BOSTON – The Denver Pioneers hockey program will go for its ninth national championship on Saturday night as the team faces the Minnesota State Mavericks in the NCAA Championship Game at 6 p.m. MT at TD Garden.
 
The Pioneers won 3-2 in overtime versus Michigan on Thursday night while the Mavericks defeated Minnesota 5-1 in the other national semifinal. Both DU and MSU are No. 1 seeds.
 
Denver is in its first national title game since 2017 (W, 3-2 vs. Minnesota Duluth) and is looking to tie Michigan for the most championships in D-I college hockey history (nine).  The Pioneers have won each of the last three title contests.
 
The Pioneers will be playing Minnesota State for the first-time ever in the national tournament, and the former WCHA foes will be playing their first game against one another since Nov. 9-10, 2012.
 
SNAP SHOTS

• The Pioneers have won each of the last seven matchups (the longest streak in the all-time series) and are 14-0-2 in the last 16 meeting dating back to February 2008.
• DU, which has made four of the last six Frozen Fours, is aiming for its first national championship since 2017 (3-2 win vs. Minnesota Duluth in Chicago).
• The Pioneers are 8-3 all-time in national championship games.
• Denver picked up its first win vs. Michigan in the national tournament and ended a six-game losing streak to the Wolverines. It was just the teams' third matchup in the last 41 years (since 1981).
• DU held Michigan to just 21 shots through overtime and has held opponents to 30 or fewer shots in 34 of 40 games this season.
• Carter Savoie has scored in each of the three national tournament games and ranks fourth in the country in goals with 23.
• Magnus Chrona won his 50th career game on Thursday, while Brett Stapley is two points away from 100 in his career.

 
BARROW SET TO BREAK DU'S GAMES PLAYED RECORD: Fifth-year senior Ryan Barrow is expected to appear in his 168th career game on Saturday, taking sole possession of first place in career games played in program history. He is currently tied for first with Ed Cristofoli (1985-1989) after playing in his 167th game on Thursday night vs. Michigan.
 
BRINKS EARNS ALL-AMERICAN HONORS: Bobby Brink was named a first team West All-American by the American Hockey Coaches Association on Friday. He becomes the 48th All-American in DU program history and the first since Ian Mitchell in 2020.
 
Brink leads the nation with a career-high 57 points and 43 assists, the most at DU since Gabe Gauthier also had 57 points in 2004-05 and Dave Shields had 43 assists in 1989-90. The junior is also first in the country in points per game (1.43), and he is just the second Pioneer to lead the NCAA in scoring and the first since Ed Beers in 1981-82. Brink is one of two players in the nation to reach the 50-point threshold and was the first to achieve the feat with an assist on Feb. 26 at Omaha.
 
LAST TIME OUT – OT WIN VS. MICHIGAN: Carter Savoie scored at 14:53 of overtime to lift the Pioneers to a 3-2 victory over the Michigan Wolverines on Thursday night in the Frozen Four national semifinals at TD Garden. Bobby Brink and Mike Benning had assists on Savoie's game-winner with Benning's helper being his second of the contest. The teams traded goals throughout the game as Brett Stapley opened the scoring in the first period, and Cameron Wright gave the Pios a brief lead in the third period.
 
DU played solid defensively, holding UM to just 14 shots through regulation and owned a 33-21 edge in shots on goal. Denver goaltender Magnus Chrona made 19 saves in the matchup of two No. 1 seeds in the national tournament.
 
GOING OVERTIME: Denver played its second overtime game in the Frozen Four history and picked up its first win (1-1). In fact, DU's last two games in Frozen Four games have gone to overtime (4-3 loss in double-overtime in 2019 semifinals in Buffalo vs. UMass).
 
The Pioneers are now 3-2 all-time in overtime games in the national tournament.
 
Thursday's overtime game was Denver's third of the season and first since posting a two-goal comeback in the final 3:03 at Miami on Jan. 28, 2022. DU is 2-0-1 in overtime games this season.
 
