ST. PAUL, Minn. – The last time the Denver Pioneers took the ice at Xcel Energy Center, they won and brought their 10th national championship back to the Rocky Mountains.
There’s just something about playing in St. Paul that brings out good hockey for DU, and after outlasting the Arizona State Sun Devils 4-2 on Friday night in the first Frozen Faceoff semifinal, they will have a chance at a fourth such title.
“So really proud of our guys,” said Denver coach David Carle. “We found a way to make one more play than they did, and proud of our guys for that.”
Arizona State, making their Frozen Faceoff debut in their first season in the NCHC, had slim NCAA tournament hopes coming to the Twin Cities and had goals from Ryan Kirwan and Artem Shlaine to rally from their intital two-goal deficit, but they couldn’t overcome a second one and their season came to an end.
“We dug ourselves a little bit of a hole, but we’ve been a resilient group all year,” said ASU head coach Greg Powers. “Couldn’t be more proud of them.”
Boston Buckberger got Denver’s high-octane offense on the board just 1:29 into the contest as the Pioneers won a faceoff and Buckberger let it go from the left point, beating Luke Pavicich down low. While Arizona State couldn’t find too many scoring chances of their own, the Pioneers were kept in check by a stingy Sun Devils defense that blocked nine shots in the first 20 minutes.
But DU was able to add one more goal late on a power play. With a forecheck established, Sam Harris came in crashing as Aidan Thompson’s backdoor shot rebounded right to Harris in front, and it was 2-0 Denver after one.
Needing a jumpstart to get back in the game and get their offense going after not showing a ton of rhythm, Arizona State got what they needed when Kent Anderson was sent off for hooking at 7:28. The nation’s third-leading goal scorer, Kirwan, knocked in a rebound for his 26th goal of the season on the ensuing power play just 24 seconds later to cut ASU’s deficit in half.
With the Pioneers starting to look out of sorts themselves, the Sun Devils took advantage in the waning seconds as Shlaine stole the puck from Buckberger in the Denver zone and skated in front of Matt Davis alone before beating him with a backhand shot, tying the game at 2 with 31.3 seconds left in the period.
ASU continued their tough defensive play coming out in the third with momentum on their side, but DU capitalized on the next opening they found. Thompson broke the tie with a one-time blast about halfway through the third period as he came in on a 2-on-1 break with Carter King, one of the team’s few scoring chances in the third.
“That was a huge goal,” he said of his game winner. “All I had to do was finish it off.”
Connor Caponi finished things off with an empty-net goal with 1:03 left.
Denver will have a chance to defend last year’s Frozen Faceoff title Saturday night against the North Dakota-Western Michigan victor.
