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Pioneers’ 11th Title Celebration Spoiled with 4-1 Loss to Wolverines

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The result never mattered. Never mind that it was a mid-October matchup between arguably the best two teams in the country – teams that are not at risk of missing the NCAA Tournament. Then, add in Denver’s pregame banner-raising ceremony, which featured a fantastic video chronicling the Pioneers’ journey to the program’s record 11th title in Vegas last Spring; the game itself between the #1 Denver Pioneers (2-1-0, 0-0-0 NCHC) and #2 Michigan Wolverines (5-0-0, 0-0-0 Big 10) was always secondary. But while the score – a 4-1 loss – wasn’t what the Crimson & Gold faithful wanted on such a celebratory night, the game itself, win or lose, was secondary to the celebration.

Hours before the puck dropped at Magness Arena for the Pioneers’ home opener, Denver fans were already in a frenzy. From the Banner Bash that attracted thousands of fans just outside Ritchie Center to the hundreds of fans who lined up inside and outside of the building before 5pm for the 7pm puck drop, Pioneer Nation was ready to relive the Vegas glory and, hopefully, see the Pioneers kick the revenge-minded Wolverines while they were down.

The lengthy, pregame video hit all the right notes, and the banner-raising ceremony gave fans everything they wanted to see, at least until the puck finally dropped.

“I thought it was really well done,” DU head coach David Carle said of the pregame ceremony and celebration. “Really took our hat off to the building, our fans, all of our staff that put all that together.”

After a frenzied, wildly entertaining opening five minutes that saw Denver carry the play, Michigan opened the scoring, then scored again in the second on their only shot of the period, and scored a third and fourth (empty-net goal) time in the third to put the game out of reach and earn a modicum of revenge with the victory over the only program above them in the national championship standings.

The 4-1 final score indicated Michigan domination, but the game and analytics told a much different story. After being outshot 11-3 in the first period, the Pioneers outshot the maize and blue 23-9, hit three pipes, and held the puck in the Michigan zone for what felt like 30 of the final 40 minutes.

The difference? Michigan found the puck with an open net and the Pioneers did not. Oh, and the pipes. Can’t forget those maddening pipes. Denver’s execution in the offensive zone certainly left a lot to be desired, but the pipes – including one mind-blowing post off the stick of freshman wunderkind defenseman Daxon Rudolph that had Michigan goalie Jack Ivankovic beat by a wide margin that would have pulled Denver back to within 1 – might have been the difference.

“I didn’t sense any frustration,” Carle said, when asked about hitting all the posts. “You know, [if] this goes on like one of our January skids, there will be some frustration. But I think the guys believe that we have the right pieces in the room to get it done.”

Michigan could have won 15-0, or Denver could have eked out a comeback victory. It was all secondary to the reason 95% of the 7,099 were inside Magness Arena tonight. The result leaves only a slightly bitter aftertaste to what was a perfectly sweet main course before the puck dropped.

In the grand scheme of things, all that is really at stake this weekend is early-season NPI positioning, and with the victory, Michigan takes an early lead in that category, which certainly would have been nice for Denver to have instead, but it was not to be.

Plus, you know David Carle-coached teams – take their lumps in October and November, find their identity in December and January, and step on the rest of the country’s throats in February, March, and April. With this loss, they’re right on schedule.

If we’re being honest, this weekend’s games mean a hell of a lot more to Michigan than they ever did to Denver. And who can blame them? They came out on the wrong end of an all-time classic in Vegas and were given the opportunity to exact some early-season revenge against the very team that ended what they thought was going to be their own magical run. For them, this 4-1 victory in Denver, spoiling what the Pioneers hoped would be a celebration well into the night, was a solid consolation.

But that’s all it was – a consolation. Because banners fly forever, and Denver’s 11th will live in the rafters of Magness Arena until the end of time. And you can be sure every single player wearing maize and blue would have happily traded tonight’s victory for their own 10th banner-raising ceremony back in Ann Arbor.

We’ll have plenty more opportunities this season to dissect the Pioneers’ disjointed passing, ineffective power play, and overall sloppiness in the offensive zone, all of which spelled doom for them in the home opener.

But at least for tonight, none of that matters. Ain’t that 11th banner a beaut?

Postgame Note: Tyler Krivtsov started in net for Denver and is expected to do so again tomorrow night. Carle said that the hope is Johnny Hicks returns from injury next weekend against Boston College.

One thought on “Pioneers’ 11th Title Celebration Spoiled with 4-1 Loss to Wolverines”

  1. I heard just before the game that Johnny Hicks was not playing. I was really disappointed! During the championship run he gave DU so much confidence. With the banner raising and all the build-up to this game, no Hicks was big. The puck didn’t bounce Denver’s way and Michigan wanted to win badly. UM is talented, fast and hungry.

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