OMAHA, Neb. – The No. 5 Denver Pioneers hockey team heads out for its first road contests of the season this weekend with a two-game set at the No. 19 Omaha Mavericks. Friday and Saturday's outings at Baxter Arena both begin at 6 p.m. MT and will be broadcasted exclusively on NCHC.tv.
 
DU is coming off a 1-0-1 weekend against then-No. 14 St. Cloud State. The Pioneers gave the NCHC-leading Huskies their first conference loss of the season by defeating them 5-1 victory on Friday before the teams played to a 4-4 tie on Saturday. SCSU ended the night by winning the shootout 2-1 for the extra NCHC point, but the game will officially go down as a draw.
 
Despite Saturday's result, Denver still stretched its unbeaten streak to a season-best five games (4-0-1) and is 7-2-1 in its last 10 contests. It is the Pioneers' longest such stretch since going 6-0-0 from Feb. 24-March 11, 2023. 
 
The Pioneers and Mavericks last met on Nov. 17-19, with DU winning the opener 8-4 before UNO won 4-3 in the finale. That series finale began on Saturday, Nov. 18, but was suspended prior to the second period due to ice conditions. The game resumed the next afternoon, Nov. 19, with the start of the middle frame at 0-0, the same score at the time of the pause.
 
Omaha entered the national polls for the first time this season at No. 19 in both rankings after splitting its series last weekend at then-No. 4 North Dakota. Jack Randl tallied in overtime on Friday to lift UNO to a 5-4 victory before the Fighting Hawks won 3-1 on Saturday. The Mavericks, who have received votes in the polls for most of the year, sport an 11-7-2 overall record and rank seventh in the NCHC with 11 points and a 4-5-1 mark.  
 
The Pioneers are 38-14-5 all-time vs. the Mavericks and have a 14-9-3 record on the road. The teams only played each other twice last season in Denver, so the Pios will be making their first trip to Baxter Arena since Feb. 25-26, 2022 when they lost 5-1 and won 5-2.  DU is 7-2-3 in the last 12 contests against UNO in Omaha.
 
Denver's road swing continues on Jan. 26-27 at North Dakota, and the four-game road "trip" is tied for the squad's longest of the season. The Pios began the 2023-24 campaign with four consecutive road outings from Oct. 7-21 at Alaska Fairbanks, Providence and Boston College, which also included a bye week in-between.
 
This weekend also begins a stretch of DU playing nine of its final 14 contests of the regular season on the road, as the Pioneers won't have consecutive weekends at home for the remainder of the main campaign.
 
LAST TIME OUT: The Pioneers went 1-0-1 against St. Cloud State last weekend to wrap up a four-game homestand.  DU used five unanswered goals in the second period on Friday to win 5-1 and used three power-play markers on Saturday to rally for a 4-4 tie.
 
Carter King totaled four points (1g/3a) in the two games, including matching a career best with three assists on Friday. Massimo Rizzo scored twice for DU on Friday and Rieger Lorenz tallied shorthanded.   The Pioneers scored twice on a major power play late in the second period on Saturday to erase a 4-2 deficit and eventually tie the Huskies.  SCSU earned the extra point in the conference standings by winning the shootout 2-1.
 
NOTABLES

• Denver wrapped up a four-game homestand with a 3-0-1 mark and a stretch of playing 10-of-12 regular-season contests at home from Nov. 17-Jan. 13, with DU going 7-2-1 at Magness Arena in that time.
• DU combined for five power-play goals in the two games, including scoring a season-best three times with the man advantage on Saturday.  Saturday was the ninth time this year the team has tallied multiple times on the power play and the squad's most in a contest since also having three on March 10, 2024 vs. Miami in Game 1 of the NCHC Quarterfinals (3/5).
• All three power-play goals on Saturday came in the second period, the most the Pios have tallied in a single period this year (eighth time in 2023-24 with multiple power-play goals in a period).
• The Pioneers are now 2-1-2 in overtime games this season.  Denver is 0-2 in shootouts this season (Oct. 26 vs. Augustana) and suffered its first shootout defeat in conference play in nearly 10 years, ending a nine-game winning streak.  Its last defeat in the NCHC tiebreaker was Jan. 18, 2014 against Minnesota Duluth
• DU is now 10-3 all-time in shootouts, with head coach David Carle suffering his first NCHC shootout loss as a head coach (he is 5-2 all-time in tiebreaker).
• Denver scored five goals in the second period on Friday, matching its most in a single period this season (Nov. 17 vs. Omaha, 2nd).
• Aidan Thompson won 15 faceoff on Saturday, one shy of matching his career best.
• Jack Devine had a team season-best and career-high seven shots on goal on Saturday. His previous personal best was six (four times). The Pioneer players previously had six shots in a game five times this year.
• Rieger Lorenz tallied his second career short-handed goal on Friday and Denver's seventh of the season, tying Canisius and Northeastern for the most in the NCAA.
• Massimo Rizzo scored twice in the second period on Friday, the fifth time a player has accomplished that this year.
• Carter King had three assists in that second period as well, the third time this year a DU player had three points in a period.
• The Pios recorded a season-low six penalty minutes on Saturday for the eighth time this season.
• Denver is now 10-1-1 in the last 12 home games against St. Cloud State.
• DU had its first non-win on a Saturday this season, with the team now owning a 9-0-1 mark on the day.
• The Pioneers are now 5-4-1 against ranked teams this year.

