The Western Collegiate Hockey Association regular-season championship could be awarded to the University of Denver on March 7, and it’s a title archrival Colorado College could help produce.
DU fans will be fans of the Tigers this weekend when CC visits North Dakota. But the Pioneers and Tigers end the regular season March 7 at Magness Arena.
DU, tied with the Fighting Sioux atop the WCHA, needs CC to win a game or two in Grand Forks, N.D. The Pioneers will be playing an hour behind the Tigers, hosting St. Cloud State.
“We are concentrating fully on our series here with St. Cloud and feel strongly that if we take care of business over the next couple games, we’ll put ourselves in real good position,” DU coach George Gwozdecky said Monday. “It’s an honor to win the MacNaughton Cup, and we’re going to do our best to accomplish that, but it’s not the end-all.”
Indeed, it’s safe to assume DU also will get a chance to play for a national championship. After last weekend’s two-game sweep at Wisconsin, the Pioneers climbed to No. 4 in the Pairwise Rankings.
They will play at least five games and as many as eight — depending on how far they advance in the WCHA playoffs — before the 16-team NCAA Tournament field is announced March 22.
“I don’t want to put the cart before the horse,” Gwozdecky said of obtaining a No. 1 seed. “We feel good about ourselves right now, but I certainly don’t want to be predicting or making plans. As we’ve seen from a week ago, the Pairwise can fluctuate so easily because of how close everyone is.”
DU injury report.
Junior center Tyler Ruegsegger suffered what appeared to be a shoulder injury in the third period Saturday and did not return. The team is calling it an “upper body” injury, and Gwozdecky said he wasn’t sure if Ruegsegger would practice today.
Sophomore defenseman Chris Nutini, who has missed the past five games with an upper-body injury, could be available this weekend.
Sophomore center Tyler Bozak, who has missed the past 14 games — including 13 since undergoing knee surgery Dec. 19 — has begun on-ice rehabilitation and remains on track to return in mid-March.
“He feels like he’s ready to go,” Gwozdecky said, “but the doctors are like, ‘Whoa, young man, slow down.’ ”
Footnotes.
DU, CC and Air Force combined to go 6-0 last weekend, with all three winning 4-3 on Friday night. … Air Force’s regular season-ending series at RIT this weekend will determine the Atlantic Hockey Association title. The teams have 19-5-2 AHA records, and they split their series at the academy in December.
Mike Chambers: 303-954-1357 or mchambers@denverpost.com
