ST. PAUL, Minn. – The No. 3 nationally-ranked University of Denver hockey team rallied from four one-goal deficits and advanced to the NCHC Frozen Faceoff Championship Game with a 5-4 overtime victory against the No. 17-ranked St. Cloud State Huskies on Friday night in the conference semifinals at Xcel Energy Center.
 
"I'm proud of our team's effort tonight. Excited to get the win," said Richard and Kitzia Goodman Hockey Head Coach David Carle. "We have the utmost respect for St. Cloud, (head coach) Brett Larson and their staff, the season they had and the effort they put in to get to the Frozen Faceoff and how hard they played us tonight. It was an excellent game, really back-and-forth. Just have a lot of respect for them… Really proud of our players. We haven't had a lot of success here on Friday—it is actually our first time scoring here on Friday since March of 2018. So it's been awhile, and we're really excited to play for a big trophy tomorrow."
 
Freshman defenseman Zeev Buium recorded his first career two-goal contest and tallied his first game-winner 6:21 into the extra frame to lift the No. 2-seed Pioneers (27-9-3, 15-7-2 NCHC) past the No. 3-seed Huskies (17-16-5, 11-9-4 NCHC). He also added an assist for his fifth three-point outing of the season.
 
Denver will play Omaha in the championship game on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. MT (National TV: CBS Sports Network). The Mavericks, which began as the No. 5 seed after defeating Colorado College in three games last week, earned a 6-3 win against No. 1-seed North Dakota in the first semifinal of the day at the home of the NHL Minnesota Wild.
 
Rookie forward Miko Matikka joined his Pioneers classmate with two markers, while junior defenseman Shai Buium and sophomore forward Aidan Thompson each registered two assists. Senior captain McKade Webster scored as well for Denver, while junior Rieger Lorenz and freshmen Kieran Cebrian and Sam Harris all produced a helper each.
 
Junior goaltender Matt Davis finished with 21 saves and was perfect in the third period and through overtime, stopping all five pucks that came his way in that time.
 
The Pioneers outshot the Huskies 41-25 in the contest and by a 25-11 margin in the final two-plus periods. St. Cloud goaltender Isak Posch made 36 saves.
 
Denver never led in the game as St. Cloud State took the lead four times, but the Pios evened the score in each instance. The Huskies led 2-1 late in the first stanza before Webster tallied with 2:44 left in the frame, and SCSU was up 4-3 in the second frame before Matikka recorded his second of the period with 1:43 remaining before the intermission.
 
Zeev Buium ended the contest by taking the puck from Harris at the blue line after a failed St. Cloud clear, skated toward the net and across the top of the crease before sliding the puck along the ice and inside the far post.
 
The victory is Denver's third in the Frozen Faceoff Semifinals and first since winning the championship in 2018. The Pioneers will be looking to tie Minnesota Duluth (three) for the most Frozen Faceoff Championships in conference history.
 
UP NEXT: The Pioneers go for their third NCHC Frozen Faceoff Championship on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. MT against the Omaha Mavericks.
 
 
POSTGAME NOTES

• DU is on a four-game winning streak, matching a season long (Dec. 9-Jan. 12).
• Denver is now 3-7 all-time in the NCHC Frozen Faceoff Semifinals.
• The Pioneers improved to 2-1 all-time in the NCHC playoff overtime and are now 1-1 in overtime games in the semifinals.
• DU picked up its first overtime win in the conference semifinals since March 16, 2012 vs. Minnesota Duluth when it won 4-3 in double-overtime during the WCHA Final Five.
• Denver improved to 4-1-3 in overtime games this season.
• The Pioneers five goals scored were their most in a conference semifinal or final game since winning 6-2 vs. Bemidji State on March 18, 2011 in the WCHA Final Five Semifinals at Xcel Energy Center.
• DU is now 2-1 against St. Cloud State in NCHC Tournament games and 3-3 all-time in conference tournament outings.
• Denver tied a season low with two penalty minutes in the game (also Feb. 2 vs. Western Michigan).
• Zeev Buium recorded his first multi-goal game and tallied his first career game/overtime-winning goal.
• Carter King returned to the lineup after missing seven games with an upper-body injury (Feb. 24-March 16).
• Miko Matikka recorded his fourth multi-goal game of the season. Both tallies came in the second period, the ninth time this year that a Pioneer has scored twice in the same frame.
• Zeev Buium (six), Sam Harris (five) and Boston Buckberger (four) all matched career highs for shots on goal.
• Goaltender Matt Davis is on a four-game winning streak, the longest such stretch of the season by a Denver goalie.
• Sam Harris is on a four-game point streak and Aidan Thompson is on a three-game point streak.
• Jack Devine had his five-game point streak end (5g/2a).

