Zeev Buium had his best game of the season in the biggest game to date for the Denver Pioneers hockey team.
 
The sophomore defenseman scored three goals for his first career hat trick on Friday night to lead No. 1 DU to a 5-2 win at No. 9 North Dakota in the hostile territory of Ralph Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks.
 
He scored the first two goals of the evening for the Pioneers, quieting the crowd of 11,597 at 5:37 and 13:00 of the first period to give Denver leads of 1-0 and 2-1, before putting an exclamation mark on the victory with an empty-net tally in the last two seconds of regulation. Buium had recorded 10 assists in the 10 games prior to the NCHC opener, but his trio of goals were his first of the season.
 
"We always love coming here and playing in this building," Buium said postgame. "It's an exciting game, and we were all ready for the challenge."
 
Already in rare air after being just the program's sixth defenseman and the third freshman blueliner to record 50 points in a season after hitting that mark as a rookie in 2023-24, Buium joined another exclusive list with his hat trick.
 
The San Diego, California, native became just the 12th defender to tally three goals in a game, and he was the first to do it in nearly 20 years and first to accomplish the feat on the road in more than 30 years. Ryan Caldwell was the last Denver D-man to record a hat trick on Feb. 14, 2004 versus Minnesota State, while Ian DeCorby was the previous Pioneer to have the "trick" away from home ice on Dec. 29, 1990 at St. Cloud State.
 
It was also Denver's first hat trick in more than a season—Jack Devine had the last one when he scored four times during the NCHC Quarterfinals on March 10, 2023 against Miami—and it was just the third hat trick by a D-man in NCHC history, as Western Michigan's Ronnie Attard had the previous two on Oct. 19, 2021 at Colgate and Feb. 4, 2022 at Colorado College.
 
"It feels good," Buium noted of his first a career trick. "Obviously got to thank my teammates for setting me up and all I had to do was put the puck in the back of the net."
 
Buium finished the game with a five shots, one block and a plus-5 rating, but he was a menace for the Fighting Hawks on both ends of the ice throughout the contest.
 
"His best performance of the season so far," said Richard and Kitzia Goodman Hockey Head Coach David Carle of Buium's Friday night game. "Obviously he had the hat trick, but we felt on the bench that he was the most in-control he has been managing the game with and without the puck, managing his emotions. He's going out and playing hockey and defending at a real high level. I thought he got a lot of pucks touching his sticks, breaking plays out, helped us get out of our zone quickly, and obviously he contributed on the offensive end as well with three goals."
 
His three-goal night marked his second career multi-goal game, as he previously did it in last season's NCHC Frozen Faceoff Semifinals that included tallying the overtime-winner to end St. Cloud State's season on March 22, 2024.
 
Buium has quietly climbed the national scoring leaderboard this season and is in a spot he was familiar with from last year. He is tied for first among all NCAA defensemen in scoring with teammate Eric Pohlkamp and Maine's Brandon Holt with 13 points, while his 10 assists are tied for second among D-men in the country.
 
PIONEERS PASS THE TEST
 
Denver entered last weekend off to its best start in program history with a 10-0-0 record that included series sweeps against ranked opponents at home against No. 19 Northeastern and No. 20 Wisconsin, but the two games on the road at long-time rival and No. 9-ranked North Dakota were going to tell a lot about this year's squad.
 
The Pioneers went out and had its best outing of the season in a 5-2 win on Friday night and then quickly tied the game after getting down 1-0 and 2-1 on Saturday before taking a lead to earn a 3-2 victory and a series sweep.
 
"Really proud of our team for finding a way through the game," said head coach David Carle following Saturday's victory. "We get down 1-0, find a way to get it tied. Go down 2-1—give up a shorty. Power play comes back and gets one, and then to get the go-ahead at the end of the second period by [Boston] Buckberger was great.
 
"Probably what I'm most proud of is two third periods (at North Dakota), up 4-2 a night ago, up 3-2 tonight, only give up 10 shots in the two periods combined. Don't give up a goal, have to kill two penalties—one each period, one Friday and one Saturday—and held them off the (score) sheet there as well. I thought we had a lot of commitment to blocking shots—Kent Anderson's block in the third period stands out—but we had a lot of guys putting their bodies on the line for the team."
 
Denver blocked a season-high 18 shots on Saturday night—its most in a game since getting in front of 21 pucks in last season's NCAA Championship Game against Boston College on April 13, 2024.
 
