DENVER – The No. 1 Denver Pioneers hockey team wraps up its 2022 training camp on Saturday as the squad hosts the UNLV Rebels at Magness Arena at 6 p.m. MT. Tickets are available for only $12, and students can enter the game for free with their ID card.
The exhibition concludes Denver's pre-season camp, as the team has been practicing for the past three weeks in preparation for its 2022-23 campaign. The regular season begins with the Ice Breaker Tournament on Oct. 7-8 against Notre Dame and Maine.
Saturday's game can be streamed on NCHC.tv and Evoca.tv.
This will be the first game that the Pioneers will have played since claiming the program's record-tying ninth national championship with a 5-1 victory over Minnesota State on April 9. DU's last home game was on March 12, a 5-1 win over Miami to sweep its NCHC quarterfinal series.
The Pios are returning 18 players from the 2022 championship team, including six defensemen and all three goaltenders. Goaltender
Magnus Chrona, forward
Brett Edwards and defensemen
Lane Krenzen and
Justin Lee are all back for their senior seasons, while blueliner
Kyle Mayhew returns to the roster for a fifth season of eligibility as well. The team also has senior-transfer
Casey Dornbach, who spent the past four years with Harvard and captained the Crimson in 2021-22.
Among the nine newcomers include seven freshmen and another transfer, sophomore
Tristan Broz from the University of Minnesota. This year's rookies are forwards
Tyler Haskins,
Tristan Lemyre,
Rieger Lorenz,
Aidan Thompson and
Jared Wright and defensemen
Kent Anderson and
Lucas Olvestad.
The matchup with Nevada Las Vegas will mark the second straight season that DU will play an ACHA squad in a preseason exhibition. Denver won 9-1 against Lindenwood, who is now NCAA D-I, in last year's exhibition. The Pioneers have won their last six exhibition games and sport a 7-1-2 mark in their last 10 such outings.
EXHIBITION PLAY: The Pioneers own a 41-25-7 all-time record in exhibition games in their 73-year history and are 35-7-5 in season-opening exhibitions (not all exhibitions are played prior to the regular season). Denver's 9-1 win last year vs. Lindenwood was the team's largest margin of victory in an exhibition since a 17-4 win against DU Alumni on Oct. 6, 1984.
SEASON-TICKET CAMPOUT: The annual DU student hockey season-ticket campout is this Friday and Saturday on the north lawn of the Ritchie Center. There are several events planned for students on Friday afternoon and evening, including free food, prizes, ice skating, viewing of a hockey practice and a late-night movie. Students can start pitching their tents at 12 noon on Friday, and student hockey tickets go on sale on Saturday at 8 a.m.
Click here for more.
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 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.
BIRTHDAY WISHES: Sophomore forward
Jack Devine will be celebrating his 19th birthday on the exhibition game day (born Oct. 1, 2003). Devine (Glencoe, Ill.) recorded 19 points (3g/16a) in 36 contests last season when he was the youngest player on the roster.
IN THE POLLS: Denver is beginning the season as the No. 1 ranked team in the country in both national polls after DCU/USCHO.com and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine released their preseason rankings on Sept. 19. 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.
TALKING ABOUT RINGS: DU's 2022 national championship rings were unveiled at a private ceremony on Sept. 25 with players, coaches, alumni and friends of the program present. Among the highlights of the ring are 70 stones on the dome, nine crimson stones to represent the total number of national titles won by the program, the scores of the four national tournament games and a personalized touch for each individual.
Click here to read and see more.
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.
PIOS AT THE 2022 WORLD JUNIORS: Sean Behrens and
Carter Mazur represented the United States at the revamped 2022 IIHF World Junior Championship in August in Edmonton, Alberta. Behrens played 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).
Mazur was also on the Americans' roster for the initial 2022 World Juniors last December before the under-20 tournament was cancelled due to COVID-19. Overall, DU had five players attend USA Hockey's National Junior Evaluation Camp for the 2022 and 2023 World Junior Championship over the summer, with sophomores
Shai Buium and
Jack Devine and freshman
Aidan Thompson joining Behrens and Mazur at the camp.
ALL-AMERICAN SCHOLARS: Matt Davis,
Reid Irwin and
Carter King were three of 283 players nationally to be recognized as National All-American Scholars for the 2021-22 season. To qualify, a student-athlete must have attained at least a 3.75 grade-point average for each semester or quarter and appear in 40 percent of the team's games (exceptions were granted to injured players and backup goaltenders). Overall, Denver had 24 student-athletes be named to the NCHC Academic All-Conference Team last season
CARLE SIGNS EXTENSION: David Carle signed a multi-year contract extension on Aug. 16, keeping him as the Richard and Kitzia Goodman Hockey Head Coach through the 2026-27 season. The youngest D-I college hockey head coach at the time of his hire on May 25, 2018 (age 28), Carle led Denver to two Frozen Fours in his first four years at the helm and became the fourth-youngest head coach to win a national championship with the Pioneers' victory last spring (32 years, five months, 0 days). The Anchorage, Alaska, native sported an 86-43-13 record in his first four seasons behind the bench.
CHAMPIONSHIP NOTABLES: Denver claimed its ninth national championship in 2021-22 with a 5-1 victory against Minnesota State in the title game on April 9.
- The program won its ninth national title, tying Michigan for the most in college hockey.
- Denver defeated Michigan in the Frozen Four semifinals in the teams' first meeting since March 23, 2022.
- Now graduated forward Ryan Barrow set the program record with 168 career games played during the NCAA Championship game.
- David Carle became the fourth-youngest head coach to win a national championship (32 years, five months, 0 days) and the youngest since Barry Thorndycraft with North Dakota in 1963 (29 years, 4 months, 18 days).
- The Pioneers' five goals in the third period against Minnesota State were their most in a stanza all season.
- All nine of DU's national titles have come during a six-year stretch in the program's 72-year history.
TICKETS: Single-game tickets, as well as five-game packs are on sale now. Full and half-season ticket packages are also available.
Click here for more.
Visit DenverPioneers.com for complete coverage of all 18 of DU's NCAA Division I sports
Like Denver Pioneers and Denver Hockey on Facebook
Follow @DU_Pioneers and @DU_Hockey on Twitter
Follow @DenverPioneers and @DU_Hockey on Instagram
