ST. PAUL, MINN. — After beating Boston University 7-2 on Saturday in the West Regional semifinals, the Denver Pioneers found themselves matched up with unheralded Ferris State, the No. 4 seed, in Sunday’s championship game.
Jared VanWormer’s second goal of the game only 18 seconds into overtime gave Ferris State a shocking 5-4 win over St. Cloud State in the first semifinal game.
The Bulldogs (20-14-6) finished fourth in the WCHA’s regular season, then won the league tournament to claim a spot in the 16-team NCAA field. Now they’re one more upset away from the Frozen Four.
“Yeah, we’ll take that (Cinderella) role,” said VanWormer. “Someone’s got to do it. Our PairWise (ranking) was like 30. All year we were kind of maybe underperforming. Ever since Christmas and after the Mariucci Classic (a loss to Harvard and a win over UConn), I think we turned it up as a group and kind of came together.”
Focus on Ferris State:
DU defenseman Will Butcher, who had two goals for the Pioneers in their semifinal win, acknowledged he was “a little bit surprised” to not be facing St. Cloud State next.
“But Ferris State’s a good team,” he said. “We’ve watched them a little bit this year when they’ve been on TV and stuff like that, so we know they’re a good team and we have a challenge playing them.”
Terry Frei, The Denver Post
