CHICAGO — The Chicago Blackhawks’ coaching staff was rooting for the Denver Pioneers here at the Frozen Four from afar — while the NHL team concluded the regular season on the West Coast. On the dry-erase board in the coach’s office at the United Center, Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville and assistant Kevin Dineen had a message for the DU staff before embarking on a three-game road trip that began Tuesday at Colorado.
“Pios, Wish we were with you for the Frozen Four but positive thoughts from out West. Regards, Kevin, Joel and Staff.”
Chicago, the Western Conference champion, finished its regular season Saturday at the Los Angeles Kings, while DU was playing Minnesota Duluth for the national title at the United Center.
Quenneville, of course, used to call Denver home, as an NHL player with the Colorado Rockies (1979-82) and Avalanche assistant coach (1995-97) and head coach (2005-08). And Dineen played two seasons for DU in the 1980s before joining the Canadian national team. Dineen also interviewed for the vacant Avalanche job in August after Patrick Roy suddenly resigned.
DU coach Jim Montgomery and his staff met with Quenneville and Dineen in Chicago en route to the Pioneers’ Dec. 30-31 series at Providence. Montgomery’s high-scoring team — DU entered Saturday with 17 goals in three NCAA Tournament — wasn’t very offensive back then.
“We were talking about how we’ve won every game by one goal — if we won by two it was an empty-net goal,” Montgomery said before Saturday’s game.
DU has been the country’s highest-scoring team since Jan. 1, and became just the second to produce five goals in its first three NCAA Tournament games.
“Really confident in our group. They’re pretty loose, so I’m loose,” Montgomery, whose team dominated Notre Dame in a 6-1 blowout Thursday, said pregame. “We’re coming off a great performance. I wish I could bottle it up because I want to give them the same recipe. But we’ve done it for three games in a row now. It’s impressive. I think our group really believes in our process, the game plan and most of all, we believe in each other.”
Quadruple crown. Denver entered Saturday looking for its eighth national title — and fourth major national award in a week. Montgomery was given the Spencer Penrose Award for national coach of the year before senior defenseman Will Butcher on Friday was named Hobey Baker Award winner (national player of the year), hours before junior goalie Tanner Jaillet won the Mike Richter Award (national goaltender of the year).
“The personal stuff, it never entered our minds — we’ve been so focused on winning the national championship,” Montgomery said. “Those trophies are nice but the ultimate trophy is tonight.”
Borgstrom factor. DU and Minnesota-Duluth are both members of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference but played each other just twice in the regular season. The Pioneers didn’t have star freshman Henrik Borgstrom for the series split in Denver, and Duluth was missing junior third-line center Avery Peterson
“It’s two teams that are deep. It’s going to be a great hockey game,” Montgomery said. “We know each other. You’re not going to see any surprises, with one staff doing something to the other. The only difference is, they’ve added Avery Peterson (and) we’ve added Henrik Borgstrom. I’ll take that trade every day.”
Footnote. Hockey Hall of Fame goalie Tony Esposito, a Blackhawks’ legend who played three years at Michigan Tech, dropped the ceremonial puck to conclude pregame festivities.