If there is an image that should accompany the phrase “leave no doubt” in your mind, it’s the box score of game three of the 2025 NCHC Quarterfinals series between the #3 seed Denver Pioneers and #6 seed Colorado College Tigers. After dropping game one and rebounding in game two, the Pioneers led game three wire-to-wire, took control of the game in the second period, and stepped on the Tigers’ throats in the third en route to the 9-2 victory and 2-1 series win. With the win, the Pioneers advance to the last Frozen Faceoff in St. Paul next weekend with hopes to defend their 2024 conference title and the impressive status as the only program to advance past the Quarterfinal round in each of the NCHC’s 11 conference tournaments (2020 was canceled, you’ll remember).

Denver opened the scoring for the first time this weekend when Samu Salminen pounded a puck into an open net after a fortunate bounce barely two minutes into the game. It wasn’t the start that CC goalie Carsen Musser, starting in place of injured Kaidan Mbereko, who suffered a lower-body injury in the third period of game two, was looking for. But it was the exact start that the Pioneers needed. Garrett Brown scored an extra-attacker goal late in the first period before Ty Gallagher responded to keep it a one-goal game entering the second period, but Denver’s dominance was on full display.

Denver’s dominance continued early in the third period when Kent Anderson one-timed a Zeev Buium pass through Musser and into the back of the net to make it 3-1. Musser held his own for most of the rest of the period, but it appeared the CC dam finally broke, oddly enough, when Boston Buckberger’s apparent goal with about five minutes left in the second was called off for goaltender interference after what seemed like the shortest review in NCHC history. Less than a minute after Buckberger’s non-goal, Kieran Cebrian put Denver ahead 4-1 without incident before Carter King finished a shorthanded breakaway to make it 5-1 entering the third. The only remaining question at this point was not who would win but how many goals DU would score.

Sure enough, less than a minute into the third, Carter King added another, this time on the first of DU’s four third-period power plays, and the rout was on. Gallagher scored his second of the night on his own shorthanded breakaway a couple of minutes later, but Buckberger responded 49 seconds later with Denver’s 7th goal, this one couldn’t be challenged, to erase any final CC delusions of grandeur. Eric Pohlkamp and Rieger Lorenz each added power-play goals during a five-on-three opportunity around the mid-point of the third to seal the 9-2 victory and leave no doubt who was the better team this weekend at Magness Arena.

The eye-popping score tonight will understandably earn the headlines and attention around the conference and country. But Denver’s complete performance from all four lines – a player from every line and d-pairing recorded at least a point – in all three zones deserves just as much praise. Not only was this the third game of the weekend after two physically and mentally draining playoff games but it was the fifth-straight game between the two rivals separated by just 62 miles of I-25. So putting together the performance that they did tonight was, in a word, impressive.

Now, the Pioneers’ attention turns to the Arizona State Sun Devils, a team that they struggled to beat in each of their four tries. After getting swept by ASU in November, the Pioneers split a pair of overtime games in Tempe in February, including a game two that saw the Pioneers blow a two-goal lead in the third period before falling a minute and a half into overtime.

The Sun Devils, for their part this weekend, swept Minnesota Duluth in Tempe and erased an early 3-0 deficit in game two before going on to win 6-5 in overtime…sound familiar? There should be no shortage of offensive fireworks in this semifinal with a berth in the NCHC title game on the line.

Playoff hockey, of course, is a completely different animal, and where the Sun Devils lack significant postseason experience, the Pioneers ooze it with 17 rostered players who won last year’s NCHC Championship and national title. Then there’s the eight who can lay claim to two national championships. In other words, if playoff experience comes into play next weekend, the Pioneers will have plenty of it to lean on, while the Sun Devils might be left searching for answers.

For much of the season, really since the ASU sweep at Magness Arena, the Pioneers have played inconsistent, almost “bored” hockey, as though the regular season was a chore to slog through to get to the hockey that really mattered. If that was true, Friday night’s game showed that they couldn’t just flip the switch on a dime, but Saturday and Sunday finally showed the kind of hockey that Denver is capable of playing. The playoffs have finally arrived, and maybe, juuuuust maybe the Pioneers have too.

Highlights

GOOD GOAL! SAMU SALMINEN WITH THE TAP-IN #GoPios pic.twitter.com/sdYadjIBkY

— Denver Hockey (@DU_Hockey) March 17, 2025

Garrett Brown toe-dragged and then went high, short-side with the puck.

Tonight’s @Safeway Goal of the Game has us like 🤤#GoPios pic.twitter.com/V8XJXOLdMR

— Denver Hockey (@DU_Hockey) March 17, 2025

Kent Anderson nets his first goal of the season on this blast from the blue line! pic.twitter.com/LYDE5NkiQj

— Denver Hockey (@DU_Hockey) March 17, 2025

Carter King goes 5-hole for his 6th career short-handed goal. pic.twitter.com/WBRkdewWtX

— Denver Hockey (@DU_Hockey) March 17, 2025

Top photo courtesy Isaac Wasserman/Clarkson Creative Photography via Denver Athletics