DENVER – The No. 5 University of Denver hockey team gets set to play a ranked opponent for the fourth straight weekend as the No. 15 Western Michigan Broncos visit Magness Arena on Friday and Saturday.
 
Friday's game begins at 7 p.m. MT and will be broadcasted regionally on Altitude 2, while Saturday's start time is at 6 p.m. MT and will be televised on Altitude. Both games will also be available on NCHC.tv.
 
Denver is coming off a pair of losses last weekend at No. 5 North Dakota, falling 5-2 on Friday and 4-2 on Saturday to end a season-long seven-game unbeaten streak (6-0-1). The Pioneers are still unbeaten in their last five contests at home (4-0-1) dating back to Dec. 9.
 
DU will be wrapping up its four-game regular season series against the WMU Broncos, as the teams split their previous set in Kalamazoo prior to the holiday break on Dec. 8-9. Western Michigan won 7-3 in the opener before Denver earned a 6-5 overtime victory the next night after Massimo Rizzo tallied the game-winner early in the extra frame.
 
The Pioneers are 8-2-1 in the last 11 games against the Broncos and own a 25-12-2 all-time record in the series. Denver owns a 13-2-1 record versus WMU at Magness Arena, including winning each of the last three on home ice.
 
Western Michigan will be making its first visit to Denver since Nov. 12-13, 2021, as the two teams only played twice last year, with both outings coming at Lawson Arena. DU won 5-3 and 5-2 versus then-No. 9 WMU to spark a seven-game winning streak.
 
The Broncos are 1-4-0 in its last five games, with its only victory in that span coming on Oct. 20 versus Minnesota Duluth to earn a series split at home against the Bulldogs. Western dropped both games last week at Lawson Arena against Colorado College, losing 2-1 in overtime on both Friday and Saturday.
 
WMU, which has a 15-8-1 overall record, ranks fifth in the NCHC standings with 22 points and a 6-8-0 conference mark. Denver (17-7-2, 8-5-1 NCHC) is tied for third in the conference standings with 23 points with Colorado College, but owns the tiebreaker with more regulation wins in league play (6-5).
 
The Pioneers will be playing their first home outings since Jan. 12-13 when it went 1-0-1 against No. 14 St. Cloud State. DU recently wrapped up a four-game road swing, where it swept its series at No. 19 Omaha on Jan. 19-20 before losing both contests at North Dakota last weekend in a top-five matchup.
 
500TH GAME AT MAGNESS: Denver hockey will play its 500th game at Magness Arena on Friday night against Western Michigan. The rink along with the attached Richie Center opened prior to the 1999-00 campaign, with the Pioneers defeating Union 4-1 in the Ice Breaker Tournament on Oct. 15, 1999 in the first regular-season game at the program's current home.
 
The Pioneers own a .713 winning-percentage at Magness Arena over the 24-plus years, with DU sporting a 335-122-42 record. The team had its most wins last season in 2022-23 (19-4-0, does not include Ball Arena game) and produced its best winning percentage during the program's 2021-22 championship campaign (.921, 17-1-1). Denver has a 9-2-2 record at home this year.
 
HOME SWEET HOME: The Pioneers are unbeaten in their last five home games (4-0-1) dating back to Dec. 2, the team's longest stretch of the season at Magness Arena and the longest since winning seven straight games from Jan. 7-Feb. 17, 2023.  .  DU had its overall season-long seven-game unbeaten streak (6-0-1) end last weekend; it was the program's longest such stretch since winning seven in a row from Nov. 26-Dec. 17, 2022.
 
HOME-ICE ADVANTAGE: The Pios are 50-9-1 in their last 62 contests at Magness Arena and sport a 58-13-4 record on the DU hilltop since the start of the 2019-20 campaign.  DU hasn't lost consecutive home games since March 31-Feb. 1, 2020 vs. Minnesota Duluth.
 
