Positive COVID-19 tests at Denver postpone this weekend’s Gold Pan games between Pioneers, Colorado College

Denver and Colorado College split a home-and-home series last weekend (photo: Gary Campbell).

Due to a combination of positive COVID-19 tests, contact tracing and subsequent quarantining of individuals within the Denver hockey program, the Denver and Colorado College home-and-home series scheduled for this weekend, Friday, Jan. 8 and Saturday, Jan. 9, has been postponed.

In its place, Colorado College will now host North Dakota on Sunday, Jan. 10 and Monday, Jan. 11 for a two-game set. In addition, the NCHC announced the Tigers will make a trip to Minnesota from Feb. 18-20 to make up their two postponed games from the NCHC pod.

CC was slated to play at Denver this Friday and host DU on Saturday. With North Dakota’s home series against Omaha postponed earlier this week, the Fighting Hawks will now travel to Colorado Springs and face the Tigers instead on Jan. 10-11, which will replace UND and CC’s originally scheduled series on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 12-13. The Fighting Hawks and Tigers will square off at the Broadmoor World Arena with both games on Sunday and Monday slated for 7 p.m. MT.

Denver’s scheduled home-and-home series with Colorado College this weekend (Jan. 8-9) will be made up on to-be-determined dates. Given the schools proximity to each other, finding makeup dates later in the season “will be easier and allow for more flexibility,” according to an NCHC statement.

Along with this weekend’s schedule changes, Colorado College’s two makeup games from the NCHC pod have been rescheduled. The Tigers will first face Minnesota Duluth in Duluth on Thursday, Feb. 18 with game time at AMSOIL Arena still to be determined, before heading to St. Cloud, Minn., for a single game against St. Cloud State on Saturday, Feb. 20. Puck drop at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center is set for an early noon CST start.

The decision to postpone and reschedule these series is consistent with the NCHC ’s COVID-19 protocols, developed by the conference’s health and safety competitions committee, as well as the conference’s game schedule policy, developed by the NCHC’s athletic council.