For a team like Denver, there are always games on the schedule that are, in effect, scheduled victories. It’s hockey, after all, so no game is ever truly a sure thing until the teams hit the ice but sometimes, the talent gap is so wide that it would be a monumental, Vanderbilt over Alabama-type upset. This weekend, the #1 Denver Pioneers (2-0-0, 0-0-0 NCHC) had two such games on their schedule when they traveled to southern Alaska to take on the Alaska Anchorage Seawolves (0-2-0) to kick off their title defense and quest for the program’s 11th national title. As expected, the Pioneers delivered and will return to Denver with two resounding victories under their belts.

Saturday: Denver 6, Alaska Anchorage 2

Sunday: Denver 4, Alaska Anchorage 1

The question this weekend wasn’t so much whether the Pioneers would win these two games. Denver boasts as much talent on its roster as any program in the country and UAA is still navigating its way back into the college hockey zeitgeist after being reinstated from its two-year budget-driven hiatus in 2022-23. The talent gap between these two programs is basically what you’d expect, so the question for the Pioneers was, instead, how would the team play as a unit with four freshmen and two transfers playing key roles all across the ice?

In short – no one looked out of place. In fact, for most of the weekend, the Pioneers looked like a team that has been skating together for years. Let’s put it this way; Jake Fisher, Samu Salminen, and James Reeder tallied their first goals wearing crimson and gold this weekend while Hobey Baker hopefuls Jack Devine and Zeev Buium combined for a whopping 10 assists. DU cycled the puck so well, crashed UAA’s net with relentless effort, and played so cohesively – perhaps best exemplified by Fisher’s goal Saturday night and Salminen’s goal on Sunday –  for the vast majority of the weekend that if you didn’t know better, you’d have thought the Pioneers won their 10th national title just a few weeks ago, not six months ago.

Part of what made the Pioneers’ season-opening dominance so impressive was their prolific power play effort. The Seawolves handed the Pioneers a whopping 13 power plays throughout the weekend, including nine on Saturday night and DU converted on five of them. Two of them came on the same major power play in game one but all weekend long, the Pioneers’ extra-man unit showed how talented and productive they can be this season.

All of this isn’t to say that the #1 team in the country doesn’t have things to work on. They gave up garbage-time goals in both games and in game two, DU’s characteristic discipline waned at times, offering the Seawolves chances to tilt a closer game in their favor. As well as the Pioneers played for most of game two, the game wasn’t truly over until Aidan Thompson scored his third goal of the weekend midway through the third period to extend the Pioneers’ lead to 4-0. In other words, had those DU penalty kills gone differently and had UAA found a way to solve the brick wall named Matt Davis, this recap’s tone would be much, much different.

Speaking of Davis, though, the 2024 Frozen Four Most Outstanding Player did what you’d expect the 2024 Frozen Four Most Outstanding Player to do. On Saturday, he only saw 12 shots on goal and gave up two, though any goaltender will tell you that when they see so few shots on goal, it is difficult to stay focused and get into any kind of rhythm. But on Sunday night, Davis showed out, stopping each of the first 25 shots he saw before Dimitry Kebreau notched a garbage-time goal to ruin the shutout.

The bottom line is this – Denver took care of business this weekend. They flew into Anchorage as the #1 team in the country with nothing to gain and everything to lose if they stumbled out of the gate. Now, two season-opening road victories later, the Pioneers will fly home, enjoy an early bye week to work on a few things, and prepare for their Homecoming and banner-raising matchups with Northeastern in two weeks.

Championships are not won in October. But the foundations of championship-winning teams are built this time of year. And after outscoring UAA 10-3 this weekend, the Pioneers have laid their first two bricks.

Top photo courtesy of University of Alaska Anchorage Athletics

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