TEMPE, Ariz. – The No. 6 University of Denver hockey team heads to the desert this weekend for top-15 series at the No. 12 Arizona State Sun Devils that has significant implications for both teams heading into the 2025 postseason.
 
The two-game set gets underway at Mullett Arena on Friday a 7 p.m. MT with a nationally-televised broadcast on CBS Sports Network. Saturday's game starts at 5 p.m. MT and will be televised regionally on Altitude 2 and worldwide on NCHC.tv. Jay Stickney will be on the call for the radio broadcast for both outings on Denver Sports 104.3 The Fan HD3.
 
DU is chasing ASU in the NCHC standings, as the Sun Devils are presently tied for the league lead with 34 points and an 11-5-0 conference mark. The Pios are in fifth place with 24 points and an 8-5-1 league record but have also played two fewer games and can make up ground in the coming weeks. Denver is one point behind fourth-place North Dakota, which visits DU next week on Feb. 14-15.
 
In the hunt for a national tournament berth, the Pioneers are presently at No. 8 in the Pairwise computer rankings that determine the NCAA field while Arizona State is at No. 13.
 
DU and ASU are meeting in their second and final series of the season, after the Sun Devils won both games in the Mile High City on Nov. 22-23. Arizona State picked up 3-2 and 5-2 victories to mark the first time that Denver was swept at home since Feb. 31-March. 1, 2020, ending a run of 34-straight home series without losing both contests.
 
The Pioneers are 9-4-1 all-time against the Sun Devils and is making their second-ever trip to Mullett Arena. The team last played at ASU's new rink on Nov. 10-11, 2023, where it lost 6-5 in overtime and won 8-4 after rallying from a three-goal deficit.
 
Arizona State owns a 13-2-0 record in its last 15 games since Nov. 1 and swept Miami on the road last week with 7-1 and 4-1 victories.
 
Denver is coming off a 1-0-1 weekend against Omaha and is 6-2-1 in its last nine contests since Dec. 14. The Pios tied the Mavericks 3-3 last Friday, but UNO picked up the extra conference point by winning 4-3 in the NCHC shootout after 16 rounds. On Saturday, DU scored 11 unanswered tallies after trailing 2-0 in the first period to mark its first multi-goal comeback of the season and tie the NCHC record for goals in a league game.
 
Nine different Pioneers tallied and 16 players recorded at least a point in Saturday's win, which marked the program's most goals scored since defeating Air Force 11-1 on Dec. 27, 1995. Rieger Lorenz (two goals, two assists) and Samu Salminen (one goal, three assists) each had career-high four points in the outing, while Jared Wright (one goal, two assists) and James Reeder (two goals, one assists) had three-point performances to set personal bests as well; Zeev Buium also had a three-point night with a trio of assists.
 
Denver is one victory away from extending its "Tenzer" Streak of winning 20 or more games to 23 consecutive full seasons.  The Pios' present 22-season run is the longest active such stretch in the country, dating back to 2001-02. The streak is named after former DU Director of Hockey Operations David Tenzer, who spent 16 seasons with the program from 2001-02—the start of the streak—until retiring in 2017.
 
AVALANCHE OF GOALS: Denver's 11 goals scored in Saturday's game against Omaha marked the program's most in a contest in nearly 30 years, as the Pioneers last reached that total with an 11-1 victory on Dec. 27, 1995 against Air Force.  The Pioneers' 11-2 win was their largest margin of victory since winning 9-0 on Nov. 25, 2023 against Yale.
 
Overall, DU's 11 goals scored tied the NCHC record for the most goals in a conference game.  It was the fourth time that an NCHC squad tallied 11 goals and the first since St. Cloud State did it against Miami on Jan. 21, 2022.
 
QUICK STRIKES: The Pioneers scored their fastest two (0:16), three (2:46), four (8:11), five (13:22) and six (18:21) goals in a game this season on Saturday against Omaha.  The last time that Denver tallied faster two, four and six goals was two seasons ago in 2022-23 (all on Jan. 13, 2023 vs. Miami), while the Pios had faster three and five markers last year.
 
Overall, DU tallied nine of its goals in a matter of 27:26 from 0:25 of the second period to 7:51 of the third period.
 
