DENVER – The Denver Pioneers hockey team scored four times in the second period to pull away from the Miami RedHawks and win 6-2 in Game 2 of the NCHC Quarterfinals at Magness Arena on Saturday night.
 
No. 2-seed Denver (23-11-3, 17-6-1 NCHC) won the best-of-three series in two games over seventh-seed Miami (18-16-2, 9-13-2 NCHC) and now advances to the conference semifinals next weekend. The Pioneers will host No. 3-seed Western Michigan on Saturday, March 14 at 6 p.m. MT at Magness Arena. The WMU Broncos swept their quarterfinal series against Colorado College, earning wins of 5-2 and 2-1 in overtime on home ice.
 
Tickets for the NCHC semifinal on the DU campus go on sale on Tuesday at 12 noon MT.
 
Three Pios each recorded two points on Saturday night with freshman forward Kyle Chyzowski, sophomore forward Jake Fisher and junior defenseman Eric Pohlkamp each registering a goal and an assist each. Sophomore forwards James Reeder and Hagen Burrows and junior forward Kieran Cebrian also tallied.
 
"We executed offensively a lot better tonight," said DU Richard and Kitzia Goodman Hockey Head Coach David Carle. "Give their guy credit, he's an excellent goaltender, made it hard on us all weekend long, but we were able to break through and score some ugly goals. You know in the O-zone play, in and around the net, obviously made two great plays off the rush as well and the power play gets us the four-goal lead in the third there."
 
Freshman goaltender Johnny Hicks stopped 10 shots on net before fellow netminder Paxton Geisel stepped in for the last eight minutes of play and saved four shots on goals.  
 
The Pioneers outshot the RedHawks by a 37-18 margin, including only allowing two shots on net in the opening frame. MU goalie Matteo Drobac held his ground by stopping 31 of the shots that the Pioneers sent his way.  
 
The RedHawks struck first in the contest with Ethan Hay recording the first marker of the game at 1:42 in the first period, but it was almost all Denver after that.
 
The second period was raining with Pioneers goals with four goals in the stanza, including three in a matter of 3:36. Reeder began the frenzy at 5:12 to tie up the contest before Cebrian gave the Pioneers the edge 48 seconds later. At 8:48, Burrows recorded his sixth marker of the campaign, and Chyzowski pushed the Pios lead to 4-1 with 1:01 left in the frame.
 
Pohlkamp registered the only power-play goal of the weekend series at 9:55 in the final period, as DU finished 1-for-3 with the man advantage while Miami went 0-for-4.
 
Doug Grimes gave the RedHawks their second and final tally of the contest at 15:42 of the third, and Fisher netted his second empty-net marker of the season in the last minute of regulation.
 
UP NEXT: Denver faces Western Michigan in a matchup of last season's NCHC Frozen Faceoff Championship Game and NCAA Frozen Four Semifinals on Saturday at 6 p.m. MT at Magness Arena. Game time is at 6 p.m. MT, and it will be broadcast exclusively on NCHC.tv.
 
