PREVIEW: Pioneers Travel to Maine for Top-10 Showdown – University of Denver Athletics

ORONO, Maine – The No. 6 Denver Pioneers hockey team resumes the regular season this weekend with a top-10 matchup at the No. 7 Maine Black Bears at Harold Alfond Sports Arena.

 

Friday’s game begins at 4 p.m. MT and will be nationally-televised on ESPNU, while Saturday’s start time is at 4:30 p.m. MT. Both contests will also be available on ESPN+.

 

Both teams will be wrapping up their non-conference schedule, and the series has significant meaning for the Pioneers for possible future seeding in the NCAA Tournament with it being road, non-league games against a top-10 opponent in the Pairwise Rankings (Maine is currently at No. 7).

 

The Pioneers are undefeated in non-conference contests this season at 10-0-0, which included a pair of road victories at Alaska Anchorage to start the year on Oct. 5-6 and a previous trip to the northeast on Nov. 1-2 at Yale.

 

Denver will be making its first trip to Orono since Oct. 14-15, 2005 and will facing the Black Bears for the first time since winning 3-1 on Oct. 8, 2022 at Magness Arena to capture the season-opening Ice Breaker Tournament.

 

DU’s last regular-season games were Dec. 13-14 with a home-and-home set against then-No. 10 Colorado College to begin this year’s Gold Pan series. The Pioneers lost 5-4 in the opener in Colorado Springs before winning 2-1 at home in their last game before the Holiday Break.

 

The Pioneer players returned to campus from the mid-season break with a practice last Friday and played UNLV to a 6-6 tie in an exhibition on Saturday at Magness Arena.

 

Denver sports a 14-4-0 overall record and is 4-4-0 in NCHC play at the mid-point of its 2024-25 campaign. The Pios’ .777 winning percentage is tied for their best such mark at the halfway point of a season since 2001-02 (also achieved in 2022-23 and 2007-08).

 

Maine has a 12-3-2 overall record so far in 2024-15 and currently leads Hockey East with 18 points and a 5-2-2 mark in conference play.

 

The Pioneers will be the Black Bears’ sixth and seventh straight and final non-league games. Maine had won five straight contests, which tied a season high, before losing 4-2 to Bentley on Sunday in Portland, Maine.  Prior to that contest, the Black Bears’ previous outings were Dec. 7-8 when they won 5-2 and 4-2 at home against Stonehill.

 

Denver has won each of the last three meetings with Maine and is 5-5-0 in the last 10 games in the series, which included winning the 2004 NCAA Championship in Boston. That was program’s sixth national title at the time and began a run of five such victories for the Pios in a 20-year span.

 

Overall, DU sports a 9-12-0 all-time record against Maine and is 2-6-0 in Orono. The Pioneers have lost the last six games in Maine and are looking for their first road win of the series since 5-2 and 4-3 victories on Dec. 11-12, 1985.

 

This weekend also wraps up a stretch of Denver playing five-of-six and seven-of-10 games on the road. The Pioneers are 7-2-0 in road outings this year, with the losses being one-goal defeats at then-No. 7 Western Michigan on Dec. 6 at CC on Dec. 13.

 

 

LAST TIME OUT (FOR REAL): Then-No. 4 Denver split its top-10 series against No. 10 Colorado College to begin this year’s Gold Pan series on Dec. 13-14.  Seniors Jack Devine and Carter King both had a goal and an assist for the Pioneers to begin the home-and-home set on Dec. 13 in Colorado Springs, but the Tigers scored four unanswered to come back and defeat the Pioneers 5-4.

 

Denver evened the weekend series on Dec. 14 at Magness Arena with a 2-1 victory.  Aidan Thompson tied the contest midway through the second period and defenseman Cale Ashcroft scored the game-winner in the third.  After making a season-high 34 saves in the opener, goaltender Matt Davis stopped 20-of-21 shots in the Saturday finale.