The Pioneers' goals by James Reeder (2:55/2nd) and Boston Buckberger (3:11/2nd) in a matter 16 seconds bested their previous season high for the fastest two strikes of 1:37 that was set on Friday against Omaha by Eric Pohlkamp (19:34/2nd) and Zeev Buium (1:12/3rd).  DU scored two goals in nine seconds in the second period on Jan. 13, 2023 versus Miami.
 
Denver's fastest goal to begin a period this season was 12 seconds by Carter King in the third period on Oct. 19 against Northeastern.  It was the fastest DU goal to start a period since Chris Knowlton at 0:11 of the first frame on Nov. 26, 2011 vs. Miami.
 
PIONEERING OFFENSE: Denver is tied for the NCAA lead in scoring with Minnesota by averaging 4.0 goals per game.  The Pioneers' 104 total goals scored are second in the nation behind the Gophers (121), which have played four more games.  The Pios led the NCAA last season with 202 total goals and a 4.59 average.
 
DU scored at least four goals in each of the first 11 contests and has 15 such games overall this season.  The Pioneers have had 15 different players score this year and 20 of the 22 skaters have registered at least one point.  Denver also already has 13 skaters that have reached double-digits in points.
 
NIFTY FIFTY, DEVINE CLIMBING DU'S SCORING LISTS: Senior forward Jack Devine scored his 50th career goal on Saturday against Omaha to become the 61st player in school history to reach the half-century mark.  Devine's former teammate Cole Guttman was the last Pioneer to tally 50 career goals on Feb. 11, 2022 against Minnesota Duluth.
 
Devine owns 141 points (50 goals, 91 assists) in 144 career games and ranks tied with Daryn McBride (1986-89) for 28th place on the school's all-time scoring list.  He became the 103rd Pioneer to reach 100 career points after scoring in his 109th contest on March 8, 2024 at Colorado College.
 
The Glencoe, Illinois, native is nine assists from 100 and nine points from 150 in his career—he will be the 12th player with 100 assists and 22nd with 150 points should he grab each milestone.  If Devine reaches 50 goals, 100 assists and 150 points in his career, he will become just the 10th player in DU's 50-100-150 club and the first since Dave Shields from 1986-1990.
 
CAPONI CHASING SCHOOL RECORD: Graduate student forward Connor Caponi is expected to break the school's all-time games played mark this weekend at Arizona State.  He has suited up in 167 career games, sharing second place with Ed Cristofoli (1985-1989) on the program's all-time list.
 
The Milwaukee, Wisconsin, native can tie current record holder and former teammate Ryan Barrow (2017-2022) on Friday with his 168th career contest and could take sole possession of first place on Saturday.  Barrow set the record in the 2022 NCAA National Championship Game where he also scored the game-tying goal that sparked DU to a 5-1 victory against Minnesota State.
 
SENIOR CLASS SUCCESS: The Pioneers' 2025 senior class is tied with the 2005 seniors for the most wins by a graduating class in school history with 112 and can take sole possession of the record with the team's next victory.  The Pios' upper class this year became the 16th group to win at least 100 games when it accomplished the feat on Nov. 1 at Yale.
 
Among the 2025 seniors' accomplishments have been three Gold Pan trophies over rival Colorado College, two Penrose Cups as conference regular-season champions, an NCHC Frozen Faceoff title and two national championships.
 
Last year's seniors (2024) are tied for fifth all-time with 103 victories and registered a .708 winning percentage (103-41-5).
 
LORENZ'S MULTI-POINT WEEKEND, EARNS TOP FORWARD HONORS: Junior forward Rieger Lorenz earned his first career NCHC Forward of the Week award after totaling six points (2g/4a) in the two games against Omaha last weekend.  He recorded his second multi-point outing of the season on Friday in a 3-3 tie with a pair of assists before recording a career-high four points (2g/2a) in Saturday's game.
 
It was the first time in Lorenz's career that he recorded multiple points in consecutive games, and his two tallies on Saturday marked his third career multi-goal game and first since March 16, 2024 against Minnesota Duluth.  The Calgary, Alberta, native has picked up one prior NCHC weekly honor as he was named Rookie of the Week on Oct. 24, 2022 during his freshman campaign.
 
