OMAHA, Neb. – The No. 8 University of Denver hockey team scored four unanswered goals in the second and third periods to defeat the Omaha Mavericks 5-2 on Friday night at Baxter Arena.
 
"It was a tight hockey game," said DU Richard and Kitzia Goodman Hockey Head Coach David Carle. "Probably tighter than the score would reflect, but give our guys credit. We're down 1-0 for most of the hockey game. We don't get our first goal until five minutes to go in the second, 25 minutes left in the game. We had a lot of looks, they had a lot of looks as well. I thought both goaltenders really were the stars of the show for the first 25 and then we found a way to start executing on some of our chances, made some really nice plays … It was a good night. We weren't deterred by their great goaltending. The special teams battle we weren't deterred by. We just continued to stick with it and proud of the guys for getting the result."
 
The win stretches the Pioneers' unbeaten streak to six games (5-0-1) and secures them home-ice advantage for the best-of-three NCHC Quarterfinals on March 6-8. Tickets for the first round of the conference tournament go on sale on Sunday.
 
Denver (18-11-3, 14-6-1 NCHC) plays its final road game of the regular season on Saturday at 6 p.m. MT at Omaha (10-19-0, 6-13-0 NCHC) as the teams wrap up their only series of 2025-26. The contest will be broadcast on NCHC.tv.
 
Sophomore forward James Reeder scored twice for DU, while senior left wing Rieger Lorenz had a goal and an assist. Senior forward Samu Salminen and junior defenseman Eric Pohlkamp each recorded three helpers and both players surpassed 50 career assists in the contest.
 
Freshmen forwards Clarke Caswell and Kyle Chyzowski also tallied, and fellow rookie Johnny Hicks made 31-of-33 saves to remain unbeaten in six career decisions (5-0-1). Junior goalie Paxton Geisel entered the game in the final minute of the third period and made two stops.
 
Samuel Huo netted a power-play goal for Omaha at 5:20 of the first period and the Mavericks held the lead for nearly the next 30 minutes before the Pioneers evened the score and soon jumped ahead.
 
Denver led 2-1 at the second intermission after netting two markers in the final 4:07 of the middle period, with Reeder scoring his first while stationed at the backdoor of the crease at 15:53 and Caswell scoring off his own rebound following a Denver faceoff win with 1.1 seconds remaining in the stanza.
 
Overall, the Pioneers scored four straight tallies in a 15-minute period, with Chyzowski burying a one-timer at 2:23 of the third and Reeder knocking in Salminen's feed on a rush at 9:41.
 
Ryan McCleary tallied the Mavs' second goal of the night with 4:25 left in regulation before Lorenz picked up an empty-netter a minute later.
 
DU outshot UNO 39-25 overall. The Pios went 0-for-2 on the power play, while the Mavs posted a 1-for-3 mark with the extra man on the ice.
 
UP NEXT: The Pioneers conclude their season and weekend series versus the Mavericks on Saturday at Baxter Arena before going on their only bye weekend of the season. DU wraps up the regular season on Feb. 27-28 at home against Arizona State.
 
 
POSTGAME NOTES

• DU is unbeaten in the last six games against Omaha (5-0-1) and is 7-1-1 in the last nine contest.
• The Pios are now 43-14-6 all-time against the Mavs and 17-9-3 in Nebraska.
• Denver was playing its first game in Omaha since its series on Jan. 19-20, 2024.
• Denver's six-game unbeaten streak (5-0-1) ties its season long from Nov. 1-21 (6-0-0).
• Rieger Lorenz stretched his goal streak to four games, setting a new career long and matching the longest goal streak of the season for the Pioneers (Eric Pohlkamp, Nov. 1-14).
• Lorenz has seven points (5g/2a) in the past six games and his current four-game run matches his personal-best point streak (third time, last: Nov. 8-21, 2025, 2g/3a).
• James Reeder registered his third career multi-goal game and second of the season (Nov. 1, 2025 vs. Alaska Anchorage). He is also on a three-game point streak (2g/2a).
• Eric Pohlkamp and Samu Salminen each recorded three assists and both surpassed 50 career assists.
• It was the fourth and fifth time this season that a Denver player had a trio of assists in a game this season, with James Reeder last doing it on Nov. 29 vs. Minnesota.
• For Pohlkamp, it was his third, three-point game of the season (Oct. 11 vs. Bentley, Nov. 21 at Arizona State).
• Johnny Hicks made his fifth consecutive start in net and is unbeaten in his six career decisions (5-0-1). It is the longest unbeaten stretch by a DU goalie to start a career since Magnus Chrona went unbeaten in his first eight games in 2019-20 (7-0-1).
• Kyle Chyzowski scored his first career game-winning goal.
• Garrett Brown (five) and Jake Fisher (four) each tied a career high in shots on goal.
• Clarke Caswell scored in the final second of the second period, marking just the seventh instance of a DU player tallying at 19:59 of a period since the 2000-01 season and the first to do so since Cameron Wright also did it in the middle stanza on Nov. 13, 2021 vs. Western Michigan.
• Denver recorded its fifth comeback win of the season and second when trailing after the first period.