 
MILESTONE GAMES: Juniors Massimo Rizzo (99 games played) and Shai Buium (98 games played) are expected to play in their 100th career contests this weekend at Omaha.  They will become the fourth and fifth Pioneers to reach the milestone, joining Connor Caponi (Oct. 7 at Alaska Fairbanks), McKade Webster (Nov. 10 at Arizona State) and Carter King, who accomplished the feat on Saturday vs. St. Cloud State.  Several other Pios are close to reaching the 100-game threshold in Tristan Broz (three games away), Jack Devine (four games away) and Sean Behrens (10 games away).
 
STRONG RETURN: Goaltender Matt Davis is 3-0-1 in his four starts since missing 13 games with a lower-body injury and is on a six-game unbeaten streak dating back to Oct. 21 at Boston College (4-0-2).  It is the longest unbeaten stretch of the season by a DU goalie and ties his career long that he set across two seasons from Feb. 26-Dec. 17, 2022 (6-0-0).
 
Davis' 30 saves on Saturday against St. Cloud matched a career best while his 34 shots faced in the contest were a personal high.  His previous high marks came when made 30-of-32 saves on March 10, 2023 against Miami.  The Calgary, Alberta, native also made 18 saves in Saturday's third period, the most in a single frame this season by a DU netminder and the most shots an opponent has produced in a period in 2023-24.
 
ROOKIE OF THE WEEK: Freshman Miko Matikka combined for three points and earned his fourth NCHC Rookie of the Week award of the season on Monday. He scored on Friday before picking up his sixth multi-point outing of the season on Saturday with a goal and an assist.  Matikka has earned each of his four honors in the last seven selections.
 
AUTO-MATIKKA: Forward Miko Matikka's 14 goals this year rank second on the Pioneers and are tied for first among all freshmen in the country.  His 14 scores are tied for the most by a Denver freshman since 2016-17 when Henrik Borgstrom had 22 tallies.
 
Each of Matikka's 14 goals have come in the last 14 games, and he has recorded at least a point in 14 of the past 15 contests and has tallied at least once in 11 of the last 14 outings.  He recorded a career-long 11-game point streak from Nov. 3-Dec. 9 (11g/4a) and had a six-game goal streak from Nov. 4-24, which was the longest goal streak at DU since Dylan Gambrell went on a seven-game run with a goal from Feb. 13-March 5, 2016 (8g/14a).
 
The Helsinki, Finland, native has been named the NCHC Rookie of the Week four times this season, including picking up consecutive awards on Nov. 13 and 20 to become the first Denver player to repeat as a weekly conference winner since Magnus Chrona did it with Goaltender of the Week on Jan. 17 and 24, 2022.  Matikka was named the NCHC Rookie of the Month for November after leading all conference freshmen with seven goals and his 10 points ranking second among rookies behind teammate Zeev Buium (14).
 
PIONEERING OFFENSE: Denver leads ranks the country in offense, averaging 5.2 goals per game.  Michigan is second at 4.6 goals per contest and defending national champion Quinnipiac ranks third at 4.5.  The Pioneers are second in the NCAA in scoring margin, winning by 2.18 goals, as only the QU Bobcats are better at 2.57 goals.
 
DU also leads the nation in shooting percentage at 16.1, with Quinnipiac being the next closet team at 13.3%.  On special teams, the Pios have the ninth-best power play at 26.0% and have scored the third-most man-advantage goals in the NCAA (26).
 
Junior Massimo Rizzo leads the country with 34 points and 25 assists, while classmate Jack Devine is first in goals (18) and is tied for second behind Rizzo in points (33).
 
STREAKING:

• Carter King is on a nine-game point streak (6g/5a), tying a career long that he previously set this year from Oct 21-Nov. 19.  He has points in 18 of the last 19 games (13g/14a) since Oct. 21.

• Miko Matikka is on a three-game goal streak (3g/2a).
• Tristan Broz is on a three-game point streak (2g/4a).