ANOTHER THREE-POINT GAME & D-MAN OF THE WEEK: Sophomore Zeev Buium combined for four points in the series against Omaha, scoring the game-tying goal on Friday before registering three assists on Saturday.  It was the defenseman's fourth three-point contest of the season and the ninth of his career—he also had three points this year on Oct. 5 at Alaska Anchorage (0g/3a), Nov. 15 at North Dakota (3g/0a) and Jan. 10 vs. Miami (1g/2a).
 
Buium was recognized with his third NCHC Defenseman of the Week award of the season and the sixth of his career on Monday.  He has 18 points (5g/13a) in the last 14 games he's played and has recorded at least a point in 18-of-24 games this year.  The San Diego, California, native leads all NCAA defensemen with 29 points and 23 assists this season.
 
HONORING MR. RITCHIE: Denver hockey players will wear special 'DR' decals on their helmets and patches on their jerseys for the remainder of the 2024-25 season to honor Chancellor Emeritus Daniel L. Ritchie, who passed away on Thursday, Jan. 30 at the age of 93.
 
Ritchie was immense supporter of DU Athletics during his time as the school's "Cowboy Chancellor" beginning in 1989, and his support for all 18 D-I programs continued after he left the position in 2005. Among his accomplishments as Chancellor was leading the University to new success academically and moving the school to full Division-I status in 1999—the same year the Daniel L. Ritchie Center of Sports and Wellness opened on campus.
 
The University will host a memorial for Mr. Ritchie on Thursday, Feb. 13 at 10:30 a.m. MT at Magness Arena to celebrate his remarkable life and legacy. Learn more about Daniel L. Ritchie at DenverPioneers.com and DU.edu.
 
NOTABLES:

• Denver recorded its first multi-goal comeback of the season on Saturday night.
• Rieger Lorenz (2g/2a) and Samu Salminen (1g/3a) each recorded a career-high four points on Saturday to mark the fourth and fifth time this season that a Pioneer has recorded four points in a contest.
• Salminen's three assists were also a career best for him.
• Both Lorenz and Salminen surpassed the 50-career point threshold on Saturday.
• Lorenz recorded multiple points in each game vs. Omaha and owns 10 such contests in his career. 
• Lorenz picked up his third career multi-goal game on Saturday and both markers came in the second period, marking the fourth time this season that a player tallied twice in the same frame.
• Rieger Lorenz and Samu Salminen each tied the team season high for points in a period with three on Saturday as Lorenz had two goals and one assist in the second and Salminen had three assists in the third.  Lorenz's two goals also marked the fourth time this year that a DU player scored twice in a period.
• Jared Wright tallied a career-high three points (1g/2a) and earned his second career multi-assist contest on Saturday.
• Boston Buckberger, Lorenz and Wright all tied the team's season-best marks with +4 plus/minus ratings.
• Freshman James Reeder had a career-high three points (2g/1a) on Saturday, which also marked his first multi-goal and multi-point outing of his career. He also tallied his first career game-winning goal.
• Both of Reeder's goals came on the power play, marking the third time his year that a Pioneer tallied multiple times with the man advantage in a game.
• Defenseman Cale Ashcroft had his first multi-point game of his career on Saturday (1g/1a).
• Defenseman Garrett Brown picked up his first point of the season on Saturday (assist).
• Denver had its tie of the season and is now 7-0-3 in its last 10 overtime contests.
• The 16-round shootout on Friday was the longest in both DU and NCHC history.
• The Pioneers are now 11-4 all-time in regular-season shootouts. They suffered their first defeat in the tiebreaker since falling to St. Cloud State on Jan. 13, 2024 at home.
• Eric Pohlkamp recorded his fifth multi-point game (1g/1a) of the season on Friday and extended his point streak to five games (3g/4a) before the run ended on Saturday.
• DU is now 24-5-3 all-time on home ice against Omaha and is 6-1-1 in the last eight games against the Mavericks.