Denver went unbeaten in its first four home games this year (3-0-1) and is 9-2-2 in its friendly confines in 2023-24.  The program finished the 2022-23 season with a 20-4-0 record at home, winning 10 of its last 11 games and going 15-2-0 in its final 17 contests at Magness.
 
HOBEY BAKER NOMINEES: Junior forwards Jack Devine and Massimo Rizzo and freshman defenseman Zeev Buium are Denver's three nominees for the 2024 Hobey Baker Award, given to the top men's college hockey player in the country.  The three Pioneers are among 17 players from the NCHC and 84 nationally up for the award.  First round of fan voting began on Friday and ends March 10 and takes into account a percentage of the total ballot. The top 10 finalists will be announced on March 20, the three Hobey Hat Trick finalists will be named on April 4 and the award will be presented on April 11 at the Frozen Four.
 
LAST TIME OUT: The Pioneers dropped both of their games at North Dakota last weekend, falling 5-2 in the series opener on Friday at Ralph Engelstad Arena and 4-2 on Saturday in the finale.
 
Zeev Buium and Aidan Thompson scored on Friday, while Jared Wright and Sam Harris found the back of the net on Saturday. Goaltender Matt Davis started both games, making 24 saves on Friday and 29 stops on Saturday.
 
NOTABLES:

• Shai Buium is on a three-game point streak (1g/3a).
• The Pioneers are now 5-3-0 vs. the Fighting Hawks in their last eight matchups.
• UND won the season series 3-1-0. Denver was swept in a weekend series for the first time since Jan. 20-21, 2023 at St. Cloud State.
• Denver had its first loss on a Saturday this season, dropping to 10-1-1 on the day in 2023-24.
• The Pioneers suffered back-to-back defeats for the first time this season, as they were previously 5-0-0 after a loss.
• The Pioneers are now 7-6-1 against ranked teams this year.
• Carter King was held off the scoresheet on Friday to end his career-long 11-game point streak (7g/6a) .
• Goaltender Matt Davis had his career-best eight-game unbeaten streak end on Friday (was 6-0-2 since Oct. 21).

 
RIZZO CLIMBING THE LEADERBOARD: Forward Massimo Rizzo leads the nation with 32 assists and 42 points and has recorded at least a point in 20-of-26 games this season.  The junior, who became the 102nd member of the DU's 100-point club on Nov. 11 at Arizona State, has now recorded 124 points in 103 career games and is tied with Perry Schnarr for 48th in program history in all-time scoring.
 
The last DU player to lead the NCAA in scoring at the end of the season was Bobby Brink in 2021-22 when he registered 57 points (14g/43a) in 41 games (1.30 pts/game).  Prior to Brink, the previous time a Pioneer led the country in points was Ed Beers in 1981-82 (50g/34a).  Brink's 43 assists that year was an NCHC record while his 57 points were second all-time in the conference behind UND's Brock Boeser's 60 in 2015-16.
 
The Denver center began 2023-24 on an eight-game point streak from Oct. 7-Nov. 4 (5g/12a), the longest season-opening point stretch since Jarid Lukosevicius had points in each of his first nine contests in 2018-19 (8g/5a).  Rizzo also matched a personal best with a four-game goal streak from Oct. 20-28 and recently had a career-long seven-game assist streak end from Nov. 24-Jan. 5.
 
TRULY DEVINE: Junior Jack Devine is tied for first in the nation with 21 goals, sharing the spot with Minnesota Duluth's Ben Steeves.  He ranks second behind teammate Massimo Rizzo (42) in overall scoring with 40 points.  The Glencoe, Illinois, native has seven multi-goal games this year and has picked up multiple points in 14 outings this year.
 
Devine became the first player in the country to reach the 20-goal threshold on Jan. 19 at Omaha. He accomplished the feat in just 23 games to become the quickest Pioneer in recent history to hit the mark.
 
The forward began the season with a career-long, five-game point streak (6g/7a), which also included posting multiple points in each outing.  It was the longest multi-point streak by a Pioneer since Rizzo also had a five-game stretch from Oct. 21-Nov. 4, 2022 (4g/9a).
 