 

NOTABLES:

• Denver and Colorado College have now faced off in 343 all-time games, tying Michigan and Michigan State for the most-played rivalry in college hockey history.
• The Pioneers improved to 15-3-0 in the last 18 games against Colorado College and have won 11 straight games vs. the Tigers in Denver and 10 in a row at Magness Arena (Jan. 27, 2023 at Ball Arena).
• The Pioneers are now 3-1-0 in their 75th Anniversary sweaters this season.
• Cale Ashcroft scored his second goal of the season on Dec. 14—with both tallies this year being game-winners, the first of his career.
• Aidan Thompson tied a career high by scoring his 11th goal of the season on Dec. 14
• Jack Devine and Zeev Buium both had their assist streaks end on Dec. 14.  Buium had a season-long five-game streak (0g/7a) while Devine’s eight-game run (1g/10a) tied a career long.
• Eric Pohlkamp appeared in his 50th career game on Dec. 14.
• Matt Davis made a season-high 34 saves on Dec. 13 and his 15 stops in the second period also marked his most in a single frame this year. He recorded his first point of the season in the game as well with his fourth career assist.
• Boston Buckberger tied a career high with four shots on goal (fifth time) and registered a new high with four penalty minutes on Dec. 13
• DU wrapped up a three-game road swing on Dec. 13 (1-2-0) and is in a stretch where it is playing five-of-six contests away from home.  The Dec. 14 outing marked Denver’s only home regular-season game in a six-week period as the Pioneers are in a stretch of playing five-of-six contests on the road.
• Denver has played four straight one-goal games and picked up its first 2-1 win of the season on Dec. 14.

 
HALFWAY THERE: Denver has a 14-4-0 record at the halfway point of the season, with its .777 winning percentage tied for the program’s best mark at the midpoint in the last 20 years.  Both the 2022-23 and 2007-08 squads also had a 14-4-0 record midway through their 36-game regular season.
 
Only the 2001-02 team has posted a better winning percentage since the turn of the century, that group had an. 888 mark and a 16-2-0 overall record at the halfway point of its 36-game campaign.
 
PIONEERS AT THE WORLD JUNIORS: Denver hockey is once again well-represented on Team USA at the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship with head coach David Carle leading the Americans’ bench for the second-straight year and sophomore defenseman Zeev Buium serving as an alternate captain on this year’s team.
 
The under-20 tournament runs from Dec. 26, 2024-Jan. 5, 2025 in Ottawa, Ontario.  USA is in Group A with host Canada, Finland, Germany and Latvia.
 
Carle and Buium are joined on the United States team with Denver director of hockey operations/video coach Travis Culhane and equipment manager Nick Meldrum, who are both back on Team USA after serving in the same roles in 2024.  Also on Carle’s staff are former Pioneer assistants Steve Miller (Minnesota) and David Lassonde (USA Hockey).
 
The United States looks to win back-to-back gold medals for the first time in the country’s history after defeating host Sweden in the final last year in Gothenburg for its sixth championship.  The 2024 tournament marked the first time that Carle had coached a USA roster in his career, and he joined Marshall Johnston (1977) as the only Denver coaches to guide a U.S. World Junior squad.  Overall, Carle was the third NCHC head coach to lead the U.S. to gold at the WJC, joining former St. Cloud coach Bob Motzko (2017) and North Dakota and Omaha coach Dean Blais (2010 w/Omaha).
 
ASSISTANT COACHING EXPERIENCE: DU assistant coaches Tavis MacMillan and Dallas Ferguson own an 8-0-0 regular-season record when running the bench in David Carle‘s absence (family, illness, world juniors).  Both MacMillan and Ferguson are former head coaches at Alaska Fairbanks.
 
The Pioneers outscored opponents 23-8 in four games last year while Carle was away for the birth of his second son, Callum (Oct. 7-8, 2023) and coaching at the 2024 World Junior Championship (Jan. 5-6, 2024).
 
