The #3 overall-seeded Denver Pioneers are returning to the Frozen Four for the second time in the last three years and the third time since 2019. After a marathon 2-1, double-overtime victory over the UMass-Amherst Minutemen in the Springfield Regional semifinal on Thursday afternoon, the Pioneers and, more specifically, goaltender Matt Davis put forth another strong performance en route to their second consecutive 2-1 victory, this time in regulation against regional #3 seed Cornell. Davis stopped 24 of the Big Red’s 25 shots on goal while Miko Matikka and Sam Harris tallied late in the first and second periods, respectively, to send the Pioneers back to St. Paul as the first of four teams who will clinch berths in the 2024 Frozen Four.

The question that everyone was asking before the Springfield Regional Final: How would Denver hold up after playing nearly 100 minutes of hockey on Thursday afternoon in their regional semifinal victory?

Connor Caponi probably said it best during his first intermission interview with commentators Clay Matvick and Sean Ritchlin: “Absolutely not. We’re ready to go,” Caponi said when Matvick asked if there were any tired legs for Denver.

And the Pioneers’ performance in all three zones backed up Caponi’s confidence.

Denver did, however, surrender the first goal of the game. The first period has been the Pioneers’ weakest period all season. DU has not started games well but they’ve been able to turn it on when it mattered most. But going down 1-0 early against Cornell and goaltender Ian Shane – the NCAA’s best goalie in terms of GAA (1.69) – was nearly disastrous. Davis made a glove save on the initial Big Red shot but uncharacteristically failed to keep the puck within reach and Cornell got to the rebound first. All Nick DeSantis had to do was find the open net to give the Big Red the lead and he didn’t miss.

The Pioneers were on their heels from there for most of the period. Cornell dictated the game, threw the body, and kept the puck in the Denver zone. It was as though the Pioneers knew they weren’t going to easily beat Shane and Cornell’s defense – who shut them out this time a year ago – and they started to panic.

Enter Miko Matikka. The puck fell at the freshman forward’s feet in the high slot after a neutral zone faceoff with barely a minute and a half left in the opening frame. Matikka turned and fired an elite wrister which appeared to surprise Shane, and it found twine. Tie game. All of a sudden, the Pioneers realized they could score on Shane and they started play with the kind of jump and confidence that DU fans have been used to all season.

But Cornell’s game is predicated on strong defense and goaltending with an attack that knows exactly when to jump into the play, so the Pioneers still had their work cut out for them. Plus, even after Matikka’s goal, nothing was finding its way through Ian Shane, no matter how promising DU’s second-period looks were.

Davis matched him save for save and then some in his own crease. In comparison to Thursday’s 46-save performance, his 24-save game in the Regional Final seemed like a relative walk in the park and for a number of the 24, he wasn’t challenged. But there were a few where it seemed like Cornell was about to jump in front, like on a breakaway early in the second period, when Sean Behrens was beaten on a Cornell rush that sprung the Big Red on a breakaway. Davis was right where he needed to be, though, and calmly made the necessary save at just the right time. If Thursday’s performance was the best of his collegiate career so far, today’s had to be a close second.

Thanks to Davis’ elite play, Pioneer forwards felt more comfortable pushing the issue on offense and methodically getting pucks behind Cornell’s defense. But even with the additional confidence, it wasn’t until there were four seconds left in the second period that Denver got the lucky break it was looking for.

Cornell’s Jonathan Castagna made the biggest mistake of the game with 38 seconds left in the middle frame, obliterating Jack Devine along the boards well after he had released the puck and was correctly whistled for interference. 34 seconds later, with the Pioneers pushing for one final shot before intermission, Sam Harris tapped a Shai Buium shot from the bottom of the right circle that Shane initially stopped. But the puck snuck through him after it was kicked by one of his own teammates and it barely crossed the goal line (aided by Carter King, for good measure) to give the Pioneers a 2-1 lead. That made it two goals in the final two minutes of the first two periods for the Pioneers and that was all the breathing room Davis needed to ice the game away.

The third period was a defensive masterclass by the Pioneers, something they have shown with greater frequency over the last few weeks. They were responsible with the puck, their defensive coverage was flawless, and Matt Davis was in the right spot when he was needed. There were only two truly close calls in the closing minutes. Castagna nearly made amends for his second-period blunder but he missed a wide-open DU net with a bit more than three minutes left.

But the biggest moment of the third period, Matt Davis’ exclamation point on his Springfield Regional Most Outstanding Player designation, came with just 11 seconds left. Cornell was buzzing, having just killed off an inconsistent but correct slashing penalty, and Ian Shane was on the bench for the extra attacker. Tyler Catalano found Ryan Walsh with a perfect pass through traffic across the slot but Davis read the play perfectly and robbed Walsh with a pad save on the backdoor shot attempt to seal the Pioneers’ 2nd trip to St. Paul in three weeks.

Matt Davis, who has been the subject of plenty of frustration and scorn in the content and comments of this blog, made all of the doubters eat our words with 8 periods of nearly flawless goaltending in Springfield. Giving up just two goals in 152 minutes of hockey was something that no one would have envisioned just three months ago.

But here we are. The job’s not done but the 2023-24 Pioneers are standing on the shoulders of college hockey giants, on the precipice of doing something never before seen in college hockey and they have a 6-foot-1, 195lbs junior goalie from Calgary to thank for it.

Highlights