 
GOAL SUMMARY
1st Period
5:20 UNO (0-1) – PPG, Samuel Huo scored in front during a man advantage.
 
2nd Period
15:53 DU (1-1) – James Reeder finished off a pass by Rieger Lorenz on the back-side of the net after the Pioneers gained possession on the forecheck by Samu Salminen.
19:59 DU (2-1) – Clarke Caswell scored off his own rebound while all alone in front after Sam Harris won a faceoff and Eric Pohlkamp's initial shot from the high slot was blocked.
 
3rd Period
2:23 DU (3-1) – Kyle Chyzowski's slap shot from the left circle found twine after Kieran Cebrian and Reid Varkonyi won a puck battle along the boards
9:41 DU (4-1) – James Reeder knocked in the puck on a rush following a feed by Samu Salminen.
15:35 UNO (4-2) – Ryan McCleary scored on a slap shot from the top of the right circle.
16:35 DU (5-2) – ENG, Rieger Lorenz chased the puck into the Omaha zone and tapped it into the open net from the top of the crease.
 
 
QUOTABLES
Richard and Kitzia Goodman Hockey Head Coach David Carle
On goaltender Johnny Hicks: "It's a goalie's job to keep your team within range, and I thought Johnny did that. He was our best player results-wise and probably in the totality of it. I don't think we were playing poorly necessarily in front of him, but he was making big saves and was matching [Omaha goalie Simon] Latkoczy save-for-save—he was a really good goaltender on the other side. [Omaha] had a 2-on-1 that turned into a breakaway there in the first, and it was a huge save for us. He made a couple in the second as well. We got caught in our own end a few times in the second, and he was there standing tall and being patience and kind of gave our team a chance to kind of figure it out and get going."
 
On the third period: "You compare this to seven days ago in Colorado College, we go into the third, tie game, and didn't really like how we started that period. First five-to-seven minutes, they took it to us. Tonight, we're up 2-1, and we came out swinging and punching and taking it to them and pushing our pace in the game. Obviously got rewarded by extending the lead."
 
On the line of Jake Fisher, Brady Milburn and Hagen Burrows: "They're finding consistency in their game. Fish has gotten better on draws, Brady's improved his D-zone play. Hagen's improved his firmness and puck decision in his game. Their reloads to a man, all three of them, have really improved, so they become a more trustworthy group. Again, we had them out there three minutes, four minutes left in the two-goal lead. For me, they earned that, and then part of it is it gives them something to hang their hat on right now, feel good about themselves. They're a big part of our team and contributing to the success that we've been having lately."
 
On the team's breakouts vs. the Omaha defense: "I thought we did a good job of reading their pressure and keeping pucks moving when we needed to and possession when there was time to do that. I'll just say too, they're a really good hockey team. Our league is very deep this year, and it's kind of crazy that they're fighting for even being in the playoffs, to be quite honest. They have a lot of really good pieces, they play firm, so we've got our hands full going into tomorrow night… We know we're going to get their best effort."
 
On the win how it relates to the overall standings: "It's tight all over. We want to play well. We want to continue to evaluate ourselves on our process, but you do that all year to get to this time of year where you hope it starts to become second nature, so you can consistently get the results. Our guys are playing well."
 

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