's 24 wins are tied for the eighth-most in a campaign in school history.
- Cole Guttman is one point away from 120 in his career and will become the 56th Pio to reach the mark. Brett Stapley is four away from 100 career points.
SERIES HISTORY VS. MINNESOTA DULUTH
The Pioneers are 128-87-13 all time vs. UMD and own a 105-76-11 mark in conference play. Denver went 2-2-0 against Minnesota Duluth during the regular season, splitting each series in Duluth and at Magness Arena. The Pioneers defeated then-No. 6 UMD on Feb. 11 before falling 3-2 the following night in what was its first only home loss of the season. DU posted a 5-0 shutout of UMD in Duluth on Dec. 10. The teams have met two times in the Frozen Faceoff semifinals, with both squads winning once. They most recently met in St. Paul on March 22, 2019, with the Bulldogs winning 3-0. Denver is 4-4-0 vs. UMD at neutral sites, which includes winning 5-3 in the 2004 NCAA Regional Final and 3-2 in the 2017 NCAA Championship Game in Chicago.
CONNECTIONS
Bobby Brink (Minnetonka) and
Lane Krenzen (Twig) are both from Minnesota, with Brink also being from the same hometown as UMD's Luke Loheit …
Massimo Rizzo played with Loheit with the BCHL's Penticton Vees in 2018-19 …
Shai Buium and
McKade Webster both attended high school at Shattuck-St. Mary's in Faribault … Buium played on the USHL's Sioux City Musketeers with Minnesota Duluth's Carter Loney in 2020-21 … UMD's Quinn Olson and DU's
Matt Davis and
Carter King are all from Calgary, Alberta … Olson was teammates with
Jack Works on the AJHL's Okotoks Oilers in 2018-19 … Krenzen played on the NAHL's Austin Bruins with the Bulldogs' Ben Almquist in 2018-19 … Freshmen
Sean Behrens and
Jack Devine were at U.S. National Team Development Program with Connor Kelley during the 2019-20 campaign …
Carter Mazur was on USA's 2022 World Junior Championship team with UMD's Dominic James and Wyatt Kaiser.
PIONEERS IN THE POLLS
Denver ranks No. 3 in the country in the DCU/USCHO.com coaches' poll and No. 2 in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine. This is the first time that the Pioneers have had been No. 2 in a poll since the Nov. 11, 2019 rankings. In the Pairwise rankings that help decide the national tournament field, DU has been in the top 10 for the past four months and is presently No. 3.
5 FOR 5
The Pioneers are riding a five-game winning streak and have scored exactly five goals in each of those victories. DU has tallied at least five goals in 20-of-36 games this season, sporting a 19-1-0 mark in such contests. The Pios are averaging 4.5 goals per game, which would be a new NCHC best in conference history (4.27, St. Cloud State, 2015-16).
LAST GAME, BEST GAME
Playing in likely his final game at Magness Arena, senior
Cole Guttman had a night to remember by tying a career high with four points, scoring two goals and adding two assists. He also had four points in a contest earlier this season on Oct. 16 at home vs. Air Force (1g/3a). The performance marked the fifth time this season that he recorded three or more points in a game.
Guttman is second on the team in scoring with 43 points (18g/251) this season and is third in goals with 18. He has nine points (4g/5a) in the last five games and currently has 119 points (54g/65a) in his career, 57th all-time in school history. The Los Angeles native finished third on the squad with 28 points (11g/17a) in 19 home contests this season.
STREAKING
- Mike Benning is on a five-game assist/point streak (3g/6a); his assist streak is tied for his longest of the season.
- Bobby Brink is on a five-game point streak (1g/5a).
- Cole Guttman is on a three-game goal/point streak (4g/3a), his third three-game goal stretch of the season.
PENROSE CUP CHAMPIONS
The Pioneers claimed their second Penrose Cup as NCHC regular-season champions with a weekend sweep of Colorado College on March 4-5. 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.
WINNING WAYS
Denver finished the regular season with a 21-4-1 record in its final 26 games. During this stretch, the Pioneers had two winning streaks of seven or more games, marking the first time since the 2004-05 championship season that the program had multiple win streaks of that length in a single campaign.
INDIVIDUAL NCHC AWARD FINALISTS
Denver picked up four individual conference honors at the NCHC Awards Celebration on Thursday night, highlighted by
Bobby Brink becoming the fourth Pioneer to be named Player of the Year.
FOUR PIOS NAMED TO ALL-ROOKIE TEAM
Denver became the first time in NCHC history to have four players be named to the All-Rookie Team, with defensemen
Sean Behrens and
Shai Buium and forwards
Carter Mazur and
Massimo Rizzo getting recognition.
