DENVER – The University of Denver hockey team is the No. 1 seed in the Manchester Regional and will begin the NCAA Tournament on Thursday afternoon against Cornell University. The Pioneers will take on the Big Red at 3:30 p.m. MT in the regional semifinals at SNHU Arena in Manchester, New Hampshire.
The game will be nationally televised on ESPNews.
Boston University and fellow National Collegiate Hockey Conference foe Western Michigan will play in the other semifinal in the region at 12 p.m. MT (ESPN2). The semifinal winners will face off in the regional final on Saturday at 2 p.m. MT (ESPNU) for a spot in the NCAA Frozen Four. The four teams in Manchester have combined for 16 national championships.
Denver owns a 30-9-0 overall record in 2022-23 and won the Penrose Cup as NCHC regular-season champions with a 19-5-0 mark in league play.
The defending national champions are the No. 4 national seed, with Minnesota (Fargo, N.D.), Quinnipiac (Bridgeport, Conn.) and Michigan (Allentown, Pa.) also earning top spots in their respective regionals.
DU has a 7-5-0 all-time record against Cornell, and the teams are set to meet for the first time since a weekend split in the regular season on Dec. 5-6, 2014 in Ithaca, New York (1-1). The squads have met four times previously in the national tournament, with both teams winning twice. The Pioneers defeated the Big Red 4-3 in the 1969 National Championship Game.
Cornell has a 20-10-2 overall record on the season and a 15-6-1 mark in conference play. CU swept its quarterfinal series against Clarkson in the ECAC Tournament before falling 1-0 in overtime to Harvard in the conference semifinals on Friday in Lake Placid, New York.
The Pioneers will be making their 32nd appearance in the national tournament, and they enter with an 11-2 mark in the last 13 games and have a 14-4 record in the past 18 contests since Jan. 7.
The 2023 NCAA Frozen Four is April 6-8 at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida.
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
