DENVER – The Denver Pioneers hockey team had a bounce-back weekend against the Miami RedHawks.
 
DU earned two wins in its return to NCHC play after dropping one of its marquee games of the season the previous week, falling 6-5 in overtime to Minnesota in the 2025 U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Game at Ball Arena on Nov. 29. While disappointed in that result at the home of the NHL Colorado Avalanche, the Pioneers played an overall solid contest and outshot the Gophers by a 52-25 margin, but small mistakes at inopportune times were the difference.
 
Denver righted many of those errors and ended a two-game losing skid with its first home sweep of the season at Magness Arena. The Pios picked up a 4-0 shutout on Friday and a 5-2 win on Saturday against Miami, which was ranked No. 19 in the country at the time and coming off a pair of notable victories themselves after winning the Friendship Four Tournament in Northern Ireland the previous week.
 
"I think we're doing a great job of continuing to build as a team," said sophomore Hagen Burrows after the two wins. "We have a lot of young guys this year, and they're doing really well in stepping up big for us. I think it's about continuing to play to our identity, and we feel and know that we can play with anybody whenever."
 
Denver's offensive depth was on display in the series versus MU, as eight different players tallied the team's nine goals and 14 separate skaters finished the weekend with at least a point.
 
"The [Samu Salminen-center] line was, they were almost unstoppable against Minnesota, couldn't get them on the ice enough. They didn't have quite as good of a weekend against Miami, but other guys stepped up as the attention starts to shift toward the Salminen line," said DU Richard and Kitzia Goodman Hockey Head Coach David Carle during Wednesday's media availability. "I had somebody tell me a month back that 'I don't know who your first line is, and I don't know who your second line is.' We have to list them in a certain order on the line chart, but I can't sit here and tell you who our first and fourth line is. That's a good problem with the depth and what we're doing … So there is a lot of depth throughout, there are a lot of weapons that I think hopefully make us hard to prepare for. On a given night, we that any line can step up and contribute."
 
Goaltender Quentin Miller also had a rebound performance in net. After allowing six goals in the OT loss to the Gophers, the Montreal, Quebec, native posted a 22-save shutout—his third of the season—on Friday before stopping 22-of-24 shots faced on Saturday.
 
He earned his second NCHC Goaltender of the Week award of the season earlier this week and now ranks in the top 10 in the nation in wins (10), goals-against average (1.84), save percentage (.931) and shutouts (three) after 15 starts.
 
"I think he's been improving every game," said defenseman Eric Pohlkamp of his netminder. "Right when he got in, he didn't like to play the puck, but he's been awesome at playing the puck. He's a stud back there, and we're super fortunate to have him back there, and can't wait to see what he does more."
 
The two wins against a much-improved RedHawks squad were good for the Pioneers to get back to a positive feeling following back-to-back OT losses, but it's not like the team—which is the sixth-youngest in the NCAA and have 10 freshmen on its roster—was playing poorly. DU currently owns the fourth-best offense (3.9 goals per game) and defense (1.9 goals against per game) in the country, and the team hasn't lost a game in regulation in more than a month.
 
Denver is 8-3-0 in the past 11 contests since Oct. 31, with each loss coming in overtime. In fact, all five of its defeats on the year have been by one goal, which is a stretch that goes back to last season as well. Only three of the Pios' 17 losses since the start of 2024-25 have been by multiple goals and two of those featured empty-net markers by the opponent.
 
"When you look at the totality of what we've done in the first half, it's been successful in a lot of ways," said Carle on Wednesday. "As much as we've been struggling we feel with goal scoring, we're fourth in the country in goals, we're fourth in goals against, special teams can be better on both sides, so that's a work in progress. A lot to like in our game and what we're doing, what we're building to and what we think we can accomplish."
 
CHYZ GETS GOING
 
It's happened a few times this season where head coach David Carle praised Kyle Chyzowski for his ability to create scoring chances, even if the freshman didn't bury the puck with those opportunities.
 