 
GOAL SUMMARY
1st Period
1:40 SCSU (0-1) – Cooper Wylie intercepted a DU clearing attempt and scored from the right point on a shot through traffic.
8:33 DU (1-1) – Zeev Buium took a drop pass from Rieger Lorenz, drove to the net, made a move and scored on a wrister.
9:55 SCSU (1-2) – Nick Portz tallied on a wrister from the high slot after a St. Cloud faceoff win.
17:16 DU (2-2) – McKade Webster stuffed the puck inside the right post after a pass from below the goal line by Aidan Thompson.
 
2nd Period
1:00 SCSU (2-3) – Adam Ingram knocked in a centering pass from Verner Miettinen.
5:30 DU (3-3) – PPG, Miko Matikka buried a one-timer at the top of the right circle off passes from Shai Buium and Zeev Buium.
8:06 SCSU (3-4) – PPG, Barrett Hall tallied into an open net following a rebound in the low slot.
18:17 DU (4-4) – Miko Matikka redirected Shai Buium's outside shot while stationed at the top of the crease.
 
3rd Period
No Scoring
 
Overtime
6:21 DU (5-4) – Zeev Buium tucked the puck inside the right post after streaking past the goalie at the top of the crease.
 
 
QUOTABLES
Richard and Kitzia Goodman Hockey Head Coach David Carle
On adjustments in the third period: "I think we just talked about getting the lead for the first time tonight. It just didn't happen until overtime. I liked the push at the start of the third. I thought the first 10-12 minutes we did a lot of really good things, had opportunities. Isak (Posch, St. Cloud goalie) for them played excellent. I thought three-in-three nights last week started to show a little bit for them. But at the second TV timeout for about four or five minutes from the seven-minute mark to the two-minute mark before the end of regulation. There was still some back-and-forth in the period, but I thought both teams played well in the third."
 
On battling back four times in the game: "We've been in a lot of high-scoring games this year. We haven't been in one like that where it happened sequentially like that where we kept getting scored on and didn't have the lead all night long until the end of the game. I thought it was a great challenge for us to learn how to win these types of games. We've talked a lot about our youth and how we want to grow and be a different team now than we were at the start. I don't know that we win that game in October or November, but I think they've showed a lot of growth and maturity and confidence and belief in themselves that they were able to go and execute and not be deterred by being down a goal four straight times. That is not an easy thing to overcome. Again, just proud of them. We have a great leadership group, we have really good kids who want to learn and get better, and they've done that all year. Happy for them that they got the result tonight."
 
Senior Forward McKade Webster
On getting to the Frozen Faceoff Championship Game: "Obviously the job is not done, so focusing on tomorrow. Obviously happy about tonight, but there is still a lot to go."
 
On his goal: "I just took it to the net and it went in. Nothing much to it, honestly."
 
Junior Defenseman Shai Buium
On playing tighter defensively in the third period: "I think we stayed connected as a group. We were ready for the challenge, and we came out and executed."
 
Junior Forward Carter King
On returning to the lineup after an injury: "It's a lot more fun than before, I was just saying that before (to the guys). It's stressful watching, so I was really excited to get back out there today."