{"id":139328,"date":"2023-03-01T10:00:26","date_gmt":"2023-03-01T16:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/?p=139328"},"modified":"2023-02-28T23:41:06","modified_gmt":"2023-03-01T05:41:06","slug":"this-week-in-nchc-hockey-after-knocking-off-western-michigan-denver-readying-for-gold-pan-games-against-colorado-college","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2023\/03\/01\/this-week-in-nchc-hockey-after-knocking-off-western-michigan-denver-readying-for-gold-pan-games-against-colorado-college\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week in NCHC Hockey: After knocking off Western Michigan, Denver readying for Gold Pan games against Colorado College"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Colorado College’s Matthew Gleason and Denver’s Connor Caponi play at Ball Arena back on Jan. 27 (photo: Casey B. Gibson).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Denver\u2019s two national championships in the NCHC era came in 2017 and 2022, when the Pioneers also won their conference\u2019s regular-season championship trophy, the Penrose Cup.<\/p>\n

They clinched that again last weekend at eighth-ranked Western Michigan. Third-ranked Denver will feel its job this season is only a third of the way done \u2014 there\u2019s still the NCHC playoff title and a potential 10th NCAA championship in program history up for grabs \u2014 but more and more, this season\u2019s Pioneers are showing that they thrive under pressure.<\/p>\n

Such was the case when Denver beat Western Michigan twice by scoring in bunches. Four unanswered goals Friday in Denver\u2019s 5-2 win saw the Pioneers overcome a 2-1 first-intermission deficit. The following night, when WMU\u2019s Lawson Ice Arena held its biggest crowd in 11 years, three unanswered goals from as many players put the Pioneers over the top in a 3-1 victory.<\/p>\n

Massimo Rizzo and Carter Mazur\u2019s second goals of the weekend meant plenty Saturday, as did Mike Benning\u2019s two-goal performance Friday. Retaining the Penrose Cup in such a hostile atmosphere, though, made the weekend that much more special. Ask Denver coach David Carle, and he\u2019ll say the Lawson Lunatics played quite the supporting role.<\/p>\n

\u201cWestern\u2019s student section is pretty ruthless, but it’s a lot of fun to be a part of,\u201d Carle said. \u201cThey\u2019re very creative, and it\u2019s one of the best environments in college hockey, and to go there and embrace that experience, our guys did a really nice job of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe played two solid road games and hit different levels of adversity in both games, and for the most part kept our noses down, kept working and got our way through it.”<\/p>\n

Denver\u2019s series at Western promised to be a spectacle, with the country\u2019s respective seventh and fourth-best offenses meeting. The Pioneers shined brightest, though, and they\u2019ve been doing that a lot lately. Denver has scored at least three goals in each of the Pioneers\u2019 last seven games, six of which DU won.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot was made of all the people we lost up front after last season,\u201d Carle said. \u201cWe lost six of our top nine (forwards) and had a lot of new people coming in, but from Day 1, the guys have had a real open mind to understanding that it was going to take some time for the offensive chemistry to develop.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve played a lot of different line combinations as we\u2019ve tried to sort through where chemistry is, and who plays best with who, and I give the guys a lot of credit for not getting frustrated or down on it earlier in the year. We\u2019re kind of out the other side of that, and we\u2019ve shown confidence we can score. Our defensive game has generally been there all season long, but now we have an ability through that chemistry and through that work to extend leads and put some teams away.\u201d<\/p>\n

That should put the Pioneers in good stead as the home stretch continues. The Penrose is a nice, chunky trophy to win, but Carle is keeping his team’s focus on what\u2019s still ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe certainly came into the year with very high expectations for our group, and those expectations haven\u2019t changed,\u201d Carle said. \u201cYou want to learn how to win big trophies, and the selflessness we played with and sticking to our process through both games last weekend gave us an opportunity to win a big trophy, and certainly our goal is to replicate that effort as the most fun time of year approaches us with playoffs and more big trophies on the line.\u201d<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s no time to let up, including here in the final week of the regular season. One of Denver’s objectives for the season is already taken care of, but it should be easy for the Pioneers to get geed up for their home-and-home series this Friday and Saturday against in-state rival Colorado College.<\/p>\n