The winger from Surrey, British Columbia, is finally getting rewarded for his offensive play. He tallied in each game last week against Miami and now has three goals and four points in his past five games.
 
"I think getting a power-play goal to make sure our power play is still clicking is nice; seeing it goes in definitely helps the confidence," Chyzowski said to the media after practice. "I feel like I have had a lot of good looks and have been playing the right way and have gotten my chances. I felt good and felt like it was going to come, so it's nice to see it start to."
 
Chyzowski was also awarded his first NCHC honor of the season on Tuesday as he was recognized as the conference's Rookie of the Week.
 
IN POHL POSITION
 
Junior defenseman Eric Pohlkamp has already set a career high for goals in a season just before the Pioneers hit the hallway point of their season.
 
He netted his 12th goal of the campaign on Friday against Miami after scoring 11  times in both 2023-24 as a sophomore with Denver and 2022-23 as a freshman at Bemidji State.
 
The Baxter, Minnesota, native scored seven goals in the month of November, the most by a defenseman in the modern era of DU hockey and tied for the third-most by any NCAA blueliner since the start of the 2002-03 season. He has eight goals and four assists in his last 10 games.
 
Pohlkamp paces the Pioneers in both goals and points (19) and also leads the team in power-play goals (3), game-winning goals (2-tied) and shots (86), while ranking second in plus/minus rating (+19) and third in penalty minutes (19).  In the national ranks, he is first among all NCAA rear guards and ranks tied for fifth overall in goals, while his 19 points are tied for second-most by D-men in the nation behind Boston University's Cole Hutson (20).
 
STREAKING
 
Junior Sam Harris is on his third career point streak of at last eight games after registering an assist on Friday and scoring on Saturday against the RedHawks, bringing his total to four goals and five helpers since Nov. 8.
 
It is the longest point streak of the season by a Denver player and the San Deigo, California, native's longest since also going on an eight-game run from Jan. 11-Feb. 14, 2025 (7g/4a) He is one game shy of tying his career long of nine outings in a row with a point from Oct. 18-Nov. 16, 2024 (8g/6a).
 
Several other Denver players are also on active runs:

• Boston Buckberger is on a three-game point streak (2g/2a).
• Clarke Caswell is on a three-game assist/point streak (0g/4a), the longest assist stretch of his career
• Eric Jamieson is on a three-game point streak (1g/2a), the longest of his career.
• Eric Pohlkamp is on a three-game point streak (2g/1a).
• Kyle Chyzowski has goals in back-to-back games for the first time in his career.

MORE NOTABLES

• Denver has now won seven straight games over Miami and is 25-1-1 in the last 27 meetings.  The Pios are unbeaten in their last 20 meetings with Miami (19-0-1) and haven't lost in the past 17 matchups against the RedHawks on home ice (16-0-1).
• The Pioneers blocked a season-high 16 shots on Saturday, which included 13 of them coming in the third period (Previous high: 14, Nov. 21 at Arizona State).
• DU matched a season best with five penalty kills on Saturday vs. Miami (5/6, Oct. 31 vs. Alaska Anchorage).
• Hagen Burrows scored his third goal and recorded his ninth point in Saturday's game to tie his total from a season ago when he was a freshman.
• Brendan McMorrow scored his first career short-handed goal on Saturday and the team's third of the season. The tally also served as his first career game-winning marker.
• Freshman goalie Johnny Hicks made his NCAA debut late in the third period (one save).
• Rieger Lorenz scored his first game-winning goal of the season and second of his career on Friday (Nov. 1, 2024 at Yale).
• Garrett Brown tallied his first goal of the season on Friday night and fired a career-high five shots on Saturday.
• Kristian Epperson recorded points in consecutive games for the first time in his career on Nov 29 vs. Minnesota and Dec. 5 vs. Miami.

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