They were joined by two Fighting Hawks (F Matteo Costantini and G Jakob Hellsten), also marking the first time that only two teams were represented in the all-rookie squad.
ALL-NCHC TEAMS
Bobby Brink was named to the All-NCHC First Team and was the only unanimous selection in the conference. Overall, five Pios were recognized with honors.
SCHOLAR ATHLETES
Denver had 15 players named to the NCHC 2021-22 Academic All-Conference Team:
Ryan Barrow,
Mike Benning,
Bobby Brink,
Connor Caponi,
Jack Caruso,
Magnus Chrona,
Brett Edwards,
Cole Guttman,
Reid Irwin,
Lane Krenzen,
Justin Lee,
Kyle Mayhew,
Brett Stapley,
Antti Tuomisto and
McKade Webster. To be eligible for the NCHC Academic All-Conference Team, a student-athlete must have compiled a 3.0 cumulative grade-point average or better, while having completed at least one full academic year at his current institution.
In addition, Barrow, Brink, Chrona, Guttman, Irwin, Krenzen and Mayhew earned NCHC Distinguished Scholar-Athlete honors for each having a cumulative GPA of 3.5 or better.
NCAA REGIONALS IN COLORADO
DU will host the NCAA West Regionals on March 24 & 26 at the Budweiser Events Center in Loveland—home of the American Hockey League's Colorado Eagles—for the second straight year after also doing so in 2021. Denver was also selected to host the 2026 NCAA West Regionals, which will also be held in Loveland.
Last year marked the first time that NCAA hockey tournament games were played in Colorado since 2008 when the Frozen Four was held at the then-called Pepsi Center in downtown Denver.
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 ranked fifth in the country in goals per game (.62) at the end of DU's regular season, while Wright was first in tallies among players that transferred over the summer (played the previous four seasons at Bowling Green). Wright's 20 goals tie his career high that he previously set in 2019-20.
BARROW APPROACHING GAMES PLAYED RECORD
Fifth-year senior
Ryan Barrow appeared in his 150th career game for Denver on Jan. 28 at Miami, becoming the 68th player in program history to reach that mark. Barrow is currently tied for fifth all-time in program history (163) with Mike Markovich (1988-93) and is four away from tying Ed Cristofoli's school record for games played (167).
WRIGHT UP THE CHARTS
Senior
Cameron Wright appeared in his 175th career NCAA game on Feb. 25 at Omaha, becoming just the 27th player in D-I college hockey history to reach that many games played. Earning an extra year of eligibility due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Wright was the seventh player this season to achieve the feat. He presently ranks tied for seventh all-time in games played with 180.
MONTH BY MONTH
Denver owns a 4-0-0 record in March and has guaranteed itself a winning record (above .500) for the sixth straight month. The last time DU had a winning record in each of the six months of the season (October-March) was in 2018-19 when the team last reached the NCAA Frozen Four.
SECOND PERIOD SUCCESS
Denver has outscored opponents 68-21 in the second period, with the plus-47 margin its best in any of the three stanzas. In shots on goal, DU has a 467-310 edge in the second frame.
The Pioneers have also buried the puck plenty in the third period, outscoring opponents 56-33. DU is outscoring the opposition by more than double in the final 40 minutes of play (124-54) and 162-85 overall in games.
MILESTONES FOR GUTTMAN
Cole Guttman scored his 50th career goal on Feb. 11 vs. Duluth, becoming the 60th player in program history and the first since Jarid Lukosevicius in 2018-19 to reach the half-century mark.
Guttman, who appeared in his 100th career contest on opening night on Oct. 8 vs. Arizona State, recorded his 100th career point on Jan. 22 at Colorado College—the 101st Pioneer to reach that milestone. He currently has 119 points (54g/65a) in his career, 57th all-time in school history.
DOMINANT AT THE DOT
The Pioneers was the fourth-best faceoff team in the country during the regular season winning 54.9 percent of their draws. Only Minnesota State (58.1), Quinnipiac (56.8) and North Dakota (55.2) had better percentages.
DU was led at the circle by senior
Cole Guttman, who won 62.3 percent of his faceoffs during the regular season—tied for the fourth-best in the nation with Josh Lopina of UMass. Only Justin Hryckowian of Northeastern (63.8), David Silye of Montana State (63.2) and Connor Ford of North Dakota (62.6) had more success in the circle. Guttman has won 14 or more draws in 19 games this year and has finished 50 percent or better at the dot in 33 of the 36 contests.
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