DENVER – The No. 6-ranked University of Denver hockey team booked its ticket to St. Paul and the NCHC Frozen Faceoff semifinals by defeating the Colorado College Tigers 9-2 in Game 3 of the conference quarterfinals on Sunday night at Magness Arena.
DU (28-10-1, 15-8-1 NCHC) came back and won the best-of-three series 2-1 against No. 6-seed CC (18-18-1, 11-12-1 NCHC). The Pioneers, who are the third seed, lost 3-1 in Game 1 on Friday but responded by winning the next two games, including earning a 6-3 victory on Saturday.
Denver is the only program in NCHC history to make it to the semifinal round in each 11-held tournaments. The Pioneers are the defending conference champions after winning their third NCHC Tournament title last year.
Sophomore
Cale Ashcroft recorded a career high with three points—all assists—and senior
Jack Devine joined his teammate with a trio of helpers as well. Overall, eight players left the game with multiple points and 15 skaters found themselves on the scoresheet at least once.
Senior goaltender
Matt Davis showed up in his last game at Magness Arena, denying 20-of-22 shots that CC tried to get past him. Senior
Carter King recorded two goals—one on the power play and the other shorthanded—to also honor his last night on the Pios' home ice.
Denver capitalized off 3-of-7 power plays throughout the Sunday night game, while the penalty-kill team didn't allow a goal on any of CC's four power-play opportunities.
Junior forwards
Rieger Lorenz and
Samu Salminen and sophomore defensemen
Garrett Brown and
Boston Buckberger each had one goal and one assist in the contest. Center
Kieran Cebrian and rear guards
Kent Anderson and
Eric Pohlkamp also tallied.
DU scored three goals in the first period, with Salminen beginning the DU run at 2:20. Nearly 15 minutes later, Brown added onto the Pios' lead during a delayed penalty. CC's Ty Gallagher scored the first of his two goals with less than two minutes left in the first to make it a 2-1 game at the initial break.
The second period was all Denver as Anderson recorded his first goal of the season and Cebrian made the score 4-1 at 15:58. Two minutes after Cebrian's tally, King recorded his sixth career short-handed marker to give DU a 5-1 advantage at the second intermission.
The third was kicked off by a power-play tally just 49 seconds into the period by King. Gallagher registered a short-handed goal two minutes later, but the Pios responded as Buckberger, Pohlkamp and Lorenz all scored in a seven-minute span to secure the win.
Sophomore goalie
Freddie Halyk stepped into the DU crease at 8:46 in the third period and made three saves to finalize the Pios win.
Tigers' goaltender Carsen Musser saved 19 shots throughout Sunday's matchup before being replaced with 9:46 remaining in regulation by Henry Wilder, who saved all five shots sent his way. CC goalie Kaiden Mbereko did not play after getting hurt in Game 2 on Saturday night.
Denver finished with a 33-25 edge in shots on goal.
UP NEXT: The Pioneers will play Arizona State in the NCHC Frozen Faceoff semifinals on Friday at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. The other semifinal features Western Michigan versus the North Dakota. The championship game is set for Saturday night.
POSTGAME NOTES
- Sunday marked the 348th all-time meeting between Denver and Colorado College, surpassing the Michigan-Michigan State series (347 games) for the most-played rivalry in college hockey history.
- Denver is now 21-3 all-time in NCHC opening round games and has a 30-10-1 all-time record in the NCHC Tournament.
- The Pioneers improved to 18-13 all-time against Colorado College in conference tournament outings and is 8-3 in games during the NCHC Frozen Faceoff Tournament.
- Samu Salminen's goal at 2:20 of the first period marked the fastest goal to begin a game this season. Salminen also had the previous fastest this year at 2:57 of the first last weekend on March 7 vs. CC.
- Garrett Brown scored during a delayed penalty for DU's fourth pulled-goalie goal of the season and second during a delayed infraction.
- Brown finished with two points (1g/1a) for his first career multi-point game.
- Cale Ashcroft recorded three assists for a career high in both assists and points. It was his second career multi-point outing.
- Carter King scored his sixth career short-handed goal, tied for the third-most in program history and the most by a Pioneer since Ryan Dingle also had six from 2004-2007.
- It was Denver's third short-handed goal of the season, with the previous two coming by Samu Salminen vs. Colorado College on Dec. 13.
- Kent Anderson scored his first goal of the season and the fourth of his career.
- Denver and Colorado played five straight games against one another dating back to last weekend's regular-season finale series. This is the first time in the 75-year history of the rivalry that the programs have faced off five consecutive times
- DU was playing its second Sunday game of the season (Oct. 6 at Alaska Anchorage) and its first at home since Nov. 19, 2023 vs. Omaha.
- Senior Jack Devine retook in the NCAA scoring lead with 54 points this season (13g/41a).
- Devine moved past Mark Davidson (1976-80) and Ian Ramsey (1981-1985) and into 14th place on the school's all-time scoring list with 160 points.
- The Pioneers are now 5-3 in best-of-three series in the conference tournament after winning Game 2. DU is 5-5 all-time in Game 3s and 3-0 in those outings in the NCHC Tournament
GOAL SUMMARY
1st Period
2:20 DU (1-0) –
Samu Salminen tapped in the puck in the slot after
Cale Ashcroft's shot from the point was initially blocked.
