OMAHA, Neb. – Senior forward Rieger Lorenz scored early in the third period to break a tie and the No. 8 Denver Pioneers hockey team stretched its unbeaten streak to seven games with a 3-1 victory at the Omaha Mavericks on Saturday at Baxter Arena.
 
DU (19-11-3, 15-6-1 NCHC) picked up its fifth weekend sweep of the season and is 6-0-1 in its last seven games for its longest unbeaten stretch of the season.
 
Lorenz tallied off a face-off win by classmate Samu Salminen 1:22 into the final frame, and sophomore Jake Fisher sealed the contest with an empty-net marker with 31 seconds left to play. The tally by Lorenz stretched his career-long goal streak to five games, the longest of the season by a Pioneer.
 
Sophomore Hagen Burrows opened the game's scoring for Denver by burying his own rebound midway through the second stanza. Kent Anderson, Sam Harris, Brady Milburn and James Reeder joined Salminen by collecting assists in the contest.
 
Denver goaltender Johnny Hicks stopped 26-of-27 shots faced to remain unbeaten to start his collegiate career at 6-0-1. He stopped all 13 shots that the Mavericks (10-20-0, 6-14-0 NCHC) fired his way in the third frame.
 
Omaha outshot DU 27-24 in the game, with Jeremy Loranger netting the only marker during one of UNO's three power-play opportunities with 7:49 left in the second period to knot the contest at 1-1.
 
The Pios finished 0-for-4 on the man advantage, which included a 1:11 of a 5-on-3 late in the second frame.
 
UP NEXT: Denver now goes on its only bye week of the season before returning to play for the final weekend of the regular season on Feb. 27-28 against Arizona State at Magness Arena. DU will host NCHC Quarterfinals on March 6-8, with tickets for the best-of-three series going on sale on Sunday.
 
 
POSTGAME NOTES

• Denver was playing on Valentine's Day for the second consecutive season and for the 21st time in program history. The Pioneers are now 13-6-2 all-time on Feb. 14.
• DU's seven-game unbeaten streak (6-0-1) since Jan. 24 is the team's longest of the season and longest since Denver won its first 12 games to start the 2024-25 campaign (Oct. 5-Nov. 16, 2024). The squad's previous long this season was a 6-0-0 run from Nov. 1-21
• The Pioneers finished their road schedule of the regular season with a 10-5-2 mark and was unbeaten in their final four away contests (3-0-1), tied for their longest such road streak of the season (Nov. 7-21, 4-0-0).
• Denver's seniors won their 112th career game, moving into a tie with the 2005 squad for the second-most victories by a class in program history. DU's 2025 class owns the record with 124 wins across four seasons.
• Rieger Lorenz stretched his career-long goal streak to five games (5g/2a), passing Eric Pohlkamp's four-game run (Nov. 1-14, 4g/2a) for the longest of the season by a DU player. Lorenz has eight points (6g/2a) in his past seven contests since Jan. 24, and his five-game stretch since Jan. 31 is also now the longest point streak of his collegiate career.
• Lorenz tallied his third game-winning goal of the season and fourth of his career.
• James Reeder stretched his point streak to four games (2g/3a).
• Sam Harris is on a three-game point streak (1g/3a), which is tied for the longest consecutive stretch with assists by him in his career (third time) and for a Pioneer this season (eighth time) and
• Johnny Hicks made his sixth straight start and remained unbeaten in his first seven career decisions at 6-0-1. Magnus Chrona was the last DU goalie to go unbeaten in his first seven decisions as he went 7-0-1 in his first eight starts to begin the 2019-20 campaign.
• DU is now unbeaten in its last seven games against Omaha (6-0-1) and is 8-1-1 in the last 10 contests of the series
• The Pios improved to 44-14-6 all-time against the Mavs and 18-9-3 in Nebraska.
• Denver was playing its first series in Omaha since Jan. 19-20, 2024.
• The Pioneers picked up their fifth weekend sweep of the season and first on the road since Nov. 7-8 at Western Michigan. All five series sweeps have come versus conference opponents.

 
GOAL SUMMARY
1st Period
No Scoring
 
2nd Period
9:43 DU (1-0) – Hagen Burrows scored on his own rebound in front following Kent Anderson's initial shot from the point.
12:13 UNO (1-1) – PPG, Jeremy Loranger hit twine with a wrist shot from the top of the right circle.
 
3rd Period
1:22 DU (2-1) – Rieger Lorenz tallied on a low wrist shot after the puck got pushed over to him in the slot after a faceoff win at the right circle.
19:29 DU (3-1) – ENG, Jake Fisher sent the puck into the open net after taking a lead pass from Sam Harris.
 
 
QUOTABLES
Richard and Kitzia Goodman Hockey Head Coach David Carle
On the Jake Fisher-Brady Milburn-Hagen Burrows line and their game-opening goal: "They were very good all weekend long. A really nice play by Kent to deliver the puck to the net quickly, Hagen found himself alone and was able to pop in the rebound."
 
On fighting for playoff positioning with North Dakota and Western Michigan: "Keep the pressure on both teams. We're doing our part. Little bit out of our control. Obviously, if we win out and they win out, we're not going to pass them, but they also play each other the last weekend of the year. One of them can't win out, certainly. So big weekends for both of them [next week]."
 
On going on a bye weekend: "We're good with it. We haven't had one in the second half. We didn't have one in the first half. I would say one of our challenges is we kind of got off to an abnormal, for us, slow start at the beginning of the year, and then a very slow start coming out of the break. It will be important that we are professional and disciplined with how we approach this bye week. Certainly, yes, we want to take our foot off the gas a little bit, but not to a level where we're having to play catch up and having to go find our game again. I like how we're playing a lot, but I think it can be beneficial to have a little moment to breathe prior to the stretch run."
 
On the tightness throughout the NCHC standings: "I think it's going to come down to the final weekend. That's what I love about our league. There are races at one, two, four and eight, so you're getting desperate hockey teams no matter who you play. We know we're going to get Arizona State's best regardless of what happens against Omaha this coming weekend."
 
Senior Forward Rieger Lorenz
On what has worked for the team recently: "I think just the consistency of our details. The last few weekends we've really found what it takes to win, and we've been repeating that recipe over and over again. It seems to be working, and hopefully we can carry that into playoff here."
 
On his five-game goal streak: "It's always nice to help the team. I think the biggest thing is that it doesn't matter who is scoring. We're all playing the right way. All four lines, all six, seven D-men, it's a really good recipe right now."
 
On the team's priority going into the bye week: "Make sure our details are consistent, every practice, every game. It's a proven recipe to win. We've seen that in '22 and '24. Just believing in what we need to do to become a national championship-winning team, and I think we have the team to do it. So it's exciting."
 
Sophomore James Reeder
On the mindset in the games this weekend vs. Omaha: "We were tied going into the third tonight, only up one last night (going into the third period), so it's kind of staying with what we've been doing the first two periods. Staying with our game, our details, getting pucks in deep and getting pucks to the net and then crash the net. Luckily, we were able to get a couple goals in the third each game."
 
On facing Omaha: "The NCHC is a tough conference. We know night-in and night-out, we know it's going to be a tough game no matter where the opponent is at in the standings. That was kind of the mindset going in—no days off, no shifts off, no nights off, especially Omaha. They came in and played a great weekend against us, and luckily we were able to get both of them."
 
On winning games at this time of the season: "It's great to be winning games, especially at the end of the year. That killer instinct, just being on top of the other team and making some plays. At the end of the day, hopefully  winning the game. Luckily, we got great goaltending, and everyone played a good weekend."


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