IN THE RECORD BOOK

• Magnus Chrona's 27 wins rank tied for fourth all-time for a single season in program history (George Kirkwood, 1959-60).
• Bobby Brink's 43 assists rank tied for 10th all-time in school history for a single season (Dave Shields, 1989-90).
• Carter Savoie's six game-winning goals on the year are tied with Gabe Gauthier (2003-04) and Mark Rycroft (1999-00) for the ninth-most in a campaign.

 
SAVE BY SAV: Carter Savoie has scored in each of the first three games of the national tournament, including scoring the game-winning goal in the past two contests. Colin Staub also found the back of the net in each of Denver's three outings during the 2019 tournament.
 
Savoie's goal on Thursday marked his first career overtime tally and his team leading sixth game-winning goal. His nine career game-winning goals are tied for 10th-most in program history.
 
PENALTY FREE: Denver didn't take a penalty for the first time this season and didn't allow an opponent a power-play chance for the second time. DU also didn't go on a man-disadvantage on Nov. 6 at North Dakota.
 
The Pioneers have killed off 19 straight penalties since March 11 vs. Miami and are 19-for-20 on the PK during the postseason. The 19 consecutive penalty kills tie a season high.
 
MINNESOTA STATE CONNECTIONS: Bobby Brink (Minnetonka) and Lane Krenzen (Twig) are both from Minnesota … Shai Buium and McKade Webster both attended prep school at Shattuck-St. Mary's in Faribault, Minn. … Minnesota State's Sam Morton (Lafayette) and Andrew Miller (Boulder) are from Colorado … DU's Carter King and Matt Davis and MSU's Akito Hirose are all from Calgary, Alberta … Michigan State's Josh Groll and Denver's Shai Buium are both from San Diego, Calif. … Denver's Reid Irwin and Mankato's Keenan Rancier are from Victoria, British Columbia … Justin Lee and MSU's Ondrej Pavel were teammates with the Fargo Force in 2018-19 … Shai Buium and the Mavs' Brendan Olson played together with the USHL's Sioux City Musketeers in 2020-21 … Steven Bellini was a teammate of Carter Mazur with the USHL's Tri-City Strom in 2020-21 and Massimo Rizzo with the Coquitlam Express of the BCHL in 2019-20 … Rizzo was also a teammate of MSU's Connor Gregga during that 2019-20 season with the Express and Mankato's Ryan Sandelin and David Silye with the BCHL's Penticton Vees in 2018-19.
 
SERIES HISTORY: Denver has won each of the last seven outing against Minnesota State Mankato, but the teams will be meeting for the first time since Nov. 9-10, 2012. The Pios won by 4-3 and 3-2 scores in those contests. DU's seven-game winning streak in the longest in the all-time series with the Pioneers having also gone 14-0-2 in the last 16 matchups versus the Mavericks dating back to Dec. 12, 2008 when the teams were in the WCHA together. DU is 28-13-6 all-time versus MSU with a 26-12-2 mark in games during conference play. Denver is 1-0 in neutral-site contests in the all-time series, winning 6-4 at Cadet Ice Arena on the Air Force Academy on Feb. 6, 1999. The Mavs' last win vs. Denver was by a 3-2 score on Feb. 2, 2008, in Mankato.
 
SCOUTING THE MAVS: The Mavericks own the longest winning streak in the country with them having won each of their last 18 games. MSU is the CCHA regular-season and tournament champions. Mankato defeated Minnesota 5-1 in the Frozen Four semifinals on Thursday, scoring each of the final five markers of the contest. The Mavs picked up a 4-3 win vs. Harvard in the regional semifinals and defeated Notre Dame 1-0 in the regional final. Minnesota State is led by goaltender Dryden McKay, who won the 2022 winner Hobey Baker Award on Friday night. McKay has posted a 38-4-1 record this year and owns a 1.27 goals-against average and .934 sav percentage. Nathan Smith, a 2022 Olympian on Team USA, leads the Mavs in scoring with 19 goals and 31 assists, joining DU's Bobby Brink as the nation's only two 50-point getters. Julian Napravnik is close behind Smith with 49 points on 18 goals and 31 assists.
 
CHAMPIONSHIP HISTORY IN BOSTON: The Pioneers are at the site where they won the 2004 National Championship, which marked the sixth in program history and ended a 35-year drought.
 
