LetsGoDU has released its 18th annual hockey Super-Poll™ for the 2022-23 season. A host of statistics are fed into the supercomputer at Goddard Computing Center in Houston. The program runs ten thousand Monte Carlo simulations and places the Pioneers in their rightful place and Colorado College in the cellar. The results are then tabulated by Deloitte, hermetically sealed, and sent to Denver via Brinks truck to reveal the results. For the eighteenth consecutive season, DU claims the top spot.
Logan O’Connor became the latest Denver Pioneer to become a Stanley Cup Champion: Photo: Sportsnet Canada
The Colorado Avalanche’s third Stanley Cup Championship was won in Tampa, Florida with a 2-1 victory in Game Six over the Tampa Bay Lightning, making Denver into the new “Hockeytown USA”, as the Avalanche joined the 2022 NCAA Champion University of Denver and USA’s Hockey High School Division II National Champion Denver East High School for a troika of Denver hockey titles in 2022. Continue reading Former DU Pioneers Help Power Avalanche to NHL’s Stanley Cup Championship→
The University of Denver has reached out to a familiar hockey face to lead the Pioneer Athletic Department and named Josh Berlo as its new Vice-Chancellor for Athletics and Ritchie Center Operations. The announcement will be made this morning at 10:45 at Ritchie Center on the DU campus. Berlo has been the University of Minnesota-Duluth’s Athletic Director since 2013 and had just signed a three-year contract extension at UMD just a couple of weeks ago. The Pioneers, however, were able to pry him away from Duluth. Continue reading Breaking: UMD’s Josh Berlo Tabbed as DU’s Next Athletic Director→
There have been a lot of great goalies at the University of Denver over the years, and one of the best of them, George Kirkwood, passed away last month at age 84 in his native Edmonton, Alberta.
Kirkwood’s passing is surely sad news for his surviving family, former teammates, friends, and associates. And the Pioneer Nation — even those younger Pio fans who never had the chance to know him personally or watch him play — will remember his name and exploits for as long as hockey players skate for the University of Denver. Continue reading Legendary DU Goaltender George Kirkwood Passes Away at 84→
As DU winds down the current athletic year and Denver Vice Chancellor for Athletics and Recreation Karlton Creech prepares to depart for the next chapter in his career, we die-hard fans at LetsGoDU have our wish list for the next athletic director, whomever it may be.
Juho Olkinuora (lying on ice at lower right next to Olympic sign) is the first DU athlete to win an Olympic gold medal in 70 years. Photo:IIHF
University of Denver ice hockey alumnus Juho ‘Jussi’ Olkinuora (attd. DU 2011-13) won a 2022 Olympic gold medal for his native Finland on Feb. 20. It took 70 years, but it was the first gold medal won by a DU athlete since Jerome Biffle’s gold medal for Team USA in the long jump in the 1952 Olympic Summer Games in Helsinki, Finland – ironically, Olkinoura’s home city. Continue reading Juho Olkinuora is first DU Olympic Gold Medal Athlete Since 1952→
The University of Denver’s Marketing and Communications Division is deep into a year-long process of an overall University rebranding change and, according to our sources familiar with the process, DU’s upcoming decisions on this effort may directly and potentially adversely affect DU’s most visible part of athletic branding – the logos of DU’s Pioneer athletic programs. Continue reading DU’s Athletic Branding Threatened by University’s Branding Change→
Following Denver’s decisive sweep of Colorado College in which they outscored the Tigers 9-0 this past weekend, Damien Goddard doubled down on his effort to bolster the lagging CC hockey program. “I put my flight suit on eBay for a reason – the Tigers need our help. Let’s bring adequate Division I men’s hockey back to the Springs!” Continue reading Damien Goddard Makes 11th Hour Plea For CC Hockey→
At least eight athletes who wear (or who have worn) the Crimson and Gold of the University of Denver Pioneers have been named to participate in the 2022 Beijing Olympic Winter Games by their respective Olympic Teams, slated to begin in China in February.Part II of this two-part series, below, profiles four more DU alumni skiers headed to Beijing — three who have been named to the Canadian ski team (Amelia Smart, Trevor Philp and Erik Read) and DU skiing alumna Andrea Komšić, who will ski for Croatia in her third Olympic Games. Part I profiled the two DU athletes who are slated to represent Team USA – Current DU student and DU ski team athlete Katie Hansien and DU hockey alumnus Nick Shore, as well as DU hockey alumnus Juho Olkinoura and Pioneer alumna Nordic skier Jasmi Joensuu, who will both represent Team Finland.Continue reading Part 2: Eight Pioneers Headed to 2022 Beijing Olympic Games→
