The memories from last year’s dismal showing at the Denver Cup still loom large for the University of Denver hockey team.
Losses to Princeton and Ferris State led to the Pioneers’ last-place showing of the four-team tournament, and ultimately contributed to their omission from the NCAA Tournament after winning national championships in 2004 and 2005.
This year, similar Denver Cup circumstances await DU. To get to Saturday’s championship game, the Pioneers need to avoid what would be a monumental upset. The Mercyhurst Lakers (4-10-4) of Erie, Pa., are looking for that upset in tonight’s second scheduled semifinal game at Magness Arena.
Barring a one-day postponement of the tournament because of the snowstorm, Brown (6-4-2) and Massachusetts-Lowell (3-10-4) will begin play this afternoon. The second semifinal game begins DU’s 18-game, second-half stretch that has the seven-time national champions playing at home 13 times.
“We need to take advantage of our home ice, and we want to get back into a much better frame of mind with the Denver Cup,” said DU coach George Gwozdecky, whose program is 22-5-1 in the Denver Cup with 11 titles in 14 years. “Last year’s showing is a very vivid bad memory. This time, we want to give ourselves a chance Friday and get into the championship again.”
Last year’s embarrassing losses “have been addressed numerous times,” DU junior center Ryan Dingle said. “We can’t look past any of these teams. Nobody is going to hand us a game.”
The Pioneers, 9-2-2 in their past 13 games, are on a modest four-game unbeaten streak (3-0-1). During that span they played without three seniors, including captain Adrian Veideman.
“It says a lot about our team, the character and leadership of our younger guys,” Dingle said. “We lose three seniors, and we still have a lot going for us.
“That’s one reason we started off so slow. We had a lot of freshmen and younger players playing important roles. It took some time for us to mold together.”
Meanwhile, tonight’s game at the Colorado Springs World Arena will feature the much-maligned Colorado College Tigers against the upstart Bemidji State Beavers.
CC will play without freshman star Bill Sweatt, who is playing for the U.S. World Junior Team in Sweden, and five regulars that will serve one-game suspensions for fighting in the Dec. 9 postgame brawl with Alaska-Anchorage.
Co-captains and senior defensemen Lee Sweatt and Brandon Straub were among those fighting. The others are sophomore defenseman Jake Gannon and freshman forwards Mike Testwuide and Addison DeBoer.
Mike Chambers can be reached at 303-954-1357 or mchambers@denverpost.com.
This weekend
DENVER CUP
What: Fifteenth annual four-team holiday tournament
Where: Magness Arena
Schedule
Today: Massachusetts-Lowell (3-10-4) vs. Brown (6-4-2), 4:37 p.m.; No. 10 Denver (12-6-2) vs. Mercyhurst (4-10-4), 7:37 p.m.
Saturday: Semifinal losers, 4:07 p.m.; championship game, 7:07 p.m.
TV: FSN (DU games only)
Notes: Because of the snowstorm, the beginning of Denver Cup could be postponed until Saturday, and the consolation and championship played Sunday. … Barring delivery problems because of the storm, DU will unveil new Nike Swift sweaters this weekend.
NO. 8 COLORADO COLLEGE (11-6-1)
Opponent: Bemidji (Minn.) State (9-4-3)
What: Nonleague two-game series
When: Tonight (7:35 p.m.) and Saturday (7 p.m.)
Where: Colorado Springs World Arena
TV/radio: None/none
Notes: Bemidji State, which represented the College Hockey America in last season’s NCAA Tournament, has won six consecutive games and is on a nine-game unbeaten streak (7-0-2). … The Beavers are 4-0 against WCHA teams.
MIKE CHAMBERS
