This is the third of four previews for teams playing in the 2025 NCAA Men’s Frozen Four this week in St. Louis. Click here for all of USCHO’s Frozen Four coverage.
Denver Pioneers
Season record: 31-11-1
How they got to St. Louis: Won the Manchester Regional, defeating Providence 5-1 and Boston College 3-1
Top players: F Jack Devine (13-44-57), F Aidan Thompson (20-34-54), D Zeev Buium (13-35-48)
Top goalie: Matt Davis (29-9-1, 2.07 goals-against average, .923 save percentage).
Why they’ll win the national championship: You can bet against Denver in the Frozen Four if you want to, but I won’t. There isn’t a single program in college hockey that matches the Pioneers’ postseason pedigree.
Why they won’t win the national championship: As good as this Denver team is and can be, its season could be done Thursday. Western Michigan is a very, very good team, and that semifinal could easily end up being the best game of the entire NCAA tournament.
What do you get for a college hockey program that has done it all?
A year ago, Denver became the first team to win its 10th national title, and the Pioneers hoisted the NCAA championship trophy for the second time in three seasons. Head coach David Carle has been there that whole time and then some, and in his seventh year with the team, they look like making history yet again.
There isn’t a better scoring offense in the country than what Denver has. The Pioneers also have a Hobey Hat Trick finalist in defenseman Zeev Buium, and goaltender Matt Davis has been tremendous between the pipes. He, Buium and their DU teammates keep pushing ahead, not overly weighed down by the targets on their backs.
“You look at the year we had, there’s certainly other teams that maybe had better regular seasons than we did, and certainly we’re playing another one of those teams,” Carle said in previewing Thursday’s semifinal matchup with Western Michigan, which has the No. 2 offense in the nation. “Western has won every championship and trophy available to them (in the NCHC), and to me, them and probably BC, Michigan State, the (Minnesota) Gophers to some extent, they really separated themselves throughout the season as being kind of the premier programs top to bottom, bringing that level of consistency every night.
“For us, we turned over five underclassmen that signed (professional contracts) early, had to deal with the expectation of being the defending champions and we’ve gotten everyone’s best game, and we haven’t maybe necessarily handled that perfectly throughout the year, but I think our guys have taken a real growth mindset. We’ve learned and grown through every challenging experience we’ve had this year, and that was on full display in our (regional tournament) victories against Providence and Boston College.”
In some ways, this is Denver’s tournament to lose. The top two teams from the regular season (Michigan State and Boston College) will be watching the Frozen Four from home, and of the teams remaining, DU has the freshest muscle memory with regards to how to play in April. Not everything has come easily lately for Carle’s squad, but two regional wins against Hockey East powers suggest that national title No. 11 could be coming up fast.
“We’re obviously really excited,” Carle said. “It’s been a challenging year. In the second half, I think we’ve faced a lot of bumps in the road, but I give our guys a lot of credit. They handled themselves extremely well, and we found a way to really turn on our urgency, peak at the right time and secure two victories in a tough environment, in tough logistics, all of the above. I’m proud of the group, and we get to continue fighting and get another game.”