 
BUIUM'S HISTORIC POINT STREAK: Denver rookie Zeev Buium had his career-long 12-game point streak (4g/7a) end last Friday, Jan. 12 (began Nov. 3).  Courtesy of College Hockey News, it was the longest point streak by a freshman defenseman in the NCAA in more than 21 years (online databases presently do not go back further than 2002).  Boston University's Lane Hutson, who he played with on Team USA at the 2024 World Juniors, previously had the longest with an 11-game run last season from Dec. 11, 2022-Feb. 6, 2023 (3g/16a).
 
The stretch by Buium was the longest by a Denver player since Bobby Brink had a 14-game point streak from Dec. 31, 2021-Feb. 19, 2022 (7g/21a).  During the streak, Buium also produced a personal-best five-game assist streak, with him totaling 10 helpers from Nov. 25-Dec. 9.
 
PIONEERS IN THE POLLS: Denver moved up to No. 5 in the country in the USCHO.com poll and remained at No. 6 in the USA Hockey/The Rink Live poll after the latest national rankings were released on Monday.  The Pioneers are presently No. 8 in the Pairwise rankings, which determines the NCAA Tournament field.
 
The NCHC has six teams ranked for the first time this season as Omaha entered both polls at No. 19 in both lists.  The conference's six teams are tied with Hockey East for the most in the nation.  North Dakota is at No. 6/7, while Western Michigan is at No. 11, St. Cloud State is at No. 13/t-12 and Colorado College at No. 18.
 
HISTORY VS. OMAHA: Denver and Omaha wrap up their four-game regular season series after the teams split their series earlier this year at Magness Arena.  DU won 8-4 on Nov. 17 before the teams played again on Saturday, but that contest was suspended and resumed on Nov. 19 due to ice conditions prior to the second period.  The game was paused at 0-0 and UNO went on to win 4-3.  The teams didn't face each other in Omaha last season, as the Pioneers will be making their first trip to Baxter Arena since Feb. 25-26, 2022, where they lost 5-1 and won 5-2.  DU is 3-2 in the last five meetings and owns a 6-4 mark in the last 10 matchups against UNO.  The Pioneers are 38-14-5 all-time vs. the Mavericks and have a 14-9-3 record on the road.  Denver is 7-2-3 in the last 12 contests against UNO in Omaha.
 
SCOUTING THE MAVERICKS: Ty Mueller was recognized as the NCHC Forward of the Week after compiling four points (1g/3a) and leads the team in all three scoring categories with seven goals, 10 assists and 17 points.  Randl (6g/6a) and Tanner Ludtke (5g/7a) both rank second with 12 points and Griffin Ludtke (3g/8a) and Joaquim Lemey (4g/6a) have also reached double-digit points.  Goaltender Simon Latkoczy has seen the most action and owns an 8-6-2 record, 2.51 goals-against average, .911 save percentage and one shutout in 16 games.
 
CONNECTIONS: Assistant Coach Ryan Massa graduated from Nebraska Omaha and spent four years as a goaltender for the Mavericks (2011-2015), helping the program to its first Frozen Four in 2015 … Head Athletic Trainer Aaron Leu is from Nebraska, and he earned his bachelor's degree in Exercise Science from Creighton University in Omaha in 1995 and picked up his master's degree from the University of Nebraska at Kearney in 1996 … Cale Ashcroft (Tri-City Storm, 2022-23), Boston Buckberger (Lincoln Stars, 2022-23), Kieran Cebrian (Tri-City Storm 2020-23), Aidan Thompson (Lincoln Stars, 2020-22) and Jared Wright (Omaha Lancers, 2021-22) played junior hockey in the state of Nebraska … Freddie Halyk and UNO's Ty Mueller are both from Cochrane, Alberta … Tristan Broz and the Mavs' Tyler Rollwagen are both from Bloomington, Minn., and played together in 2020-21 with the USHL Fargo Force … Wright was a teammate with Cam Mitchell in Omaha in 2021-22 … Thompson played with Joaquim Lemay and Tanner Ludtke with Lincoln in 2021-22 … Victor Mancini played on Green Bay with Matt Davis in 2020-21 … Shai Buium played with Griffin Ludtke with the Sioux City Musketeers in 2020-21 … Massimo Rizzo was a teammate of Ray Fust with the BCHL Chilliwack Chiefs in 2020-21.
 
PREVIOUS MEETING (NOV. 18-19, 2023): No. 3 Denver lost 4-3 to the Omaha on Sunday afternoon at Magness Arena in a continuation of a game from the previous night.  DU finished with a series split over UNO after Saturday's game was delayed.  Ice conditions prior to the second period forced the suspension of the game resume on Sunday at 2 p.m. MT.  The score was 0-0 at the time of the pause, and the contest restarted with the beginning of the second period.  Sophomore Rieger Lorenz tallied a short-handed goal for the Pioneers while Jared Wright and Miko Matikka also found the back of the net.  Denver goaltender Freddie Halyk made 15 saves.
 

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