{"id":147105,"date":"2024-04-08T09:00:47","date_gmt":"2024-04-08T14:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/?p=147105"},"modified":"2024-04-04T18:30:38","modified_gmt":"2024-04-04T23:30:38","slug":"depth-level-of-commitment-has-denver-back-in-frozen-four-as-challenges-all-season-have-been-great-for-the-growth-of-the-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2024\/04\/08\/depth-level-of-commitment-has-denver-back-in-frozen-four-as-challenges-all-season-have-been-great-for-the-growth-of-the-group\/","title":{"rendered":"Depth, level of commitment has Denver back in Frozen Four as challenges all season have ‘been great for the growth of the group’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Matt Davis has DU in the Frozen Four (photo: Tyler Schank\/Clarkson Creative Photography).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is the first of four previews for teams playing in the 2023 NCAA Men\u2019s Frozen Four this week in St. Paul, Minn. Click here for all of USCHO\u2019s Frozen Four coverage<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n

Denver Pioneers<\/h4>\n

Season record<\/strong>: 30-9-3<\/p>\n

How they got to St. Paul<\/strong>: Won the Springfield Regional, beating Massachusetts 2-1 and Cornell 2-1<\/p>\n

Top players<\/strong>: F Jack Devine (27-29-56), D Zeev Buium (11-38-49), F Massimo Rizzo (10-34-44), F Tristan Broz (15-24-39), D Shai Buium (7-28-35).<\/p>\n

Top goalie<\/strong>: Matt Davis (21-5-3, 2.48 goals-against average, .911 save percentage).<\/p>\n

Why they\u2019ll win the national championship<\/strong>: This Denver team didn\u2019t have much trouble scoring all season up until the Springfield Regional, and there, the Pioneers showed that they can win tight, low-scoring games, too. That should come in handy in the Frozen Four, regardless of whether Denver plays one game there or two.<\/p>\n

Why they won\u2019t the national championship<\/strong>: While there\u2019s no local draw to this year\u2019s Frozen Four, the understandable dream matchup for many people is that the Nos. 1 and 2 teams in the country, Boston University and Boston College, meet in the final. Denver, like any team would, will have its hands full with BU alone. Any team that wins two games in three days here will have very much earned the title.<\/p>\n

Style points matter for little at this point in the season, and if you\u2019re still playing from late March into April, no opponent will care if you boast the highest-scoring offense in the nation.<\/p>\n

So for Denver to reach its program\u2019s 18th Frozen Four after winning a pair of tight games at the Springfield Regional, where goal-scoring came at an especially high premium, it shows just how multi-dimensional this third-ranked Pioneers team is.<\/p>\n

Denver\u2019s only two 2-1 games this season are all the Pioneers have known of this NCAA tournament to date. After beating bottom-seeded Massachusetts in double overtime on March 28 in what was effectively a home game for the Minutemen, DU won by the same score two days later against Cornell.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gives us confidence to play in tight, low-scoring hockey games,\u201d Denver coach David Carle said of how the Pioneers made it to this year\u2019s Frozen Four, which begins Thursday in St. Paul, Minn. \u201cWe have a lot of respect for (UMass coach Greg Carvel) and (Cornell coach Mike Schafer) for how they do things and how difficult they made it on us, and I thought our guys found a way to adapt to that style of play, and playing in that tight-checking, low-scoring style.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need to be able to win games in different ways to win this tournament, and it was great for our guys to be able to get through those games and come out on the right side. That low-scoring, and obviously the double overtime game against UMass, those are games that can go either way. You need a guy to step up to make a play, and you need a lot of guys to step up and make plays defensively, and we had that level of commitment throughout our lineup, which gave us the opportunity to advance and move on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Denver had also found ways around adversity during the regular season. Injuries to several key players didn\u2019t stop the Pioneers from securing a No. 1 regional seed. Those setbacks had started almost right away, as goaltender Matt Davis picked up an injury five games into the season and missed the rest of the first half.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat increased the urgency of our team\u2019s desire and ability to play defense, and he came back and has played every game in the second half,\u201d Carle said, \u201cBut then getting into the second half, Kieran Cebrian goes down, our best faceoff guy, for a few weeks, then we lose Carter King, we lose Massimo Rizzo. The injuries that we\u2019ve had in the middle of the rink, in the back end, has been a challenge but has been great for the growth of the group.<\/p>\n

\u201cDifferent people had to step up throughout the year, and I think it gave us a lot of confidence that there\u2019s a lot of people in the room that can contribute to helping us win hockey games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Denver has done plenty of that, hitting the 30-win mark in the Springfield Regional final. There are still two more wins on offer, though, and again, Denver\u2019s 4.71 goals per game this season won\u2019t leave anyone quaking in their boots later this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just looking forward to the challenge,\u201d Carle said. \u201cI\u2019m really proud of our team getting through the regional that we had. It\u2019s been a lot of growing this year with a young team. I know there are a lot of other young teams at the Frozen Four this year, as well, but (with) 11 freshmen, I think our leadership group has done a great job of bringing the group along, and we\u2019re looking forward to playing in another Frozen Four.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the first of four previews for teams playing in the 2023 NCAA Men\u2019s Frozen Four this week in St. Paul, Minn. Click here for all of USCHO\u2019s Frozen Four coverage. Denver Pioneers Season record: 30-9-3 How they got to St. Paul: Won the Springfield Regional, beating Massachusetts 2-1 and Cornell 2-1 Top players: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":147106,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1426],"tags":[812,596],"coauthors":[810],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDepth, level of commitment has Denver back in Frozen Four as challenges all season have 'been great for the growth of the group' - College Hockey | USCHO.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This is the first of four previews for teams playing in the 2023 NCAA Men\u2019s Frozen Four this week in St. Paul, Minn. 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