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NCHC Men's Hockey

Examining Denver Hockey's Perfect Start To NCAA Title Defense

Examining Denver Hockey's Perfect Start To NCAA Title Defense

The Denver Pioneers are off to their best start in program history at 12-0-0 and topped both major college hockey polls this week in unanimous fashion.

Nov 21, 2024 by Jordan McAlpine
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There’s a saying that championships aren’t won in November and with nearly five months of the college hockey season still left, a lot can happen.

However, the Denver Pioneers have looked pretty incredible to open the 2024-25 campaign.

DU is off to a perfect 12-0-0 start and the defending champs are averaging an NCAA-best 4.75 goals per game – which is one of many categories that DU either leads or sits near the top of the country. Goals against (1.42, 1st), power play (34.6%, 3rd), penalty kill (99.3, 6th) and save percentage (.938, 4th) being some of the others.

David Carle’s club won a pair of games at North Dakota last weekend – 5-2 and 3-2 – and the Pioneers have seemingly rolled through their first dozen games, sweeping all six of their opponents with a combined goal differential of plus-40 (57-17).

The Pioneers have been the No. 1 team in USCHO’s poll for all eight weeks this season and nine consecutive polls going back to last April.

Not only did DU come in at No. 1 this week, but the Pioneers received all 50 first-place votes, along with all 34 first-place votes in the USA Hockey poll.

While some may say pump the breaks, it’s hard not to be excited about what’s transpiring inside Magness Arena.

The Pioneers are off to their best start in program history and are the first team since Minnesota (2020-21) to open a season with 10 or more consecutive wins. Cornell (2019-20) also ripped off 10 straight while Quinnipiac won 11 to open the 2015-16 season. The last team to open a season with a 12-game win streak was Air Force in 2008-09. Air Force won 13 straight before ironically suffering its first loss to... Denver.

As for this year's DU squad, they’re getting offense from seemingly everywhere. Whether that be experienced forwards Jack Devine, Aidan Thompson and Carter King, sophomore Sam Harris, or any of their five freshmen.

Harris currently leads the country with 10 goals, one ahead of Thompson (9), and DU’s lineup currently features three of the nation’s top four point producers in Devine (1-20-21), Thompson (9-11-20) and Harris (10-6-16).

Zeev Buium is off to a tremendous start as well and to no surprise, the Minnesota Wild first-round pick has flourished in his sophomore season. Buium netted a hat trick last Friday – becoming the first DU defenseman since Ryan Caldwell (Feb. 14, 2004) to do so – and was named the NCHC Defenseman of the Week on Monday.

Off-season addition Eric Pohlkamp – who transferred in from Bemidji State – has also made an immediate impact on the blue line and has 13 points (4-9-13) through his first 12 games.

Matt Davis has done his part between the pipes too and after DU experienced some goaltending issues at this time last year, both due to injuries and performance, Davis has been one of the NCAA’s best.

Davis is currently 11-0-0 with a .937 save percentage and 1.46 GAA, and the Calgary native continues to deliver in big games. The list goes on.

Yes, there’s an argument that the Pioneers haven’t faced the toughest of schedules. 

Their six opponents are a combined 19-39-5 and four of their six ranked wins came against Northeastern and Wisconsin, both of which have since dropped out of the polls. North Dakota was also playing with an injury-depleted roster last weekend and gave DU its first one-goal contest of the season on Saturday.

Denver has six games remaining before the Christmas break – two against Arizona State this weekend, two at Western Michigan on Dec. 6-7 and a home-and-home with rival Colorado College on Dec. 13 and 14.

The Broncos and Tigers are both top-10 teams while Arizona State is coming off a win over Omaha. The Sun Devils also gave Colorado College, Michigan and Providence fits over the past six weeks, giving Denver a chance to close out the first half with a few big wins.

Denver was 8-3-1 through its first 12 games last season and entered the Christmas break at 12-5-1. The Pioneers went 12-4-2 down the stretch and won all eight of their postseason games en route to their NCAA-leading 10th national championship.

When you combine those final nine games with the 12-0-0 start, the Pioneers need just one more win to tie the program’s longest win streak of 22 – which they can do Friday against ASU.

It’s Denver’s best start since they won eight straight to open the 2019-20 season and DU’s previous best start came in 2001-02. That team won nine straight to open the season and 23 of its first 25, ultimately winning 32 games and losing in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

However, this year’s club is aiming for a better finish. If the start is any indication, the Pioneers are in for another deep run next spring.

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