MILESTONE MEN: Junior forward Rieger Lorenz is expected to play in his 100th career game in the next regular-season contest on Jan. 3 at Maine.  He will be the first Pioneer to reach the century mark this season, while fellow classmates Jared Wright (four away) and Aidan Thompson (seven away) are all within 10 games of 100 in their Denver tenure.
 
Graduate student Connor Caponi and senior Jack Devine each played in a milestone game on Nov. 1 at Yale, as Caponi became the 70th player in program history to play 150 contests while Devine skated in his 125th career outing that night as well.  Senior Carter King skated in his 125th game on Nov. 9 against Lindenwood.
 
Caponi was the first DU player to reach the 150-game mark since Kyle Mayhew on March 10, 2023 vs. Miami, and he is nine contests from tying former teammate Ryan Barrow’s school record of 168 games played (2017-2022).  Barrow reached the milestone in the 2022 NCAA National Championship Game where he scored the game-tying goal that sparked DU to a 5-1 victory against Minnesota State.
 
HISTORY VS. MAINE: Denver is making its first trip to Orono since Dec. 14-15, 2005 when it lost 5-1 and 4-2.  The Pioneers have won each of the last three meetings against the Black Bears, with the teams’ last facing off on Oct. 8, 2022 with DU winning 3-1 to capture the season-opening Ice Breaker Tournament on home ice.  Denver is 3-2-0 in the last five meetings and 5-5-0 in the last 10 contests in the series, which included winning the 2004 National Championship over Maine in Boston (more below).  The Pioneers have a 9-12-0 all-time record against the Black Bears in a series that dates back to Jan. 4, 1985.  DU has a 2-6-0 mark in Orono, falling in each of the last six games in Maine and is looking for their first road win of the series since 5-2 and 4-3 victories on Dec. 11-12, 1985.
 
CONNECTIONS: Taylor Makar was drafted by the Colorado Avalanche in 2021, is the younger brother of Avs defenseman Cale Makar and is from the same hometown as the Pioneers’ Kent Anderson, Matt Davis, Carter King and Rieger Lorenz … Eric Pohlkamp played two seasons on the USHL Cedar Rapids RoughRiders with Liam Lesakowski from 2021-2023 … Garrett Brown was a teammate with Luke Antonacci in 2021-22 on the USHL Sioux City Musketeers … Brown and Harrison Scott are both from San Jose, California, while Maine’s Brian Morse is also from the Northern California region (Fresno) … Samu Salminen (Helsinki) and Oskar Komarov (Uusikaarlepyy) are both from Finland.
 
SCOUTING THE BLACK BEARS: Maine has a 12-3-2 overall record this season and currently leads Hockey East with 18 points and a 5-2-2 mark in conference play.  The Black Bears will also be wrapping up their non-conference schedule as DU will be their sixth and seventh straight non-league game.  Maine had won five straight games—which tied a season high—before losing 4-2 to Bentley on Sunday in Portland, Maine.  Prior to that contest, the Black Bears’ previous outings were Dec. 7-8 when they won 5-2 and 4-2 at home against Stonehill. Maine is 3-2-1 against ranked opponents this season, which included a home sweep of then-No. 7 Quinnipiac on Oct. 18-19 and going 1-0-1 vs. No. 11 Boston University on Nov. 15-16.  Maine ranks third in the nation in scoring (3.9 GF/GM) and tied for second in defense (1.8 GA/GM), and the squad has the fourth-ranked power play at 27.3%.  Harrison Scott leads the squad in both goals (12) and points (22), while Charlie Russell is first in assists with 13 and second in points (17). Thomas Freel ranks second in goals with eight this year.  Goaltender Albin Boija has started 16 of the 17 games in 2024-25 and has a 11-3-2 record, 1.63 goals-against average, .927 save percentage and three shutouts, the latter of which is tied for third in the NCAA.
 
