The NCAA Men’s Hockey Tournament is returning to Colorado for the first time since 2008 when the Pepsi Center hosted the Frozen Four. This morning, the NCAA announced the 2020 & 2021 regional sites and hosts and the University of Denver’s bid to host the West Regional at the Budweiser Events Center in Loveland in both of those years was selected. This announcement brings national postseason college hockey back to a state that has meant so much to the history of the sport.
As the only site that will serve as a host in the next two tournaments, Loveland will join Albany, NY (East), Worcester, MA (Northeast), and Allentown, PA (Midwest) as regional hosts in 2020 and Bridgeport, CT (East), Manchester, NH (Northeast), and Fargo, ND (Midwest) in 2021. Continue reading Denver to host West Regionals in Loveland in 2020 & 2021→
BUFFALO, N.Y. – In a game that will go down in the annals of college hockey history as an all-timer, the Denver Pioneers lost 4-3 in overtime to the UMass-Amherst Minutemen in the Frozen Four semifinal. For a team that was out to “Prove Them Wrong” all season long, this game was right in the Pioneers’ wheelhouse rallying with two goals in the final ten minutes of the third period to send the game to overtime before the Minutemen scored with 4:42 left in overtime to win it. When the rest of the college hockey world was convinced that a 3-1 deficit as a result of a three-minute nightmare in the first period was too much for the Pioneers to overcome, the boys in crimson did what they’ve done all year and “Prove Them Wrong” yet again. They just couldn’t finish the job in the extra frame. Continue reading Pioneers drop overtime Frozen Four thriller to UMass-Amherst→
DENVER – For the first time since joining the BIG EAST six years ago, the #10 Denver Pioneers have lost a regular season, conference game. It took a career day from the Villanova Wildcats’ freshman goalie Will Vitton who stopped 19 of Denver’s 30 shots on goal and a sloppy game from the Pioneers to break DU’s 27-game regular season BIG EAST winning streak. Villanova also snapped a 10-game losing streak against the Pios dating back to 2001. Continue reading Denver drops nail-biter to Villanova in first-ever BIG EAST regular season loss→
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Just a day after the #5 Denver Pioneers could not find the back of the net in the Frozen Faceoff semifinals, the offense erupted in a 6-1 rout of the Colorado College Tigers in the Frozen Faceoff Third Place Game at the Xcel Energy Center. While it won’t reverse the results from the regular season matchups that saw the Pioneers lose the Gold Pan for the first time in five years, the Pioneers will enter the NCAA Tournament as a #2 seed and on a very high note. Continue reading Pioneers exact revenge on Tigers for lost Gold Pan & take 3rd place at Frozen Faceoff→
It’s never too early to start thinking about the postseason and NCAA Tournament in collegiate men’s lacrosse. The season is so short that every win and loss matters more than in almost any other sport. For the #13 Denver Pioneers, a team that has lacked a signature, resume-building win this season, a matchup with the #8 Towson Tigers in Maryland presented a golden opportunity. Denver seized that opportunity won a close, defensive game 7-6 and added a key victory to their resume. Continue reading Pioneers win defensive struggle over Towson on the road, continue to build postseason resume→
ST. PAUL, Minn – Hunter Shepard showed the NCHC why he was named the conference goaltender of the year as he and the #4 Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs shut out the #5 Denver Pioneers 3-0 on Friday Night at the Xcel Energy Center in the Frozen Faceoff semifinal. For the Pioneers, it was a tough outcome after sweeping North Dakota to get to this point but in a tight game with a number of weird bounces, the game really could have gone either way, despite what the score indicated. It just so happened that the Bulldogs got the bounces and the Pioneers did not. Continue reading Pioneers bitten by Bulldogs in Frozen Faceoff semis, will not defend 2018 title→
The No. 5 Denver Pioneers will battle the defending national champion Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs for a chance to defend their 2017-18 NCHC title
It was a wild weekend of hockey last Friday and Saturday when the Pioneers closed the door on the North Dakota Fighting Hawks’ season. There wasn’t much room to skate and it seemed like players were getting hit immediately after they touched the puck. But persistence and a little puck luck propelled the Pioneers to their sixth straight Frozen Faceoff appearance. Denver will play the Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs Friday night for the opportunity to meet either St. Cloud State or Colorado College in the final. Yes, you read that right…Colorado College.
ST. PAUL, Minn. – In a year that has been defined by change – both behind the bench with new head coach David Carle and on the ice replacing three of the most dominant players in college hockey – the #5 Denver Pioneers find themselves in somewhat unexpected familiar territory in St. Paul. The Pios are back in St. Paul at the NCHC Frozen Faceoff with a chance to defend their conference tournament title from a year ago. Continue reading #5 Pioneers return to St. Paul determined to defend 2018 NCHC title→
Photo:Students try to scrub away the memory of the 2018-2019 season
GRAND FORKS, NORTH DAKOTA – With an uncharacteristic early exit this season at the hands of the Denver Pioneers, North Dakota hockey fans got a jump-start on spring cleaning.
Gretta Speaks near downtown Grand Forks used the day to organize her living room. Speaks refused to be pictured because she was not wearing her make-up.
Until this weekend, North Dakota and Denver were the only programs to have been at every Frozen Faceoff. Thanks to 2-0 and 4-2 wins over North Dakota in the best-of-three NCHC Quarterfinals, Denver is returning to St. Paul and North Dakota is not (what a great sentence). A week after the DU Hockey prognosis was decidedly bleak thanks to a sweep at the hands of CC, the mood has completely changed. Denver has a shot, albeit a long one, to go to St. Paul and defend their 2017-18 NCHC title. They will either play Minnesota Duluth or St. Cloud State depending on what happens in the CC-Western Michigan series that was postponed by a day thanks to that Bomb Cyclone. Continue reading Crimson & Gold Show Episode 6: Recapping a NoDak sweep and previewing the Frozen Faceoff→
