DENVER – Sophomore
Zeev Buium of the Denver Pioneers hockey team was named the NCHC Defenseman of the Week on Monday.
Buium earned his first top defender award of the season and the fourth of his career after also picking up the honor three times in 2023-24 as a freshman.
The San Diego, California, native scored three goals on Friday in DU's 5-2 win at North Dakota for his first career hat trick and became the first Pioneer blueliner to accomplish the feat in nearly 20 years.
Ryan Caldwell was the last Denver D-man to tally three times in a contest on Feb. 14, 2004 versus Minnesota State while
Ian DeCorby was the last to do it on the road on Dec. 29, 1990 at St. Cloud State.
Overall, it was just the third defenseman hat trick in NCHC history and the first since Ronnie Attard of Western Michigan on Feb. 4, 2022 at Colorado College; Attard also tallied one earlier that year on Oct. 19, 2021 at Colgate. Buium's goals were his first of the season and marked the first hat trick by a Pioneer since
Jack Devine tallied four times on March 10, 2023 against Miami.
It was Buium's second career multi-goal game, joining his two-goal performance that included the overtime-winner in the NCHC Frozen Faceoff Semifinals on March 22, 2024 vs. St. Cloud State at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. Friday also marked his second three-point game of the season (three assists on Oct. 5, 2024 at Alaska Anchorage) and seventh of his career.
Buium also added a season-high five shots and a plus-3 rating in Friday's victory. He recorded two penalty minutes, had two shots and posted a plus-1 rating on Saturday as DU won 3-2 to sweep the series at North Dakota and win its 12th straight game to start the year.
The rear guard owns 13 points this season on three goals and 10 assists, and he is tied with teammate
Eric Pohlkamp and Maine's Brandon Holt for the NCAA-scoring lead by a defenseman.
Minnesota Duluth's Dominic James and Adam Gajan were named the NCHC's Forward and Goaltender of the Week, respectively, while Western Michigan goaltender Hampton Slukynsky was chosen as Rookie of the Week. Denver forward
Aidan Thompson, goaltender
Matt Davis and rookie
James Reeder were finalists for this week's awards.
UP NEXT: No. 1 Denver begins its home conference slate this weekend as it hosts Arizona State at Magness Arena in the teams' first-ever matchup as NCHC opponents. Friday's start time is 7 p.m. MT while Saturday's game begins at 6 p.m. and will be broadcast on Altitude 2. Both contests will also be available on NCHC.tv.
TICKETS: Season-ticket memberships and 5-game packs for Denver hockey's 75th anniversary in 2024-25 are available. Click
here to purchase and for more information.