Twenty-five standings points separate the teams, and Denver will be favored both nights. But the Pioneers know better than to take anything for granted when Gold Pan rivalry games come around, now or ever.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s still lots on the line in the national picture for us, and you want to be playing well going into playoff hockey,\u201d Carle said. \u201cWe know the challenge CC presents, and we\u2019ve played them twice here in the second half.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re a very good team, and we know they\u2019re going to give us their best, so we need to be prepared with ours.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Denver\u2019s two national championships in the NCHC era came in 2017 and 2022, when the Pioneers also won their conference\u2019s regular-season championship trophy, the Penrose Cup. They clinched that again last weekend at eighth-ranked Western Michigan. Third-ranked Denver will feel its job this season is only a third of the way done \u2014 there\u2019s still […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":139329,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[812],"coauthors":[810],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThis Week in NCHC Hockey: After knocking off Western Michigan, Denver readying for Gold Pan games against Colorado College - College Hockey | USCHO.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Denver\u2019s two national championships in the NCHC era came in 2017 and 2022, when the Pioneers also won their conference\u2019s regular-season championship\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139328\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"This Week in NCHC Hockey: After knocking off Western Michigan, Denver readying for Gold Pan games against Colorado College - College Hockey | USCHO.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Denver\u2019s two national championships in the NCHC era came in 2017 and 2022, when the Pioneers also won their conference\u2019s regular-season championship\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139328\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"College Hockey | USCHO.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/OfficialUSCHO\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-03-01T16:00:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-03-01T05:41:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/cc_du_cbg.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"942\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"530\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Matthew Semisch\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@USCHO\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@USCHO\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Matthew Semisch\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2023\/03\/01\/this-week-in-nchc-hockey-after-knocking-off-western-michigan-denver-readying-for-gold-pan-games-against-colorado-college\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2023\/03\/01\/this-week-in-nchc-hockey-after-knocking-off-western-michigan-denver-readying-for-gold-pan-games-against-colorado-college\/\",\"name\":\"This Week in NCHC Hockey: After knocking off Western Michigan, Denver readying for Gold Pan games against Colorado College - College Hockey | USCHO.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2023\/03\/01\/this-week-in-nchc-hockey-after-knocking-off-western-michigan-denver-readying-for-gold-pan-games-against-colorado-college\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2023\/03\/01\/this-week-in-nchc-hockey-after-knocking-off-western-michigan-denver-readying-for-gold-pan-games-against-colorado-college\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/cc_du_cbg.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-03-01T16:00:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-03-01T05:41:06+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/59bfc7fca1ba7bf3b039ebf2724060ae\"},\"description\":\"Denver\u2019s two national championships in the NCHC era came in 2017 and 2022, when the Pioneers also won their conference\u2019s regular-season championship\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2023\/03\/01\/this-week-in-nchc-hockey-after-knocking-off-western-michigan-denver-readying-for-gold-pan-games-against-colorado-college\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2023\/03\/01\/this-week-in-nchc-hockey-after-knocking-off-western-michigan-denver-readying-for-gold-pan-games-against-colorado-college\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2023\/03\/01\/this-week-in-nchc-hockey-after-knocking-off-western-michigan-denver-readying-for-gold-pan-games-against-colorado-college\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/cc_du_cbg.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/cc_du_cbg.jpg\",\"width\":942,\"height\":530,\"caption\":\"Colorado College and Denver play at Ball Arena back on Jan. 27 (photo: Casey B. Gibson).