PREVIOUS MEETING (OCT. 8, 2024): The No. 1 Denver Pioneers hockey team won the 2022 Ice Breaker Tournament championship on with a 3-1 victory over the Maine Black Bears at Magness Arena.  Carter Mazur led DU with two goals and an assist, Mike Benning also scored and goaltender Matt Davis made 24-of-25 saves in the win.  Casey Dornbach joined his linemate with a multi-point night as well with two assists while skating in his 100th career game.  Sean Behrens and Massimo Rizzo also recorded helpers.  DU scored all three of its goals in the first period, with the crimson and gold outshooting the Bears 17-6 in the stanza.  The Pioneers outshot the Black Bears 36-25 overall in the game.
 
2004 CHAMPIONSHIP REWIND – APRIL 10, 2004: BOSTON (AP) – Adam Berkhoel looked out at the ice and felt as if he was alone on an island.  With less than a minute to play and the Denver goalie’s team clinging to the narrowest of leads, the Maine blue and white shirts outnumbered the red and gold of his Pioneers teammates by a 2-to-1 margin.  But Berkhoel came up with his two biggest of his 24 saves when the Black Bears had a 6-on-3 advantage, and Denver won its first national championship since 1969.
 
Matt Laatsch was sent to the penalty box for hooking with 2:09 to play. Then Gabe Gauthier, who scored the game’s only goal, was called with 1:34 left after closing his hand on the puck.  When Jimmy Howard left the Maine net with 1:13 remaining, the Black Bears (33-8-3) had a three-man advantage for more than a minute.
 
Berkhoel, selected as the Frozen Four’s MVP, stopped two blistering slap shots by Maine’s top scorer, Colin Shields.  Gauthier scored the only goal of the game on the power play at 12:26 of the first period. Connor James won the puck in the corner and passed in front to an unmarked Gauthier, who one-timed a shot between Howard’s pads.
 
ROAD TRIPPIN’: Denver is set to travel approximately 10,349 miles this season for road games (one way), which includes a trip to Anchorage and the two to the northeast to Yale and Maine.  DU traveled 8,605 miles for road contest during the regular season in 2023-24, which included a trip to Fairbanks and cross country to New England to start the campaign.
 
The Pioneers are wrapping up a stretch with their games at Maine where it is playing five-of-six and seven-of-10 outings on the road.  DU has a 7-2-0 record on the road this season.
 
Counting postseason play at neutral sites from last season, Denver owns a 17-3-0 record in its last 20 games away from Magness Arena since Feb. 16, 2024.
 
NON-CONFERENCE PLAY: The Pioneers are 10-0-0 in non-conference play and will wrap up their non-NCHC games after the New Year on Jan. 3-4 at the Maine Black Bears.  It will be the program’s first visit to Orono since Oct. 14-15, 2005 and the second of two trips to the northeast after playing at Yale on Nov. 1-2.  DU began the season on Oct. 5-6 at independent Alaska Anchorage.
 
Denver wrapped up its home non-conference schedule with a pair of 4-1 wins against Lindenwood during the 75th Anniversary Weekend on Nov. 8-9.  The Pioneers hosted Hockey East’s Northeastern in its first home games of the year as part of Homecoming Weekend on Oct. 18-19, with the team raising it championship banner prior to the Saturday series finale.  DU then faced the Big Ten’s and former WCHA-foe Wisconsin on Oct. 25-26, winning 4-2 and 6-1.
 
The Pios have won 19 consecutive games against non-conference opponents since Nov. 11, 2023 at Arizona State and is 12-0-1 at home in non-NCHC contests dating back to Jan. 7, 2023 vs. Alaska Fairbanks.  DU went 13-2-1 against non-conference opponents a season ago, which included wins in each of the final nine such contests and four in the NCAA Tournament en route to a championship.
 
