Last Friday’s Gold Pan rivalry game between Denver and Colorado College at Ball Arena, home of the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche, didn’t mark the first time that Denver had played there.
But there was a huge difference between the in-state rivals’ latest meeting and DU’s last game downtown, back in 2012.
On Oct. 7 of that year, Denver and British Columbia skated to a 2-2 tie inside what was then known as the Pepsi Center. That came in the same week that the University of Denver hosted the first United States presidential debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.
When the Pioneers returned on Friday to face their big rivals from 70 miles down Interstate 25, Denver and Colorado College drew the nation’s biggest crowd for an indoor college hockey game since February 2018. A total of 17,952 fans — nearly twice the combined capacity of DU’s Magness Arena and CC’s Robson Arena — were on hand to watch goals from Jared Wright and Connor Caponi, and 23 saves from Magnus Chrona give the de facto host Pioneers a 2-0 win in their first of four meetings this season against CC.
The teams meet again this Saturday at CC, ahead of a home-and-home series March 3-4.
The venue for Friday’s game was announced Nov. 22, and Denver athletic director Josh Berlo recalls the process being similar to events he played a part in putting together earlier in his career. During stints at Notre Dame and then Minnesota Duluth, where he was UMD’s athletic director for nine years until last summer, Berlo helped organize Shamrock Series and Icebreaker Tournament games for those respective schools.
Friday’s showcase event against CC was different, though, in part because of how quickly it came together. Berlo contacted Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, which owns Ball Arena, the Avalanche and the NBA’s Denver Nuggets, before his official start date at DU, allowing time to get the ball rolling on contracts and scheduling.
“It was about 65 days between the announcement and the game, and everything moved very quickly, but the Avalanche were exceptional hosts,” Berlo said. “Colorado College was excited about the prospects, so they were flexible, and it was really a great story of everybody pulling together to make a special event happen in a short period of time.”
Many entities pitched in. The light rail system that runs by DU’’s campus doubled its train capacity so that 3,000 students could get to Ball Arena without having to drive there, and the university’s alumni association held a sold-out pregame event next door to the arena.
“Ancillary events helped elevate a game like this into another status,” Berlo said, “and I couldn’t be prouder of the DU athletic staff and how they rallied around this event. They saw the potential for it, not just for hockey and the athletic department, but for the university.”
Former DU chancellor Daniel Ritchie dropped a ceremonial puck before the game, and Logan O’Connor, a 2017 national champion with the Pioneers who went on to win the Stanley Cup last season with the Avalanche, was also honored. Content produced for the evening highlighted non-athletic aspects of the DU campus on a night made that much more memorable by the bumper crowd.
DU and CC have played to one of those before in Denver. In 2016, over 35,000 fans attended an outdoor game between the teams at Coors Field, home of the Colorado Rockies.
Don’t be surprised if Denver hosts another such event.
“The energy of the atmosphere on Friday was palpable, and fun to be a part of,” Berlo said. “I’ve been a part of some really cool events in my career, but this one was definitely toward the top. We plan to do this again, and I’m not going to say it’s an every-year thing, but it’s something we want to do when it makes sense. We’ve got to have some things fall into place, like the right opponents and the dates of the events, but we’ll continue to work to do these every so often. I don’t want it to be too long before the next time.
“There’s clearly an appetite for this. Colorado is such a great sports state with incredible hockey success, and we’re looking to continue to be a part of that and continue to celebrate that.”
