DU Tops North Dakota, Stays Atop NCHC

Defending NCAA champion Denver has solidified its hold on first place in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference.

The fourth-ranked Pioneers upended visiting North Dakota, 5-3, on Friday evening at Magness Arena to improve to 22-7-0 overall this season, and 13-4-0 in the NCHC. UND dropped to 12-12-4 overall (6-9-2 NCHC). 

Carter Mazur scored twice for DU, to break a personal five-game pointless string, while Mike Benning had two assists for the Pioneers and Magnus Chrona made 34 saves in net. Jackson Blake set up two goals for the Fighting Hawks, who finished 2-for-8 on the power play. Jakob Hellsten stopped 11 of 12 shots for UND after relieving starter Drew DeRidder, who took the loss after surrendering four goals on 11 shots against.

DU is now five points ahead of second-place Western Michigan in the NCHC standings, while UND remains tied for sixth place with Colorado College. DU and UND  meet again tonight in Denver to close out their regular-season series, with the Pioneers having won all three meetings so far this season. 

Denver Wins 2022 IceBreaker

Defending men's Division I national champion Denver is first in the national polls this week after winning the season-opening 2022 IceBreaker Invitational on home ice over the weekend. The Pioneers, who won their record-tying ninth NCAA title in April, defeated Notre Dame, 5-2, and Maine, 3-1, at Magness Arena last Friday and Saturday, respectively..

Transplanted Harvard forward Casey Dornbach scored DU's first and final goals in the win over the Fighting Irish, then assisted on both of Carter Mazur's tallies in the victory over Maine. Magnus Chrona, who backstopped DU to the national title in Boston, stopped 18 shots against UND, while Matt Davis made 24 saves versus Maine. 

It was Denver's first IceBreaker title since it defeated Providence in 1999 in DU's inaugural tournament appearance, also at home. The Pioneers also participated in 2006 and 2016.

DU (2-0-0) hits the road this weekend for a pair of contests at No. 13 UMass, which is coming off a season-opening tie at AIC. 

Denver Wins Ninth NCAA Hockey Title

Through the first 40 minutes of this year's NCAA Division I men's ice hockey title game, the University of Denver couldn't buy a goal. In the final 20 minutes, it couldn't stop scoring them.

The Pioneers overcame a one-goal deficit through two periods of play with five unanswered third-period scores in a 5-1 victory over Minnesota State before 17,850 on-lookers at TD Garden in Boston on Saturday night. DU (31-9-1 overall) has now won two national hockey titles in the last six years, and also moved into a first-place tie all-time with its ninth NCAA title overall.

For MnSU (38-6-0), the loss snapped an 18-game winning string that dated back to Jan. 14 against Northern Michigan. It was also the first time since Oct. 16, 2021 at Michigan that the Mavericks, who were playing in their first-ever NCAA Division I championship contest, had lost a game after leading after two periods.

Sam Morton's power-play goal 14 minutes into the game stood up through the first two stanzas, as MnSU limited DU to just eight shots on net in that span. The floodgates then opened for DU just under five minutes into the final frame, when Ryan Barrow poked home a rebound to put the Pioneers on the board.

Mike Benning's slapshot from the right circle just under three minutes later stood up as the game-winning goal, just seconds after a DU power play expired, before Massimo Rizzo finished off a 2-on-1 rush six minutes later to make it a 3-1 contest. Brett Stapley and Cameron Wright then added empty-net goals in the final three minutes to ice matters for DU.

Magnus Chrona finished with 27 saves for the National Collegiate Hockey Conference's Pioneers, who last won an NCAA hockey title in 2017 in Chicago. At the other end of the ice, 2022 Hobey Baker Memorial Award winner Dryden McKay made 15 stops for the Central Collegiate Hockey Association champion Mavericks. Benning was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. 

DU, which had previously won NCAA Frozen Fours in Boston in 1960 and 2004, is now tied with Michigan for the most NCAA hockey championships overall with nine each. The Pioneers defeated the Wolverines in a semifinal game on Thursday to advance to this year's national championship game. Saturday also marked the fifth national title for the NCHC since the conference was formed in 2013.