After COVID-19 conditions last season saw Denver split its players into cohorts in three different locker rooms, David Carle now feels more like a regular hockey coach.
His fourth season with the Pioneers hasn’t been normal, though.
Another reminder of that arrived last Wednesday afternoon, when Denver learned it wouldn’t be hosting St. Cloud State that Friday and Saturday, as scheduled. Instead, Omaha traveled to the Colorado capital on short notice.
Denver, ranked fifth in the latest DCU/USCHO Division I Men’s Poll, was supposed to visit the No. 16 Mavericks for a series Jan. 7-8. Due to COVID protocols within the UNO program, those games were rescheduled to Feb. 4-5. The games were moved again to Feb. 25-26, after three scheduled NCHC series last week were postponed over COVID-19 protocols.
“We had some inklings that maybe there were some issues with St. Cloud,” Carle said, before declining to elaborate. “We tried to just focus on things we knew we needed to get better at in our game, and with North Dakota going down and Omaha being available, it was nice that the (NCHC) was able to step in and at least ensure that games got on everyone’s schedule that was available to play.”
Carle felt his Pioneers took the situation in stride. That showed on the Magness Arena scoreboard, as Denver beat Omaha 5-2 Saturday and blanked the Mavericks 4-0 Sunday.
Cameron Wright’s two goals Saturday helped lift Denver in its first game since a 4-4 tie Jan. 1 against Alaska, and Magnus Chrona pitched a 20-save shutout Sunday. Carter Savoie, Brett Stapley, Antti Tuomisto and Carter Mazur all scored in the rematch, as Denver maintained its unbeaten home start (10-0-1) this season.
“Was it a perfect weekend? No, but playing our third and fourth games in a five-week period, we weren’t expecting perfect, and we did enough to get the two victories,” Carle said.
“Our goaltender was exceptional. He was our best player all weekend long, and that was a huge contributing factor.”
Carle hailed his players for handling abrupt adjustments during the week. Denver coaches usually start showing their players video on opposing teams on Tuesday, but the Pioneers didn’t watch film on St. Cloud. Instead, once they knew Omaha would be coming to town, DU turned its attention to the Mavericks.
“We’ll prepare to either defend what (a given week’s opponent) do, or work on things we think we can expose with our game against what they do,” Carle said. “We had two days, Thursday and Friday, to show Omaha video and prepare for Omaha. It was different, but I thought our guys did a nice job.”
Denver is now preparing for a home-and-home series this weekend against in-state rival Colorado College. Fourteen regular-season games remain for the Pioneers, who are on pace to earn a No. 1 regional seed for the NCAA Tournament.
A high level of success so far this season has helped Carle feel more comfortable than he did in a 2020-21 campaign that came with its own degree of uncertainty.
“Last year, I felt I was definitely more involved in COVID,” Carle said. “This year, we’ve really tried to make a concerted effort where our medical team is given the responsibility of handling COVID with our players, whether that’s testing, contact tracing, whatever protocols.
“Our medical staff has done a great job in taking the lead on all that, and it has allowed us to do more of what we’re here to do, which is to coach and build a team environment for the team to grow and develop in, and to achieve our goals.”