NATIONAL LEADERBOARD

• Massimo Rizzo is first in the country in points (42) and assists (32).
• Jack Devine is tied for first in the nation in goals (21), ranks second in points (40).
• Zeev Buium is tied for eighth in the nation in points (33), which is tied for first among all NCAA defensemen and is tied for the third-most among all freshmen in the country. His 26 assists are fifth in the NCAA and are the second-most by a rookie.
• Miko Matikka is tied for 20th in the NCAA and is tied for fourth among all freshmen in the nation with 14 goals.
• Carter King leads the NCAA with four short-handed goals this season and is tied for 19th in points (31) and 20th for goals (14).

 
PIONEERING OFFENSE: Denver leads the country in offense, averaging 5.0 goals per game.  Michigan is second at 4.71 goals per contest.  The Pioneers are second in the NCAA in scoring margin, winning by 1.92 goals; Quinnipiac is first as that program wins by 2.16 goals.
 
DU also leads the nation in shooting percentage at 15.7%, with Boston College being the next closet team at 13%.  On special teams, the Pios are tied with the 10th-best power play at 25.2% and have scored the third-most man-advantage goals in the NCAA (30) behind Michigan (38) and Long Island (33).
 
HISTORY VS. WMU: Denver and Western Michigan get set to wrap up their four-game regular season series after the teams met on Dec. 8-9 prior to the holiday break in Kalamazoo.  The teams split the weekend set, with WMU winning 7-3 on Friday before DU picked up a 6-5 victory in overtime the next night after Massimo Rizzo scored early in the extra session.  Western Michigan hasn't visited Magness Arena since Nov. 12-13, 2021 as the programs only played twice season.  The Pioneers are 8-2-1 in the last 11 games against the Broncos and own a 25-12-2 all-time record in the series.  Denver is 20-10-2 mark against Western since becoming conference foes in 2013-14 and owns a 13-2-1 record versus WMU at Magness Arena, including winning each of the last three on home ice.
 
SCOUTING THE BRONCOS: Western Michigan has a 15-8-1 overall record this season and is fifth in the NCHC standings with 20 points and a 6-8-0 record.  WMU is 1-4-0 in its last five games, with its only victory in that span coming on Oct. 20 vs. Minnesota Duluth to earn a series split at home against the Bulldogs.  The Broncos dropped both games last week at Lawson Arena against Colorado College, losing 2-1 in overtime on both Friday and Saturday after CC's Noah Laba tallied the game-winner in each contest.  Luke Grainger leads the team with 35 points and 27 assists, while Dylan Wendt is the top-goal scorer with 19 tallies on the year and ranks second in scoring with 31 points.  Sam Colangelo is third on the WMU with 15 goals and 28 points.  Goaltender Cameron Rowe has played every minute this season, owning a 15-8-1 record, 2.29 goals-against average, .911 save percentage and two shutouts.
 