17:27 DU (2-0) –
Garrett Brown took a pass from
Hagen Burrows, toe-dragged around a Tigers defender and went high, short-side with the puck while driving to the net.
18:32 CC (2-1) – Ty Gallagher knocked in the puck in the low slot.
2nd Period
3:40 DU (3-1) –
Kent Anderson unloaded a one-timer from the blue line on a pass by
Zeev Buium.
15:58 DU (4-1) –
Kieran Cebrian tallied from the slot after taking a drop pass from
Jared Wright, who received a stretch feed by
Cale Ashcroft.
17:29 DU (5-1) –
SHG,
Carter King forced a turnover in the neutral zone and buried a five-hole shot during a breakaway.
3rd Period
0:49 DU (6-1) –
PPG,
Carter King took a bumper pass by
Aidan Thompson and fired a snap shot into the net from the slot.
2:49 CC (6-2) –
SHG, Ty Gallagher swatted at a loose puck near the crease.
3:38 DU (7-2) –
Boston Buckberger's shot from the point went off the gloves of both a CC skater and goaltender before trickling across the goal line.
9:28 DU (8-2) –
PPG,
Eric Pohlkamp hit twine on a wrist shot with 16 seconds left on a 5-on-3.
10:14 DU (9-2) –
PPG,
Rieger Lorenz fired a wrister into the cage from the slot.
QUOTABLES
Richard and Kitzia Goodman Hockey Head Coach David Carle
On closing out the game: "We've been up on them previously this year. Both games in their building and we were up three goals both times. Obviously, this time going into the third it was four. We wanted to keep our urgency level high and make sure we're executing because they had everything to fight for. We wanted to make sure that we were taking care of business because we respect what they can do and get themselves back into a hockey game. Obviously, our power play was excellent in the third to be able to extend that lead and get it to a comfortable level."
On the difference in tonight's games: "We had a good start on Friday, but the urgency wasn't there throughout. It just dipped throughout the game and then on Saturday, it was a fine start. Our power play was excellent early, starts 3-for-3 which was a huge factor in our ability to stay in the game and chase those leads and eventually get the lead to not look back. Tonight, I thought we were pretty workman-like and efficient with our scoring chances. It wasn't like we outshot them by this huge wide margin. I think the score was not necessarily indicative of the totality of the game, but we were definitely very efficient in putting pucks in the back of the net."
On the rest of the tournament: "It's a great event, obviously last time our league is going to be at the Xcel Energy Center. Arizona State, their first year in our league, opportunity to play in a great venue and we're at the time of year where we know everyone's desperate. Everyone's fighting for their lives, and we need to learn how to, like we did tonight, end a team's season. It takes a ruthless mentality to do that, and that's the challenge for our team. We know that Arizona State has everything to play for. A team that we've played four times, have been really exciting games. They won the season series, so we're going to have our hands full. We have a lot of respect for how they play, what Greg's done with the program and our hands are going to be really full on Friday night, or afternoon, whenever the game is."
On facing Arizona State: "They're very dynamic offensively on the power play and 5-on-5. You cannot relax against them. I think that's the biggest challenge, you just cannot relax. They have gamebreakers all throughout their lineup, at forward and at defense. They were a little bit banged up to start the year, so to me they're certainly one of the best 16 teams in the country. Slow start because of injuries has them on the bubble right now, but they're certainly, if not one of the best 16, they might be one of the top 10 teams in the country with the second half they've had. A lot of credit to them. We have a lot of respect for how they do things with their speed and how dynamic they are with the puck."
Senior Captain Carter King
On his emotions: "Like I said in the (locker) room, I love this place. It means the absolute world to me—to be here. I also told them that I wish this year would never end; I'm having a lot of fun with this team, and obviously our fans and everyone. It's been an unbelievable year, and a lot of emotions coming out, but for good reason."
On what worked for the team in Game 3: "I'm very proud of our effort, really proud of just the confidence and the swagger we came in with. We didn't let our foot off the gas at all. We came in detailed and ready to go on a Sunday, which we're not really used to, but I was really proud of the details that we came in with."
On the motivation for Minnesota: "Keep it rolling. Obviously, we've got swagger, we've got some confidence going into next weekend, and we've got to keep that rolling. We got to come with intensity and details and get prepared for who we're playing. It's Arizona State, I believe."
On the team confidence: "I think it's a collection of everything we've been through the whole year. I feel like I say this every time; we grow each and every weekend, win or loss. That's the culture we have here, is that every week you get better to prepare you for when you really need it. And I think that's kind of what you're seeing, is all those lessons and details that we've learned over the year come together, and I think it's coming together right at the right time, and we're going to need that coming down the stretch here."
On what is key for next week to win the Frozen Faceoff Championship: "It's quick, you know, you play Friday-Saturday, and it moves quick. It's not like the regionals where you play Thursday-Saturday or Friday-Sunday, and you have that day in-between. So you got to be detailed, you got to take it one game at a time, and then if you're able to get through Friday, it's kind of wiped out from your memory and get ready right away. I think we have the team together, we've been through some of those weekends already, so I'm excited."