SAMU GOES SHORTY: Junior forward Samu Salminen scored two short-handed goals late in the first period on Dec. 13 at Colorado College.  He tallied while Denver had a man disadvantage at 16:37 and 19:13 of the opening frame, and among the accomplishments of his feat:
 

• Became the sixth DU player to score two short-handed goals in the same game in program history and the fourth to do so in the same period as Tyler Bozak was the last to do so on Nov. 4, 2007 at Minnesota.  The other two players to score two shorties in a single stanza were Gabe Gauthier on Oct. 22, 2004 vs. St. Cloud State and Bob Pazzelli on Oct. 29, 1977 at Michigan.
• Second-straight season a Pioneer scored two short-handed goals in a game as Carter King also did so on Nov. 10, 2023 at Arizona State.
• The last time that Denver scored two shorties in the same period was when Chris Butler (11:06) and Tyler Bozak (18:40) found the back of the net in the second frame on Feb. 22, 2008 vs. Alaska Anchorage.
• First short-handed goals of the season and the first by a Denver since Rieger Lorenz on Jan. 12, 2024 vs. St. Cloud State.
• Salminen recorded his second and third career short-handed goals after scoring his first on Oct. 7, 2023 at Colgate while a member of Connecticut.
• First career multi-goal game at DU and became the third Pioneer to score twice in a single period this season.
• His two scores came in a matter of 2:36, the quickest two goals by the same Denver player this year.

 
PIONEERING OFFENSE: Denver is tied for the nation’s lead in scoring with Minnesota by averaging 4.0 goals per game and ranks second behind the Gophers (80) in total tallies with 72.  The Pios led the NCAA last season with 202 total goals and a 4.59 average.
 
DU scored at least four goals in each of the first 11 contests and 12 overall this season.  The Pioneers have had 13 different players score and 19 of the 22 skaters register at least one point this year.  Nine DU players have already reached double-digits in points.
 
PLAYING AHEAD: The Pioneers have had the lead or have been tied for most of the season, as they’ve not trailed in 83.8% of game play this season (907:08/1082:11)—leading for 49.8% (538:53) or being tied for 34.0% (368:15) of the time.
 
DU has only been down on the scoreboard in 16.2 percent of game play this season (175:03) and didn’t trail for the first 244:12 of the season (4+ games).
 
KILLER PENALTY KILL: Denver has killed off 90.2 percent of its penalties this season (46/51), including five-of-six man-disadvantage opportunities in the two contests against Colorado College on Dec. 13-14.
 
DU has not allowed a power-play goal against in 13-of-18 games this year and ranks tied for third in the country on the penalty kill with Colorado College. Boston College is first in the NCAA (97.6%) and St. Lawrence is second (92.0%).
 
The Pioneers had a stretch of 17 straight kills that began in the season opener on Oct. 5 at Alaska Anchorage and ended with Wisconsin tallying on its first power-play chance on Oct. 25 (four games)—the longest such streak since they were successful on 19 consecutive man disadvantages during the 2022 postseason from March 11 through April 7, 2022. 
 
Denver was successful in nullifying 89.7 percent of its penalties over the final 13 games in 2023-24, going 26-for-28 in a stretch that began on Feb. 24.  DU was perfect in nine of those games, including going 4-for-4 on the PK on three occasions and seven straight in the final five outings of the season en route to the 2024 championship.
 
PIOS POWER UP: Denver has tallied on the power play in 13-of-18 games this year and ranks first in the country while a man-up by converting on 29.0 percent of its opportunities.  The Pioneers scored at least one man-advantage goal in an 11-game stretch from Oct. 19-Nov. 23, the team’s longest run in the last decade (since 2015-16).
 
DU has converted multiple times while a man-up in four contests this season, including going 4-for-9 in the season opener on Oct. 5 at Alaska Anchorage—the most power-play goals scored in a game by the squad since Dec. 4, 2021 at Arizona State (4-of-6).
 