 
HISTORY VS. ASU: Denver and Arizona State wrap up their season series after the Sun Devils won both games in Denver on Nov. 22-23, defeating the Pioneers 3-2 and 5-2.  It was the first time that DU suffered consecutive home losses on the same weekend since Jan. 31-Feb 1, 2020 vs. Minnesota Duluth, ending a run of 34 straight home series without getting swept.  Denver is playing Arizona State for the fourth consecutive season after meeting the previous three years as non-conference foes.  ASU is in its first year in the NCHC and is in a three-team pod with Denver and Colorado College, meaning the squads will play each other four times during the year with two-game series at home and on the road.  DU and ASU have met in seven series and have faced off in 14 games since first meeting on Jan. 6-7, 2017, with the Pioneers owning a 9-4-1 all-time record.  The teams last played in Tempe at Mullett Arena on Nov. 10-11, 2023, with ASU winning 6-5 in overtime in the series opener before DU rallied from a three-goal deficit and won 8-4 in the finale.  Denver owns a 3-2-1 mark at Arizona State, which includes sweeping the set at Oceanside Arena on Dec. 3-4, 2021.  DU played ASU four times during the 2021-22 campaign, marking the most contests for the Pioneers against a then-non-conference opponent in a single season since also playing four games against U.S. International University (San Diego, California) in 1983-84.
 
SCOUTING THE SUN DEVILS: Arizona State ranks No. 12 in both national polls and is No. 13 in the Pairwise Rankings with a 16-9-1 overall record.  The Sun Devils are tied for first place in the NCHC standings with 34 points and an 11-5-0 conference mark, but fellow leader Western Michigan has played two fewer games.  ASU ranks second in the NCAA in power play at 29.6%, with only DU being better at the man advantage (32.2%).  The Sun Devils are 13-2-0 in their last 15 games since Nov. 16, which included sweeping then-No. 1 DU on Nov. 22-23 and road sweeps at then-No. 15 St. Cloud State on Jan. 17-18 and last weekend at Miami; ASU won 7-1 and 4-1.  Ryan Kirwan, the NCHC Player of the Month for January, leads the team with 18 goals and 28 points.  Bennett Schimek (9g/17a) and Artem Shlaine (10g/16a) are tied for second in scoring with 26 points.  Luke Sillinger is fourth with 25 points but paces the Devils with 21 assists.  Arizona State has fairly split its goaltenders for most of the season, with each netminder playing five games in the last 10.  Luke Pavicich has played 15 games and owns a 10-5-0 record, 2.19 goals-against average and .918 save percentage.  Gibson Homer has seen action in 11 contests and sports a 6-4-1 mark, two shutouts, 2.38 goals-against average and .920 save percentage.
 
PREVIOUS MEETING (NOV. 23, 2024): The No. 1-ranked University of Denver hockey team ended its series against the Arizona State Sun Devils with 5-2 loss at Magness Arena.  Sophomore Sam Harris registered his 11th goal of the season while junior Aidan Thompson also tallied.  Senior Jack Devine, junior Kent Anderson and sophomores Zeev Buium and Alex Weiermair had assists.  ASUs Artem Shlaine recorded two markers in Saturday's game to go along with the two that he scored on Friday night—Four of his five goals this season came during the weekend.
 
CONNECTIONS: DU Head Athletic Trainer Aaron Leu worked at the Sports Medicine Institute Physical Therapy Clinic and Arizona Boys Ranch in Phoenix, Arizona, from 1996-1999 … ASU's Cole Gordon is from Windsor, Colorado … Boston Buckberger and Chase Hamm are both from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan … DU's Alex Weiermair (Los Angeles), Zeev Buium (San Diego) and Sam Harris (San Diego) and ASU's Ty Murchison (Corona) and are all from Southern California … Jack Devine was teammates with the Sun Devils' Ty Murchison for two seasons at the U.S. National Team Development Program from 2019-2021 and was also at the NTDP at the same time as Cruz Lucius in 2020-21 … Jake Fisher won a USHL Clark Cup Championship with ASU's Brasen Boser with the Fargo Force last season … Connor Caponi and Ethan Szmagaj were teammates on the USHL's Waterloo Black Hawks from 2018-2020 … Matt Davis played with Ryan Kirwan at the USHL Green Bay Gamblers in 2020-21 … Hagen Burrows and Sam Court played with the USHL Sioux City Musketeers in 2023-24 … Garrett Brown was a teammate with Bennett Schimek and Charlie Schoen with USHL Sioux City in 2021-22 … Eric Pohlkamp played with Joel Kjellberg with the USHL Cedar Rapids RoughRiders in 2022-23 … Paxton Geisel was a teammate with Cole Helm with the USHL Dubuque Fighting Saints for two seasons from 2021-2023 and played with Ryan Alexander in Dubuque in 2020-21.
 