CONNECTIONS: DU Director of Hockey Operations Travis Culhane is from Kalamazoo and graduated from WMU in 2017. Culhane is the son of former Broncos head coach Jim Culhane and served as Western's Director of Hockey Ops during the 2018-19 season … Equipment Manager Nick Meldrum is from Warren, Mich., graduated from Lake Superior State in Sault Ste. Marie in 2007 and spent two years with the U.S. NTDP when it was in Ann Arbor prior to coming to DU … Defenseman Shai Buium is a Detroit Red Wings draft pick (No. 36 overall in 2021) … Jack Devine and Sean Behrens played in Plymouth, Mich., from 2019-2021 with the U.S. National Team Development Program, while Zeev Buium and Alex Weiermair played at the U.S. NTDP from 2021-2023 … Paxton Geisel began the 2023-24 season with the USHL Muskegon Lumberjacks ...  Jared Wright and Alex Bump are both from Burnsville, Minn., and played together with the USHL Omaha Lancers in 2021-22 … Bump was teammates with Cale Ashcroft and Kieran Cebrian with the USHL Tri-City Storm at the end of the 2022-23 season … Samuel Sjolund is from the same hometown as Lucas Olvestad (Stockholm, Sweden) and played with Olvestad, Tristan Lemyre and Paxton Geisel with the USHL Dubuque Fighting Saints in 2021-22 … Owen Michaels skated with Geisel with Dubuque in 2022-23 and was briefly teammates with Peter LaJoy while with the NAHL Bismarck Bobcats in 2020-21 … Connor Caponi was a teammate with Wyatt Schingoethe and Joe Casetti with the USHL Waterloo Black Hawks from 2018-2020 … McKade Webster played with Chad Hillebrand at the USHL Green Bay Gamblers in 2019-20 … Shai Buium skated with Matteo Costantini with the USHL Sioux City Musketeers in 2020-21 … Boston Buckberger was a teammate of Cole Crusberg-Roseen with the USHL Lincoln Stars last season in 2022-23 while Aidan Thompson played with Jacob Bauer at Lincoln in 2020-21 … Tristan Lemyre (Mirabel) and WMU's Luke Grainger (Montreal) are both from Quebec … DU's Alex Weiermair (Los Angeles) and Western's Ethan Wolthers (Valencia) and Ean Somoza and (Simi Valley) are all from the L.A. area in California.
 
PREVIOUS MEETING (DEC. 9, 2023): Junior forward Massimo Rizzo scored 62 second into overtime to lift the No. 4 Denver Pioneers hockey team to a 6-5 overtime win against the No. 13 Western Michigan Broncos at Lawson Arena.  Rizzo recorded his first career overtime goal by going coast-to-coast up the ice and depositing the puck into the cage after cutting across the high crease early in the extra session.  Freshman Miko Matikka had two goals for the second-straight game for the Pioneers, while juniors Tristan Broz and Jack Devine and sophomore Sean Behrens also found the back of the net.  Devine scored his NCAA-leading 15th goal of the season with 4:27 remaining to give DU a 5-4 lead at the time, but Joe Cassetti knotted the contest with 14 seconds remaining to force overtime while WMU had the extra attacker on the ice.
 
PIONEERS IN THE POLLS: Denver moved up to No. 4 in both national polls last Monday after previously being fifth in the USCHO.com ranking and No. 6 on the USA Hockey/The Rink Live list.  As of Sunday, the Pioneers are presently No. 6 in the Pairwise Rankings, which determines the NCAA Tournament field.
 
The NCHC had five teams ranked overall, tied for the second-most with the Big Ten and trailing only Hockey East (6).  The conference joins Hockey East with two teams in the top five with North Dakota at No. 5.  Western Michigan is at No. 12/12, St. Cloud State is at No. 15/14 and Colorado College comes in at No. 16/17. Omaha is the first team receiving votes in each ranking after entering the polls for the first time this year last week.
 
MONTH BY MONTH: Denver went 5-2-1 in January, marking its 20th straight month where it has posted at least a .500 record dating back to January 2021.  The Pios had their run of posting a greater-than .500 mark for 15 straight months end in December after going 2-2-0 (streak began October 2021).
 
ON THE ROAD AGAIN: The Pioneers are playing nine of their final 14 games of the regular season away from Magness Arena, with the team traveling to Omaha, North Dakota, Minnesota Duluth, St. Cloud State and Colorado College in the final weeks of the campaign.
 
Denver owns an 8-5-0 record on the road this season, which included weekend sweeps in Omaha on Jan. 19-20 and at Alaska Fairbanks to begin the campaign on Oct. 7-8.  DU's road sweep at UNO was its first against an NCHC opponent since Feb. 24-25 at Western Michigan when it secured its second consecutive Penrose Cup as conference regular-season champions.
 

TICKETS: Limited single-game tickets are available. Click here to learn more.