DENVER – Junior Eric Pohlkamp of the Denver Pioneers hockey team was named the NCHC Defenseman of the Week on Tuesday.
 
Pohlkamp earned his first top defender award of the season and the fourth of his career after picking up the honor three times in 2024-25 as a sophomore. 
 
The Baxter, Minnesota, native scored three goals on Saturday in DU's 6-0 shutout win against Bentley. Pohlkamp also added an assist, 12 shots on goal and compiled a +3 plus/minus rating in two games. He totaled four blocked shots while anchoring a DU penalty kill that went 4-for-4 on the weekend.
 
Additionally, he also scored his first career short-handed goal on Saturday, becoming the first Denver defenseman to tally while down a man since Antti Tuomisto on Jan. 23, 2021 at Omaha. In Friday's season-opening 1-1 tie at Air Force, Pohlkamp recorded the primary assist on DU's lone goal, posted seven shots and had four blocks. 
 
With the three-goal performance, Pohlkamp is the 12th Denver defenseman to tally three goals in a game, with Zeev Buium being the last to do so last season on Nov. 15 at North Dakota. Prior to Buium, the previous hat trick by a DU defender was nearly 20 years earlier when Ryan Caldwell accomplished the feat on Feb. 14, 2004 at home against Minnesota State. 
 
Pohlkamp's hat trick on Saturday was the fifth by a defenseman in NCHC history. He joins Buium and Western Michigan's Michael Joyaux (2021 vs. St. Cloud State) and Ronnie Attard (WMU, twice in 2021-22) as the only blueliners to achieve this accomplishment in the conference annals.
 
This past weekend also marked Pohlkamp's third career multi-goal game after tallying twice on Nov. 1, 2024 vs. Yale and March 9, 2024 vs. Ferris State while playing for Bemidji State. He has now recorded three or more points in four career games, including March 8, 2024 vs. Ferris State (1g/2a with Bemidji State), Nov. 8, 2024 vs. Lindenwood (0g/3a) and March 7, 2025 vs. Colorado College (1g/3a).
 
Pohlkamp has points in each of his last four games dating back to last season's NCAA Tournament, totaling four goals and two assists during that time. Pohlkamp scored a key goal in the Regional Final vs. Boston College on March 30 and had the primary assist on Denver's tying goal late in the third period of its Frozen Four matchup vs. Western Michigan on April 10.  
 
He recorded 22 points (7g/15a) in the last 27 games in 2024-25, and his 35 points last year ranked second among team defensemen in scoring behind Hobey Baker Award-finalist Zeev Buium (48 points).
 
The remaining NCHC honors this week were awarded to three players from Miami University. Ilia Morozov (Forward of the Week), Matteo Drobac (Goaltender of the Week) and Kocha Delic (Rookie of the week) all picked up hardware. While Minnesota Duluth captured three weekly awards last week, this marks the first time Miami has won three NCHC weekly honors in the same week since the conference began play in 2013. 
 
Denver freshman Clarke Caswell, and goaltender Paxton Geisel were also nominated for this week's NCHC awards.
 
UP NEXT: No. 5 Denver goes on the road to Maryland Heights, Missouri, where they will take on the Lindenwood Lions on Friday and Saturday. Both games will begin at 6 p.m. MT and will be broadcast on FloHockey.tv.

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