DU also won the 1960 title in Boston, beating Michigan Tech 5-3 at the then-called Boston Arena on the campus of Northeastern. It was the Pioneers' second national championship and the first of back-to-back titles.
 
This year marks Denver's fifth time playing in college hockey's "final four" in Boston city proper, having also previously done so in 1972 and 1973. DU also played the 1963 championships in nearby Chestnut Hill, where it lost 6-5 to North Dakota in the final.
 
EXPERIENCE AT THE FROZEN FOUR: Denver had four players with Frozen Four experience entering this week, as Ryan Barrow, Cole Guttman, Kyle Mayhew and Brett Stapley all played in DU's previous appearance vs. UMass in 2019.
 
Entering this year, only five players on DU's roster had experience in the national tournament with transfer Cameron Wright joining Barrow, Guttman, Mayhew and Stapley on the squad after playing one such game with Bowling Green in 2019.
 
NATIONAL TOURNAMENT HISTORY: Denver is in the NCAA Tournament for the 31st time in program history and has reached the Big Dance in each of its last 13 full seasons dating back to 2008.
 
The Pioneers previously made the national tournament in 2019 when it played in the Frozen Four in Buffalo, N.Y., and fell 4-3 in double-overtime to UMass in the national semifinals. DU has now reached the Frozen Four in four of its last five tries in the tournament, including winning the championship in 2017.
 
Denver is ... 39-24 all-time in the NCAA Tournament ...10-2 in its last 12 national tournament games dating back to 2017 ...13-4 in its last 17 national tournament games dating back to 2015.
 
NCAA TOURNAMENT MISCELLANEOUS

• The Pioneers went 7-6-0 against other NCAA Tournament teams during the 2021-22 season with all of them being NCHC conference opponents.
• DU entered the NCAA postseason with the fourth-best record since the holiday break among national tournament squads, going 16-4-1 (.786).
• Cameron Wright entered the tournament with the most career goals (71) and power-play goals (29) and second-most points (131) by active players in this year's NCAAs. His 184 career games are the most among players in the Frozen Four.
• Entering the tournament, the Pios led all teams with eight, 10+ goal scorers and four, 40+ point players. DU & UM have the only two, 20-goal scorers in the country.
• DU has the most freshmen (9-tied) and fewest seniors (5-tied) among tournament squads. The team also had the top-scoring senior (presently 160) and freshmen classes (presently 136) among Frozen Four teams
• David Carle is making his second appearance in the Frozen Four as a head coach.
• Bobby Brink & Cole Guttman are the highest-scoring pair of teammates at the national tournament with 102 total points.
• Brink, Guttman & Carter Savoie (146 points) are the highest-scoring trio in the tournament.

 
PRO PIPELINE: Denver has 12 NHL drafted players on its roster, tied for the third-most in the nation with only Minnesota (14) and Michigan (13) having more. Boston University and Harvard also have 12 NHL Draft picks on their rosters.
 
MASS CONNECTION: Denver Strength and Conditioning Director Matt Shaw spent five years working and interning in Boston with various athletic departments, four with Boston University and one at Harvard University. Shaw received both his bachelor's degree (health sciences, January 2010) and master's degree (physical education/coaching, May 2011) from BU.
 
WRIGHT UP THE CHARTS: Senior Cameron Wright has now played in 184 career games, tied for second all-time in D-I history with Connor Ford & the most among 2022 Frozen Four participants. Only former BGSU teammate Brandon Kruse appeared in more contests (189).
 
He 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 NCAA player this season to achieve the feat.
 
TWENTY SOMETHINGS: Sophomore Carter Savoie leads the team with 23 goals this season while fifth-year senior Cameron Wright is second with 22 tallies. It's the most goals by Denver players since Henrik Borgstrom had 23 and Jarid Lukosevicius had 21 in the 2017-18 season. Denver was the first team in the nation to have two, 20-goal scorers. Savoie (4th) and Wright (5th) presently rank in the top five in the nation in markers.
 
Michigan is the only other school with two players with 20 goals after Matty Beniers and Brendan Brisson both hit the mark in their respective NCAA Regional games.
 
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).
 

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