Jack Devine is first on the team with 14 power-play points (0g/14a), while Aidan Thompson and Sam Harris are tied for the squad lead with five man-advantage goals.  Five of Devine’s six assists in Alaska on Oct. 5-6 came while DU was a man-up on the ice, while all four of Zeev Buium’s assists in that series came on power-play goals.
 
SENIOR CLASS SUCCESS: The Pioneers’ 2025 senior class is on pace to be the winningest group in school history and became the 16th class to win at least 100 games on Nov. 1 at Yale.  The seniors’ current 107 total victories are the second-most in program history and includes three Gold Pan trophies, two Penrose Cups, an NCHC Frozen Faceoff title and two national championships.
 
The 2024 senior class is tied for fifth all-time with 103 victories and registered a .708 winning percentage (103-41-5).  The 2005 seniors hold the record with 112 total victories.
 
NATIONAL LEADERBOARD

• Jack Devine leads the country in assists (25) and points (27).
• Aidan Thompson ranks tied for third in the NCAA in points (24), tied for fifth in goals (11) and is tied for 16th in assists (13).  He ranks tied for seventh in power-play goals (5).
• Sam Harris is tied for fifth in NCAA in goals (11) and is tied for first in game-winning goals (5). He ranks tied for seventh in power-play goals (5).
• Matt Davis ranks second in the nation in wins (13).
• Carter King is tied for fifth in the nation in goals (11) and tied for 20th in points (19).
• Zeev Buium is tied for first among all defensemen in the NCAA in points (20), leads the position group in assists (16-tied) and is tied for the 13th-most goals by a rear guard (4).  His 16 assists are tied for the third-most among all skaters while his 20 points are tied for 17th overall.
• Eric Pohlkamp is tied for ninth among NCAA defensemen in scoring with 14 points and is tied for the 13th-most goals by a D-man (4).
• As a team, Denver is tied for the national lead in goals for (4.0) and ranks near the top of the country in goals against per game (2.0, T-7th), power play (29.0%, 1st), penalty kill (90.2, T-6th), shooting percentage (.124, 2nd), save percentage (.919, T-14th), shots/game (32.2, 12th) and shots against/game (24.6, 6th).

 

THOMPSON MAKING HIS POINT: Junior Aidan Thompson was named the NCHC Player of the Month for November after leading all players in the conference with 11 points and tying for first with six goals.  In addition to his five assists, he scored three times on the power play, had four penalty minutes and registered +2 plus/minus rating in eight games.

 

Thompson began the season by registering a point in each of the first 14 games, a career-long point streak that ended on Dec. 6 at Western Michigan after he produced 10 goals and 12 assists.  The forward’s run was the longest season-opening point streak by a Pioneer in the last 10 years (since 2015-16), surpassing the previous long of Henrik Borgstrom’s 11-game run to begin the 2017-18 campaign.

 

His 14-game streak was also tied with Bobby Brink for the second-longest by a Pioneer in the last decade (Dec. 31, 2021-Feb. 19, 2022), with only Danton Heinen’s run of 18 straight contests from Jan. 22-March 27, 2016 being longer.  Thompson also registered a personal-best seven-game assist streak from Oct. 18-Nov. 8. 

 

The Fort Collins, Colorado, native set a career high for assists/points in a game on Oct. 19 vs. Northeastern with four helpers—the second four-assist game of the year by a Pioneer as Jack Devine also accomplished the feat in the season opener on Oct. 5 at Alaska Anchorage.

 

SAMMY SCORING: Sophomore Sam Harris’ 11 goals this year are tied for the second-most in the nation with Wisconsin’s Quinn Finley (Boston College’s Ryan Leonard, 12).  He also shares the NCAA lead with BC’s Ryan Leonard for game-winning goals with five, with three of them coming in consecutive game: Nov. 8-9 vs. Lindenwood and Nov. 15 at North Dakota—the first time that a Pioneer has notched the winning tally in three consecutive outings in the last four years (since 2021-22).

