DENVER – The No. 7 Denver Pioneers hockey team lost 4-1 to the No. 6 Western Michigan Broncos on Friday night at Magness Arena. 
 
DU (12-8-2, 8-3-0 NCHC) and WMU (15-6-0, 7-4-0 NCHC) were meeting in their second series of the season after the Pioneers swept the Broncos in November in Kalamazoo. The winners of the last two national championships conclude their weekend set on Saturday at 6 p.m. MT, with the game being broadcast Altitude 2 and NCHC.tv. Limited tickets are still available.
 
WMU's four goals featured two from scrambles around the crease before the squad added two empty-net tallies in the final 1:01.
 
Junior defenseman Boston Buckberger was the only Pioneer to find the back of the net, doing so in the last two minutes of the third period for his fourth power-play goal of the season. Freshman forward Clarke Caswell and junior defenseman Eric Pohlkamp had assists on the tally.
 
Broncos goaltender Hampton Slukynsky stopped 34-of-35 shots that the Pios sent his way, while freshman goaltender Quentin Miller denied 18-of-20 pucks. Denver outshot WMU 17-7 in third period and finished with a 60-46 margin in total attempts during the outing.
 
Western Michigan's Liam Valente recorded two goals throughout the night—one at even strength to start the scoring 55 seconds after the opening faceoff and another that was awarded to him after Buckberger took a penalty while there was an empty net at 18:59.
 
After Valente's first tally, the game remained scoreless for nearly 40 minutes until Iiro Hakkarainen recorded a power-play goal from in front of the crease to make the score 2-0 at 1:11 of the third frame.
 
Buckberger tallied his seventh marker of the season and ninth point in the past eight games (four goals, five assists) with a wrist shot from the high slot with 1:39 left to play. That cut DU's deficit to 2-1 and came on the team's seventh-of-eight power-play opportunities on the evening.
 
The Pios had made it 2-1 earlier in the third period on a strike by Pohlkamp, but the marker was overturned following a coach's challenge by Western Michigan.
 
Zaccharya Wisdom netted the Broncos other empty-net marker with 33 seconds left in regulation.
 
UP NEXT: Denver wraps up the weekend series and a season-long, four-game homestand on Saturday at 6 p.m. MT versus Western Michigan at Magness Arena.
 
 
POSTGAME NOTES

• Boston Buckberger is on a three-game point streak (2g/2a) and fired a career-high eight shots on goal.
• The Pioneers have gone 19-for-21 on the penalty kill since Dec. 5 vs. Miami (seven games).
• DU scored on the power play for the fourth-straight game, a season-long streak.
• Western Michigan's first period goal at 0:55 was the fastest to begin a game by an opponent this season for DU. The previous fastest this season against DU was 1:48 by Minnesota's Tate Pritchard on Nov. 29 during the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Game at Ball Arena.
• The Broncos are visiting Magness Arena for the first time since Feb. 2-3, 2024. 
• Alec Whipple made his 2025-26 season debut on Friday night. 
• Defenseman Garrett Brown missed his first game of the season (lower-body injury). He is listed as day-to-day.
• Freshman forward Kyle Chyzowski had his career-long six-game point streak (4g/4a) come to an end. 

GOAL SUMMARY
1st Period
0:55 WMU (0-1) – Liam Valente scored after the puck pinballed around the crease.
 
2nd Period
No Scoring
 
3rd Period
1:11 WMU (0-2) – PPG, Iiro Hakkarainen played the pluck in the slow slot and it rebounded off a DU player's skate and into the net.
18:49 DU (1-2) – PPG, Boston Buckberger hit twine with a wrist shot from the high slot after the Pioneers had several quality scoring chances earlier on the shift.
18:59 WMU (1-3) – ENG, Liam Valente was awarded the goal after taking the puck into the offensive zone but having it knocked out of his stick while Boston Buckberger slid to defend the play but had accidently lost his stick in the process.
19:27 WMU (1-4) – ENG, Zaccharya Widson tallied into an open cage
 
 
QUOTABLES
Richard and Kitzia Goodman Hockey Head Coach David Carle
On WMU's goaltending and overall game: "He was excellent tonight, made a lot of great saves. I liked a lot of pieces of our game. That's hockey sometimes. You know, the margins in this league are so tight. The two goals that they score go off of us and in the net, we had a goal disallowed. You know, a lot of things did not go our way. I thought it was a good hockey game. It was a very even game in a lot of ways, but disappointed for our guys because I thought the effort level was pretty good."

On second and fourth lines playing well: "You get into games where there's a lot of special teams and you need guys who maybe aren't necessarily a part of that to carry the mail a little bit 5-on-5. I thought all four lines had their moments of really good things tonight. You know, obviously, just wasn't enough."


TICKETS: Tickets for the remaining games of DU hockey's 2025-26 campaign are available. Click here for more information.