Hockey, Men's Sports

Denver Wins NCHC Tournament Trophy Over Omaha, 4-1

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DU head Coach David Carle wanted his team to give the NCHC Frozen Faceoff their full effort after losing momentum last season, falling to Colorado College at the the Frozen Faceoff and an early NCAA Tournament exit. Saturday night, DU gave their full effort after a grueling OT game 24 hours earlier against St. Cloud State. Heading into the game, the DU staff knew that a win would send Colorado College out of the NCAA Tournament bracket. Winning the NCHC Tournament Trophy also meant that Denver might be sent to the Springfield, Massachusetts Regional hosted by UMass-Amherst, instead of a more favorable midwest spot like St Louis. We will know tomorrow when the seedings are announced. The hockey Selection Show is Sunday at 4:30 p.m. MT on ESPNU.

The first period featured end-to-end hockey. Omaha got first blood when Omaha’s Brock Bremer solved DU goaltender Matt Davis to give Omaha a 1-0 lead. Omaha could only generate five shots on goal during the first 20 minutes to DU’s 12, yet the Mavs held the lead heading into the first break.

Denver started to take control during the second period as captain McKade Webster scored a pair of goals to give the Pioneers a 2-1 edge.  Webster scored on a breakaway at 1:33 and a second goal from distance at  4:54. Denver began to take control of the game. Again, Denver led in shots and stoned the Mavs on two powerplays during the period.

The third period was all DU as the Pioneers stayed in attack mode, outshooting Omaha 12-3 while keeping their foot on the gas. However, it took nearly 16 minutes before a wrister from Miko Matikka gave DU some breathing room. Two minutes later, Reiger Lorenz put the icing on the cake for Denver, 4-1.

Captain McKade Webster was named Outstanding Player and Matt Davis was steady between the pipes for Denver. The win was big for a young team seeking consistency but it is clear this team has bigger things on their mind.

We will know tomorrow afternoon what region #1 seed Denver will be assigned.

 

 

4 thoughts on “Denver Wins NCHC Tournament Trophy Over Omaha, 4-1”

  1. Another great win for the Pioneers. Here’s hoping DU gets a good pairing in Springfield, once they dispatch UMass..

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  2. I believe next year the NCHC tournament will be at campus sites. Does that mean the #1 seed (North Dakota this year) gets to host the semi-final games and championship game? I look forward to that format.

    Great game last night and nice to have it on CBS Sports Network. Go DU!

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  3. Magnificent work by the Pioneers to bring home a trophy against a red-hot Omaha team. What was really amazing to watch was the quality of DU’d defensive performance in all three zones – the track-backs, the stick work, the gap control and the crease-clearing. The Pios kept UNO to the outside and limited them to 16 shots. Truly amazing playoff defense.

    I loved McKade Webster’s leadership last night- scoring twice and showing the way as a senior captain should. That Offense got it done – 35 shots and lots of grade A chances. When DU gets humming on transition with the deep lines they have this year, they are a big load for any team to defend.

    As well as DU played last night, there are always nitpicks. Davis gave up a soft goal last night (and also some against St. Cloud). He reminds me of former DU goalie Glenn Fisher from 20 years ago, who had a problem with early softies. It’s certainly something that merits concern in a one-and-done.
    And there were a couple of dumb penalties that DU took that could have hurt, but luckily didn’t. Hopefully, The Pios can limit these type of things as they fine tune for the big dance.

    All pre-selection show indications are that DU will get sent to Springfield, Massachusetts where it will face #14-seeded UMass, a 35-minute drive from the UMass campus, this Thursday. If that happens, it’s a very tough draw assignment to be sure – quite reminiscent of 2002 (Ann Arbor), 2010 (Albany) and 2015 (Providence), when highly-seeded DU teams were all sent to play in the Eastern time zone to play lower-seeded teams playing in their own backyards. DU lost all three of those NCAA games in excruciating fashion. To make matters worse, the Springfield regional is a short week, with early-starting games, too:

    Session 1 -Thursday, March 28, 2024
    Semi-Final Game 1 at 2:00 p.m. ET
    Semi-Final Game 2 at 5:30 p.m. ET
    Session 2 – Saturday, March 30, 2024
    Regional Championship at 4:00 p.m. ET

    Personally, I hope DU runs UMass out of that building. I am not a fan of Greg Carvel. His attitude during the 2019 NCAA semis in Buffalo rubbed me the wrong way. Carvel’s head -hunting team saw multiple ejections and should have have seen another one to one of UMass’ top players, Bobby Trevigno, which was missed (?) by the refs and was later enforced by the NCAA for the NCAA final, after DU had already been eliminated:

    “In the course of the game, the two kids that got kicked out, when those hits happened, I wasn’t thinking, ‘They’re going to be kicked out of the game,’ ’’ said Carvel at the time, before [Bobby] Trivigno’s suspension was announced. “You’ve seen our team play. We check. It’s hockey. You run into people.” Come on, Greg…

    Go Pios!

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