 

The San Diego, California, native recorded his second multi-goal game of the year on Nov. 9 vs. Lindenwood (Oct. 5 at Alaska Anchorage), with both tallies coming in a matter of 5:49 to break a 1-1 take and mark the fastest two goals scored by a single Pioneer player this season.

 

Harris recorded points in 11 of his first 13 games he played this season, which included a career-best nine-game point streak from Oct. 18-Nov. 16 (8g/6a).

 

DIVINE DEVINE: Senior Jack Devine leads the nation in scoring with 27 points and also paces all players in the NCAA with 25 assists.  He has produced two career-long point streaks of eight games, doing so to start the season from Oct. 5-Nov. 2 (1g/15a) and again from Nov. 9-Dec. 13 (1g/10a).  He has registered at least a point in 16-of-18 contests this year and multiple points in seven outings, including in five of the first six games and in three consecutive from Oct. 19-26.

 

Devine opened the season with a personal-best four assists on Oct. 5 at Alaska Anchorage (all on the power play) and recorded three points on Oct. 26 vs. Wisconsin (1g/2a) and Nov. 14 at North Dakota (0g/3a)—he owns 12 career three-point games in his college tenure.

 

Devine was named both the NCHC and National Player of the Month for October after leading all NCAA players with 14 points (1g/3a) in six games.  It was his first career monthly honors.

 

DEVINE CLIMBING THE LEADERBOARD: Senior forward Jack Devine registered two points on Dec. 13-14 at Colorado College now has 133 career points (46 goals, 87 assists) in 136 career games.  The Glencoe, Illinois, native ranks 40th on the school’s all-time scoring list and is one point from a tie for 35th place with Dave Berry (1980-84) and Tom Miller (1966-69) and two points from joining Jerry Walker (1959-61) in 34th.

 

Devine became the 103rd Pioneer to reach 100 career points after scoring in his 109th contest on March 8, 2024 at Colorado College.  The forward is four goals away from being the 61st player in school history to score 50 career goals and the first since Cole Guttman on Feb. 11, 2022 against Minnesota Duluth.

 

DOMINANT AT THE DOT: The Pioneers rank tied for seventh in the nation by winning 54.1 percent of their faceoffs this season, including posting season-high winning percentages of .640 and .643, respectively, on Nov. 1-2 at Yale.

 

Carter King leads Denver in faceoff wins (218) while Samu Salminen paces the Pios with a .587 winning percentage (135/230).  King is second in percentage (.572) and Kieran Cebrian is second in draw victories at 152.  King set a personal best by winning 20-of-34 faceoffs on Oct. 19 against Northeastern for the most wins by a Pioneer since Tyson McLellan went 23-for-35 on Jan. 4, 2020 against Massachusetts; he won 18 faceoffs on Dec. 7 at Western Michigan.

 

CELEBRATING 75 YEARS OF THE PIONEERS: Denver is commemorating 75 years of Pioneer hockey throughout 2024-25 to recognize its diamond jubilee as a program.  DU hosted its 75th Anniversary reunion on Nov. 8-9 when Lindenwood visited Magness Arena.  Among the activities were pre and post-game receptions for alums, alumni games and family skates and an on-ice recognition of approximately 150 former players in attendance during Saturday’s first intermission, with each of the team’s NCAA-record 10 championship trophies being presented as well.

 

The 2024-25 season is actually the 76th in DU hockey history, but the team’s 75th anniversary of its first game was in December.  The Pioneers’ first-ever contests were at home on Dec. 19-20, 1949 against Saskatchewan, with the squad losing 17-0 and 9-1 in the series.  Denver’s first win was Jan. 27, 1950 at Wyoming, and the program’s first home victory came against that same Wyoming squad on Feb. 18, 1950 (10-6) at the old DU Arena.

 

TICKETS: Limited tickets for Denver hockey’s 75th anniversary in 2024-25 are still available. Click here to purchase and for more information.

 

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