 
POSTGAME NOTES

• Denver improved to 8-0 all-time in Game 2s in the NCHC Quarterfinals when taking the 1-0 lead in a best-of-three series. Overall, DU is now 23-3 all-time in the NCHC Quarterfinal round.
• DU is 7-1-0 all-time against Miami in the conference postseason, with Denver now sweeping the Hawks in the opening rounds of 2022, 2023 and 2026.
• The Pioneers have now won eight straight contests and are unbeaten in their last 23 games (22-0-1) against Miami.  DU is also now 18-0-1 versus MU at home since February 2019, and each of the past seven contests at Magness Arena in the series have ended in victories for the Pioneers.
• The Pios are currently on a season-long, 11-game unbeaten streak (10-0-1) that dates back to Jan. 23 versus St. Cloud State. It is the longest unbeaten stretch since Denver won each of its first 12 games to start the 2024-25 season.
• Denver advances to the NCHC Semifinals for the 12th time in its history and is the only program in the conference to reach its final four in every held tournament.
• Eric Pohlkamp scored his 17th goal of the season, taking sole possession of fourth place on Denver's single-season goals list by a defenseman.
• Goaltender Johnny Hicks had his career-long shutout streak end at 1:17:36, which stretched across three games from Feb. 28 until early in the first period on Saturday. It was the longest shutout streak of the season by a Pioneer netminder, besting the previous high of Quentin Miller (117:17 from Oct. 10-24) by 19 seconds.
• Hicks also extended his current unbeaten streak to 11 games (10-0-1), which is believed to be the longest to begin a career by a Denver netminder since at least 2023-24. 
• Denver's four goals in the second period tied for its most in a period this season. The team also tallied four times in the third period on both Oct. 11 vs. Bentley and Nov. 29 vs. Minnesota.
• The Pioneers held the RedHawks to just two shots on goal in the first period, tied for the fewest by an opponent this season; Northeastern also had two shots in the opening frame on Oct. 25 at Northeastern.
• Senior forward Rieger Lorenz extended his career-long point streak (6g/6a) to nine games, tying for the longest of the season by a Pioneer (Sam Harris, Nov. 8-Dec. 12).
• Junior forward Sam Harris also extended his career-best assist streak (3g/7a) to seven games. 
• James Reeder's goal marked his 50th career point.

 
GOAL SUMMARY
1st Period
1:42 MU (0-1) – Michael Quinn slid the puck around the boards to the other side for Ryder Thompson, whose initial attempt didn't get through but Ethan Hay picked up the puck from the faceoff dot and wristed it into the net.  
 
2nd Period  
5:12 DU (1-1) – James Reeder knocked in the puck in the crease after Rieger Lorenz's shot from the slot forced the puck to carom up into the air and trampoline off the top of the goal's netting before falling into the blue paint.
6:00 DU (2-1) – Kieran Cebrian went high, far-side with a wrist shot from the right circle after taking a feed from Boston Buckberger.
8:48 DU (3-1) – Jake Fisher poke-checked the puck out of Miami's possession and then passed it over to Brady Milburn, who backhanded it over to Hagen Burrows for a breakaway that resulted in a wrist shot into the net.  
18:59 DU (4-1) – Kyle Chyzowski went top shelf with a shot from a tough angle at the right of the goal line.
 
3rd Period  
9:55 DU (5-1) – PPG, Eric Pohlkamp toe-dragged the puck and fired it into the back of the net after a feed from Sam Harris, who won the puck off of a battle in the corner.  
15:42 MU (5-2) – Doug Grimes scored on a wrist shot near the slot.
19:15 DU (6-2) – ENG, Jake Fisher buried the puck into the gaping net.
 
 
QUOTABLES
Richard and Kitzia Goodman Hockey Head Coach David Carle
On Eric Pohlkamp: "I thought everybody was pretty good tonight, certainly Eric (Pohlkamp) was excellent. [He's] been playing good hockey here for the last month and playing his best hockey at the best time of the year for us."
 
On hosting the semifinal game next weekend: "We fought really hard for that as a school. I thought the previous model was good in the old world, and it's time to progress and move forward. I think the biggest thing is we're excited for our fans to witness high-level playoff hockey. Semifinal game, top-five matchup between us and Western Michigan, it's going to be a hell of a battle."
 
Junior forward Kieran Cebrian
On what has been key in practice the past week: "I think we've been playing well for the last few weeks, but we had a good week of practice. We were focused, worked on what Miami will bring, and we executed."
 
On what the team hopes to carry into next weekend: "I think our work ethic and execution was good this weekend, and it'll be important to bring that against them (Western Michigan), the defending champions. And I think continue to execute on our special teams will be a big one too."
 
On gaining momentum after a slow first period: "We just had a couple bad shifts, but we stuck to our process, and no one gave up, and we just kept playing our style of hockey, and the success came."
 
On the team's 11-game unbeaten streak: "It doesn't change too much. I think it gives us confidence, but that's not from the winning—it's how we're playing hockey. So if we continue to do that, we'll have success."
 

TICKETS: Tickets for DU hockey's NCHC Semifinal game go on sale on Monday at 12 noon MT. Click here for more ticketing information.