DU's season is now one-third complete and the program's 12-0-0 record makes it one of two squads without a loss (Dartmouth) and the only one that has won every game. The Pioneers also lead the nation in both goals for (4.8) and goals against (1.4) per game, while ranking in the top 10 in the NCAA in power play (34.6%, 3rd), penalty kill (93.9, 6th), shooting percentage (.142, 2nd), save percentage (.938, 4th), shots/game (33.4, 9th) and shots against/game (23.0, T-2nd).
 
The Pioneers earned recognition on Monday as being voted the unanimous No. 1 team in the nation in both the USCHO.com and USA Hockey/The Rink Live polls.
 
There will certainly be bumps in the road for the squad as the season progresses, but so far the Pios have overcome each challenge they've faced.
 
"The adversity is coming, but we're not going to complain about our 12-0 start," Carle said. "Looking forward to getting back to Magness Arena against Arizona State next weekend.
 
THOMPSON STREAKING
 
Jack Devine is leading the nation in scoring with 21 points and Sam Harris is first with 10 goals, but junior forward Aidan Thompson is right behind both teammates and has put together a quiet but impressive campaign through the first six weeks of the season.
 
Thompson ranks second in the NCAA behind Devine and Harris with 20 points on nine goals and 11 assists, and he is the only player in the country in record at least a point in all 12 outings this year.
 
His career-long 12-game point streak is the longest by a Denver player in the last 10 years, surpassing Henrik Borgstrom's 11-game run to begin the 2017-18 campaign (did not play in the second game of the year on Oct. 14, 2017 at Notre Dame).
 
The Fort Collins, Colorado, native had a goal and an assist on Friday in Grand Forks before scoring the game-tying goal on the power play on Saturday to knot the contest at 2-2 midway through the second period. That marker was key to shifting momentum away from UND and helped result in Boston Buckberger tallying the eventual game-winner later in the stanza.
 
Thompson's nine goals this year are already two shy of matching his career high of 11 from last season, while he is just 12 points from tying his personal best of 32 points as a freshman in 2022-23.
 
MORE NOTABLES

• The Pioneers have won 21 consecutive games dating back to last season on March 9 against Colorado College, the longest win streak across multiple seasons in program history. The current run is one game shy of tying the longest overall winning streak in school history as the Pioneers won 22 contests in a row from Jan. 5-March 16, 1968 en route to the team's fourth national championship.
• DU has won its first 12 games of a season for the first time in school history; the previous record was victories in its first nine contests that was set by the 2001-02 squad (counting exhibition outings, DU actually won 11 consecutive games that year). 
• Goaltender Matt Davis is currently riding a personal 20-game winning streak dating back to March 9 of last season vs. Colorado College.  His 11 wins in a row this year marks the longest in-season streak by a Denver goaltender since Tanner Jaillet also won 11 straight contests from Jan. 21-March 10, 2017. 
• Sophomore Sam Harris leads the nation in goals with 11 markers this year and tallied the game-winner in three straight contests: Nov. 8-9 vs. Lindenwood and Nov. 15 at North Dakota—the first time that a Pioneer has notched the winning tally in three consecutive outings in the last four years (since 2021-22).
• Denver picked up its first two-game sweep in Grand Forks since Nov. 11-12, 2022 and is now 7-3-0 in the last 10 meetings versus UND.
• The Pioneers picked up their fourth comeback victory of the season after trailing by scores of 1-0 and 2-1 on Saturday.
• Boston Buckberger scored his first career game-winning goal on Saturday.
• DU's three goals scored on Saturday were its fewest of the season, but the team continued its run of allowing two or fewer goals against in each of the 12 games this year.
• Tory Pitner recorded his first collegiate point with an assist on Saturday.
• DU had killed off 14 straight penalties before Sacha Boisvert scored on the power play with 5:48 left in the first period on Saturday night.
• DU fired 18 shots on goal in Friday's first period, the second-most in a stanza this season behind only the 19 it had in the opening frame on Oct. 6 at Alaska Anchorage.
• The Pioneers have had the lead or have been tied for nearly the entire season, as they've only trailed for 26:21 of game time this season (3.7%).  Overall, Denver has not trailed in 693:39 of the 720 minutes of game play this season—96.3 percent of the time—leading for 492:42 (68.4%) and has been tied for 200:57 (27.9%).

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