Hockey, Men's Sports

Even-Year Magic! Pioneers Erase Third-Period Deficit to Bring Home National Championship #11

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LAS VEGAS, Nev. – History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes. When Mark Twain (allegedly) said that, he wasn’t talking about the Denver Pioneers hockey program, but he may as well have been. On a sun-soaked afternoon at T-Mobile Arena in southern Nevada, the Denver Pioneers, trailing 1-0 after being outshot 21-5 through two periods by the Wisconsin Badgers, did their level-best impression of the 2022 national champions, scoring twice in the final period to bring home the program’s 11th title, breaking their own record of 10, set in 2024.

There is no getting around it. Things looked bleak after two periods for the now 11-time national champions. The scoreboard looked bad. The shot board looked even worse. And on the ice, there was real worry that Denver would even record 10 shots on goal, let alone find the back of the net. Every time a Pioneer found a puck, there were two Badgers there to take it away and generate a dangerous scoring chance in DU’s end. As poorly as the Pioneers were playing, it was impossible not to admire Wisconsin’s effort.

“I’d probably say it’s the hardest team we’ve played against
all year,” DU head coach David Carle said. “Just how they were on it, their forecheck, made it real challenging to be able to break pucks out.”

Even before Vasily Zelenov opened the scoring 13 and a half minutes into the game, the Pioneers were clearly the second-best team on the ice. The Badgers had the one-goal lead and the 10-2 advantage in shots on goal, but it was their defensive effort, not just in front of goalie Daniel Hauser but on DU’s attempted breakouts and through the neutral zone, that was most impressive. It truly was a vintage Mike Hastings game.

It brought back, at least in the minds of the DU faithful who made the trip over the Rocky Mountains, the horrific memories of the first two periods of the 2022 national title game against Hastings’ Minnesota State Mavericks. Through the first two periods of that game, Denver was outshot 18-8 and also trailed 1-0. Frankly, at the time, all 17,850 at TD Garden that night had the same thought – it could have been 7-0, and it wouldn’t have mattered. Denver wasn’t going to solve the Mavericks’ defense. And even if they could, they weren’t going to beat goalie Dryden McKay.

But if Hastings did his best 2022 impression in the first two periods of the 2026 title game, Denver returned the favor in the third.

Even though it wasn’t Ryan Barrow who scored the goal, senior alternate captain Rieger Lorenz looked just like him when he tied the game seven-and-a-half minutes into the final period, hammering home the rebound of a Garrett Brown shot from the left circle. It was always going to take a gritty goal at the net front to break through – as it did in 2022 – and Lorenz, scoring his second career national championship goal (he scored in 2024), did just that.

“I’ll say, it was a similar message in the room between the second and third,” Carle said when asked about the commonalities between 2022 and 2026. “It’s weird how it all kind of shook down the way that it did between the two games.”

Just like Barrow’s, Lorenz’s goal woke the Pioneers up. They sleepwalked through the first two periods, due in no small part to the double-overtime semifinal marathon victory over Michigan two nights ago, but thanks again to the goaltending heroics of Frozen Four Most Outstanding Player Johnny Hicks (29 saves on 30 shots), all they needed was Lorenz’s goal to get back in the game.

And boy, did they. The Pioneers ended up outshooting the Badgers 10-9 in the final frame – doubling their entire shot total from the first two periods – and nearly seven minutes after Lorenz tied it, Kyle Chyzowski extended his goal-scoring streak to three games, tipping a Boston Buckberger shot from the point through Hauser to give the Pioneers the lead. Chyzowski got the goal, but it was Buckberger, after missing the 2025 Frozen Four with a season-ending injury that he sustained in the NCHC championship game, who drove and created the play that ended in the championship-winning goal.

“It was so bad to miss [the Frozen Four] last year,” Buckberger said. “I was just itching to get back here. I couldn’t be more happy to just contribute and be a selfless player for these guys, my 25 brothers for life.”

Kyle Chyzowski scores Denver’s game-winning goal. Credit: Jim Rosvold via the NCHC

The victory, Denver’s third title in the last five years – all under Carle’s leadership –  cements not only the program’s status as the greatest of all time (as if there was any lingering doubt), but also puts Carle into a conversation that he, ever the quiet, humble leader, would prefer to be left out of.

But winning three titles in five years just doesn’t happen. Hell, the only other coach to do that since 1970 is Jerry York, who did it in 2008, 2010, and 2012 with Boston College. And York, who completed the feat at age 67, is considered one of, if not the greatest, college hockey coach of all time as a result.

But Carle accomplished this at age 36, a full 31 years younger than York was at the time. It’s not exactly groundbreaking to say that, should he choose to stay at Denver – and make no mistake, more NHL coaching offers are coming – he will have the opportunity to not only match and exceed what Murray Armstrong was able to accomplish as Denver’s head coach in the 1950s, 60s, and into the 70s. But it’s also no exaggeration to say that he could join and surpass the likes of Red Berenson, Jack Parker, and York in college hockey’s pantheon.

For as many parallels as there were between the 2022 and 2026 Pioneers – and there were plenty, from sweeping the Loveland Regional, to beating Michigan in (double) overtime, and to recovering from a bad opening two periods to win the title over Mike Hastings – we merely witnessed Carle’s meteoric rise four years ago. 2026, however, cemented his status as a legend, no matter what comes next.

So Mr. Twain was right – history certainly does not repeat itself. But 2026 damn sure rhymed. And because of it, the Pioneers are going to hang their 11th banner this Fall.

Credit: Jim Rosvold via the NCHC

Highlights

Top photo credit: Jim Rosvold via the NCHC

6 thoughts on “Even-Year Magic! Pioneers Erase Third-Period Deficit to Bring Home National Championship #11”

  1. Pingback: College Hockey Inc » Denver Does it Again

  3. I think the time has now come for the Denver University administration to raise a statue of David Carle and place it in the Magness Arena next to Murray Armstrong’s statue.

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  4. What an amazing accomplishment. Kuddos to DC and the entire team…especially Johnny Hicks who must be the 1st goalie to ever win an NCAA championship undefeated for the season.

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  5. What a fabulous end to a wonderful and amazing Pioneer season!

    Yes, DU was outplayed for much of the weekend.
    But none of that matters when you win — The NCAA does not give out championship banners for having more shots on goal, more hits, better gap control or more puck possession. What is rewarded is the scoring of goals and the prevention of the opposition goals, and in both of those categories, the Pioneers did enough when it counted to salt away NCAA banner #11, beating two Big 10 historical, athletic brand powerhouses, Michigan and Wisconsin to do it. Bravo.

    That ability to still win when outplayed is an art form in itself. It’s not luck. It comes from the consistency of winning 20+ games a year for a quarter century in the toughest conference in the country. And when the moment arises, doing enough to stab your opponent in the heart and take his trophy – killer instinct, intestinal fortitude and staying precise in the moment when the pressure is highest…

    As I said to my DU friends, you never know when the pinnacle of a program will come. DU certainly had a great program pinnacles in the early ’60s, the late ’60s, the mid 2000s and now in the 2020s, where the program lorded over college hockey.

    Here we are in era where our game is being stretched by increasing financial investment, NIL, revenue sharing and player movement. There is more and more stratification between have’s and have not’s every day, so let’s all enjoy the greatest moment in the recent history of the DU program. There are 60+ other programs trying to be where DU is right now.

    We’re at the pinnacle of the sport, and the view up here is great.

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