LOVELAND — Two years ago, Matt Davis became a legend around here with a magical postseason run.
University of Denver freshman goalie Johnny Hicks sure is doing his best Davis impersonation, but this Pioneers team didn’t need anything supernatural from its netminder to reach another Frozen Four. The Pioneers raced to an early lead Sunday at Blue Arena and Hicks made 24 saves en route to a 6-2 victory in the regional final against the defending national champions, Western Michigan.
The Pios will play top-seeded Michigan, which beat Minnesota-Duluth 4-3, on April 9 in Las Vegas. This is DU’s 21st Frozen Four appearance in school history. The program’s 10 national titles are the most in NCAA history.
"It feels great," DU junior forward Sam Harris said. "There's nothing better than winning. The culture at this program is incredible. We help the freshmen coming in from day one. We want to win here. There's no option to lose.
"It's an amazing feeling to come out on top of this region."
The Pios, just like they did four years ago, rolled through the Loveland regional with a heavily partisan crowd behind them. DU defeated Cornell, 5-0, on Friday in the opening round.
A track meet from opening puck drop
Just like two days prior, the Pioneers started fast. Harris scored on the rebound of a Clarke Caswell shot from near the left post exactly two minutes in. It was Harris' second goal of the weekend and 15th of the season.
A few minutes later, Eric Pohlkamp hit Kyle Chyzowski with an outlet pass, and the latter flipped a backhanded breakaway attempt into the Broncos' net for a 2-0 lead at 5:24. The Broncos struck right back with a goal-mouth scramble tally 67 seconds later, but the Pios were just getting started.
Senior Samu Salminen scored on a 2-on-1 at 11:48 of the first to make it 3-1, and then freshman Brendan McMorrow scored from the same spot as Harris earlier in the period at 15:13.
The start of this game felt like a track meet, with both teams flying. Broncos coach Pat Ferschweiler said his club made about seven mistakes in the opening period, and four of them ended up in the back of the net.
"When we played them in the NCHC semifinals, that was an insanely fast game, so I think we were expecting that," defenseman Cale Ashcraft said. "I think, no doubt, this was one of the fastest games I've ever played in."
Freshman goalie keeps unbeaten streak alive
Western Michigan tried to get back into it with a goal midway through the third period, but Kieran Cebrian, a Kent Denver and Colorado Thunderbirds alum, started the party with his second goal of the weekend and sixth of the season with 6:02 remaining and Pohlkamp added an empty-netter with 1:58 left.
Hicks is now 14-0-1 as a college goaltender after taking over the net when fellow freshman standout Quentin Miller was injured. He was named the regional's most outstanding player after stopping 50 of 52 shots. Hicks now has a 1.12 goals against average and a .958 save percentage after another great weekend.
"It's easy with 20/20 (hindsight) to look back and say yeah, of course we expected it all to happen, but in the moment you're really impressed with he handled the adversity and how our team has handled playing in front of him," DU coach David Carle said. "There's been some nights where we're like, 'Gosh, maybe we should have played him sooner,' but would he be doing what he's doing if he didn't face some of the adversity he did ... not really over-analyzing it that much.
"I know he's going to keep playing well for us."
Cornell ended DU's repeat bid in 2023, then the Pioneers knocked them out of the 2024 tournament. Western Michigan ended the Pios' reign last year at the Frozen Four, and now DU has paid the Broncos back as well.
This was the sixth meeting of the season between these two NCHC rivals. Both teams swept the other in their barns during the regular season, but DU has owned the postseason matchups. The Pios won the NCHC semifinal, 2-1 in overtime, before rolling past the Broncos here.
DU will now play in the Frozen Four for the third straight season, and the seventh time in 10 years.
"I just think we're battle-tested and prepared to play at the level you need to have success at this time of year," Carle said. "Certainly, they were fully bought in and very dialed in physically and mentally all weekend."
