Winning in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference isn't easy. Every game is a battle, and that holds true in both tough environments on the road and in the friendly confines of home ice.
 
It what makes the conference among the best in college hockey—any team can win on any given night. So when a team sweeps a two-game series, it's a well-earned accomplishment.
 
The Denver Pioneers hockey team has had its fair share of road sweeps in the last several years in league play, but it two wins at home this past weekend against the Miami RedHawks marked its first home sweep in a conference regular-season series in nearly two years. The last time that DU picked up a pair of home victories in the main campaign against an NCHC foe on Feb. 10-11, 2023 against North Dakota.
 
"It's big," said Richard and Kitzia Goodman Hockey Head Coach David Carle of the sweep. "It's a hard league to get points in. Any time you can pile up six points on a weekend, it moves you in the standings. It's tight right now—first place has 19 points, eighth place has 13 points. So it's really tight and every point is going to matter as we all jockey for position in the second half."
 
Since that series against North Dakota, the Pioneers have picked up five sweeps at home in non-NCHC play, in addition to winning in two games twice in the 2023 and 2024 conference quarterfinals. DU also had a pair of home-and-home series sweeps against Colorado College in that time.
 
There could have been a bit of letdown by Denver this past weekend with the squad facing a Miami team that is presently ninth in the NCHC standings, but the Pioneers played a relative complete game in both the 4-1 win on Friday and 6-2 victory on Saturday. DU outshot MU 78-31 overall, went 50 percent on the power play (4-for-8) and nearly doubled-up the RedHawks in the faceoff circle (42-22 wins) in the two games.
 
On Saturday, Denver scored two goals each period and outshot Miami 42-12—the program's largest shot differential since outshooting Arizona State 56-20 on Dec. 2, 2022.
 
"I just loved our compete throughout the whole game here tonight, didn't think we took our foot off the gas," said Carle postgame on Saturday. "Obviously had a push the first five minutes, but I thought we weathered that storm really nicely, pushed back and really didn't look back from there."
 
The Pioneers have a bit of momentum heading into their last bye of the year before they finish the regular season with seven-straight weekend series before the NCHC postseason begins March 14.
 
Denver is 4-1-0 in its last five contests and 5-2-0 in the past seven matchups. The Pios moved into a tie for fourth in the NCHC standings with 17 points and a 6-4-0 record and have upcoming series against first-place North Dakota (Feb. 14-15) and second-place Arizona State (Feb. 7-8).
 
"It was a good weekend, getting some confidence back throughout the lineup," said senior captain Carter King. "I think we had a lot of puck possession, and guys started to get a little more comfortable with the puck on their stick and having that possession game came back, so I think it's big we got that back."
 
QUIETLY DOING THEIR BUSINESS
 
The Pioneers trio of Kieran Cebrian, Rieger Lorenz and Jared Wright hasn't had its highest-offensive output this season, but the line has been one of the team's most consistent and reliable through 22 games.
 
"It's no secret, I mean they've played really well throughout the year," Carle said of the unit. "The offensive production maybe hasn't been what they thought it would be, but they're doing things the right way. It's just continuing to believe that if they play to that standard and how they can play, they will generate.
 
"As things get harder here in the second half, we're going to need their firmness to be able to ride things up—look at the [2024] championship game, two of those goal scorers were on that line. They do things hard, and we're going to need them to continue to play the right way."
 
Each of those players were rewarded on the scoresheet on Saturday, as Wright scored the opening goal off an assist by Lorenz from behind the net and Cebrian closed the scoring with his first tally of the year in the last five minutes of regulation.
 
"I think we've always been confident, even though the scoring hasn't been there," Wright said. "I mean, we've been playing together since the second half of last year and obviously winning the national championship. So it's just continuing to play the right way. And when we play the right way, it'll result in getting production."
 
MIILESTONE WEEKEND
 
Forward Jared Wright became the second member of DU's junior class to reach 100 career games played after reaching the century mark in Saturday's game.
 
Rieger Lorenz was the first player of that third-year group to reach the milestone on Jan. 3 at Maine. Forward Aidan Thompson is two away from 100 career contests and could reach that mark on Jan. 25 at Minnesota Duluth.
 
Senior goaltender Matt Davis also won his 50th career game on Saturday night, and he became just the 13th Denver netminder to reach that mark in program history. Presently in the DU record book, Davis presently ranks top 10 in career goals-against average and save percentage and is close to entering that threshold in victories (13th) and shutouts (13th).
 
MORE NOTABLES

• The Pioneers tied a season high with six goals scored on Saturday.
• DU's plus-30 shot differential in Saturday's game was its highest of the season (Previously: +28, Oct. 18 vs. Northeastern).
• The Pios' plus-13 shot differential in the first (at the time tied) and plus-14 shot differential in the second were the team's highest for a period of the season.
• DU now leads the all-time series with MU at 35-13-4 and is 21-1-1 in the past 23 outings.
• The Pioneers pushed their unbeaten streak against the RedHawks to 16 games (15-0-1) and are now unbeaten in their last 15 matchups at Magness Arena (14-0-1), with Miami's last win in Denver being Feb. 22, 2019.
• DU and Miami were playing their eighth-straight contest against one another at Magness Arena. The Pios will play at the RedHawks in Oxford, Ohio, on Feb. 21-22. 
• Denver has scored on the man advantage in three straight contests and has tallied multiple power-play goals six times, including in each game in the Miami series
• DU's 12 shots allowed tied a season best (Oct. 5 at Alaska Anchorage). Matt Davis' 10 saves were tied for the eighth fewest in a game by a starting netminder in program history (also accomplished earlier this year on Oct. 5 at UAA).
• With Matt Davis accomplishing 50 wins, he is now one win shy for tying for 11th place on the school's all-time wins list with Sam Brittain (2010-2014) Scott Robinson (1978-1982).
• Sam Harris and Aidan Thompson both scored on Saturday and lead the team in goals (13) this season.
• Harris also netted his team-leading seventh power-play goal and sixth game-winner. He leads the NCAA in game-winning goals (tied) and is one off the leader in power-play markers (tied for fourth).
• Carter King is on a four-game point streak (1g/3a) and Jack Devine is on a three-game point streak (2g/1a).
• Zeev Buium now has 13 points in his last 10 games (4g/9a) dating back to Nov. 15 at North Dakota. Buium had three points (1g/2a) on Friday, marking his third three-point game of the season and eighth of his career.
• Denver won 65.6% of its faceoffs on Friday (42/64), its highest winning percentage of the season. Its previous high was 64.3% on Nov. 2 at Yale (45/70).
• Carter King recorded his 50th career assist and Connor Caponi recorded his 150th career penalty minute on Friday.
• Eric Pohlkamp scored his first game-winning goal as a Pioneer and the fourth of his career on Friday.
• Garrett Brown (three) and James Reeder (two) each blocked career-high shots on Saturday.
• Defenseman Zeev Buium, coach David Carle, director of operations Travis Culhane and equipment manager Nick Meldrum returned to the team this past weekend after helping the United States win its second-straight gold medal at the IIHF World Junior Championship the previous Sunday, Jan. 5.
• Miami head coach Anthony Noreen is in his first season at the helm of the program and previously coached several former Pioneers with the USHL Tri-City Storm, including current student-athletes Kieran Cebrian (2020-2023) and Cale Ashcroft (2022-23).

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