EXTRA GOOD IN EXTRA TIME: Denver is 1-0-1 in overtime this season after tying Omaha  3-3 on Friday.  DU played its first overtime contest of the season on Dec. 7 at Western Michigan and won 3-2 as Carter King tallied at 2:11 of the extra period.  It was the Pioneers' first OT game since Tristan Broz scored to defeat Boston University 2-1 on April 11 in the 2024 NCAA Frozen Four Semifinals at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn.
 
DU is now unbeaten in its last 10 outings that have gone beyond regulation (7-0-3) and had won four straight overtime contests prior to its tie to Omaha last weekend.  The Pios went 6-1-3 overall in OT games in 2023-24.
 
SAMMY STREAKING: Sophomore Sam Harris is on a five-game point streak (3g/2a), his second such stretch of the season behind his career-long nine-game run from Oct. 18-Nov. 16 (8g/6a); he recorded points in 11 of his first 13 games he played this year
 
Harris leads the team with 15 goals and ranks third in the NCAA with six game-winning tallies, which are tied for the ninth-most in a season in school history. He is one such goal away from joining a five-way tie for fourth place in the program record book.
 
Three of Harris' game-winners came in consecutive games: 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).
 
The San Diego, California, native is also tied for sixth in the country with seven power-play markers.
 
POHLKAMP PICKING UP POINTS: Defenseman Eric Pohlkamp scored his seventh goal of the season on Friday vs. Omaha and added an assist for his fifth multi-point game of the season. He was also on a five-game point streak (3g/4a) before being held off the scoresheet on Saturday; he still has 10 points (3g/7a) in his last nine games.
 
Pohlkamp leads all Denver D-men with seven goals and 94 shots, ranking tied for fifth and second overall on the team, respectively.  His 23 points are tied for fifth on the squad.
 
PLAYING AHEAD: The Pioneers have had the lead or have been tied for most of the season, as they've not trailed in 83.4% of game play this season (1307:07/1567:11)—leading for 46.4% (727:00) or being tied for 37.0% (580:07) of the time.  DU has only been down on the scoreboard in 16.6% of game play this season (260:04) and didn't trail for the first 244:12 of the season (4+ games).
 
PIONEERS IN THE POLLS: Denver ranks No. 6 in both the USCHO.com and USA Hockey/The Rink Live national polls after the new lists were released on Monday. DU is presently No. 8 in the Pairwise computer rankings, which determines the NCAA Tournament field.
 
The NCHC has the second-most teams ranked among all conferences with five, led by Western Michigan at No. 4/4. After DU, Arizona State is at No. 12/12, North Dakota at No 16/16 and Colorado College is at No 20/RV also in the polls.  Omaha and St. Cloud State also received votes.
 
DOMINANT AT THE DOT: The Pioneers rank second in the nation by winning 55.2 percent of their faceoffs this season.  They posted a season-high winning percentage of .656 on Jan. 10 against Miami (42/64).
 
Carter King leads Denver in faceoff wins (313), including picking 19 victories at the dot on Friday against Omaha—the second-most of his career.  Samu Salminen paces the Pios with a .590 winning percentage (178/298), while King is second in percentage (.576). Kieran Cebrian ranks second on the squad in draw victories (227/415) and third in percentage (.547).  King set a personal best by winning 20-of-34 faceoffs on Oct. 19 against Northeastern for the most wins by a Pioneer since Tyson McLellan went 23-for-35 on Jan. 4, 2020 against Massachusetts.
 
PIOS POWER UP: Denver leads the nation in the power play with a 32.2-percent success rate. The Pioneers have tallied on the power play in 19-of-26 games this year and scored twice with the extra man on Saturday against Omaha—the sixth time this year they have recorded multiple man-advantage goals in a game.
 
The Pioneers scored at least one power-play goal during an 11-game stretch from Oct. 19-Nov. 23, the team's longest run in the last decade (since 2015-16).
 
Jack Devine is first on the team with 19 power-play points (2g/17a), while Sam Harris leads the squad with seven man-advantage goals. 
 

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