\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2023\/03\/01\/this-week-in-nchc-hockey-after-knocking-off-western-michigan-denver-readying-for-gold-pan-games-against-colorado-college\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"This Week in NCHC Hockey: After knocking off Western Michigan, Denver readying for Gold Pan games against Colorado College\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/\",\"name\":\"College Hockey | USCHO.com\",\"description\":\"Men's and Women's D-I and D-III College Hockey News, Features, Scores, Statistics, Fan Forum, Blogs\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/59bfc7fca1ba7bf3b039ebf2724060ae\",\"name\":\"Matthew Semisch\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/800654cc217d997dd53c63231da54899\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1cf69ccdebc1e5f39c969dbc92873bc6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1cf69ccdebc1e5f39c969dbc92873bc6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Matthew Semisch\"},\"description\":\"NCHC Columnist Matthew Semisch joined USCHO in 2007 as a arena reporter covering Omaha. He later became a WCHA columnist for USCHO before taking a similar role covering the NCHC. He currently works as the sports editor at the Bottineau Courant in Bottineau, N.D.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/author\/msemisch\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"This Week in NCHC Hockey: After knocking off Western Michigan, Denver readying for Gold Pan games against Colorado College - College Hockey | USCHO.com","description":"Denver\u2019s two national championships in the NCHC era came in 2017 and 2022, when the Pioneers also won their conference\u2019s regular-season championship","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139328","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"This Week in NCHC Hockey: After knocking off Western Michigan, Denver readying for Gold Pan games against Colorado College - College Hockey | USCHO.com","og_description":"Denver\u2019s two national championships in the NCHC era came in 2017 and 2022, when the Pioneers also won their conference\u2019s regular-season championship","og_url":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139328","og_site_name":"College Hockey | USCHO.com","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/OfficialUSCHO\/","article_published_time":"2023-03-01T16:00:26+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-03-01T05:41:06+00:00","og_image":[{"width":942,"height":530,"url":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/cc_du_cbg.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Matthew Semisch","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@USCHO","twitter_site":"@USCHO","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Matthew Semisch","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2023\/03\/01\/this-week-in-nchc-hockey-after-knocking-off-western-michigan-denver-readying-for-gold-pan-games-against-colorado-college\/","url":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2023\/03\/01\/this-week-in-nchc-hockey-after-knocking-off-western-michigan-denver-readying-for-gold-pan-games-against-colorado-college\/","name":"This Week in NCHC Hockey: After knocking off Western Michigan, Denver readying for Gold Pan games against Colorado College - College Hockey | USCHO.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2023\/03\/01\/this-week-in-nchc-hockey-after-knocking-off-western-michigan-denver-readying-for-gold-pan-games-against-colorado-college\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2023\/03\/01\/this-week-in-nchc-hockey-after-knocking-off-western-michigan-denver-readying-for-gold-pan-games-against-colorado-college\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/cc_du_cbg.jpg","datePublished":"2023-03-01T16:00:26+00:00","dateModified":"2023-03-01T05:41:06+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/59bfc7fca1ba7bf3b039ebf2724060ae"},"description":"Denver\u2019s two national championships in the NCHC era came in 2017 and 2022, when the Pioneers also won their conference\u2019s regular-season championship","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2023\/03\/01\/this-week-in-nchc-hockey-after-knocking-off-western-michigan-denver-readying-for-gold-pan-games-against-colorado-college\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2023\/03\/01\/this-week-in-nchc-hockey-after-knocking-off-western-michigan-denver-readying-for-gold-pan-games-against-colorado-college\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2023\/03\/01\/this-week-in-nchc-hockey-after-knocking-off-western-michigan-denver-readying-for-gold-pan-games-against-colorado-college\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/cc_du_cbg.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/cc_du_cbg.jpg","width":942,"height":530,"caption":"Colorado College and Denver play at Ball Arena back on Jan. 27 (photo: Casey B. Gibson)."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2023\/03\/01\/this-week-in-nchc-hockey-after-knocking-off-western-michigan-denver-readying-for-gold-pan-games-against-colorado-college\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"This Week in NCHC Hockey: After knocking off Western Michigan, Denver readying for Gold Pan games against Colorado College"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/","name":"College Hockey | USCHO.com","description":"Men's and Women's D-I and D-III College Hockey News, Features, Scores, Statistics, Fan Forum, Blogs","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/59bfc7fca1ba7bf3b039ebf2724060ae","name":"Matthew Semisch","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/800654cc217d997dd53c63231da54899","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1cf69ccdebc1e5f39c969dbc92873bc6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1cf69ccdebc1e5f39c969dbc92873bc6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Matthew Semisch"},"description":"NCHC Columnist Matthew Semisch joined USCHO in 2007 as a arena reporter covering Omaha. He later became a WCHA columnist for USCHO before taking a similar role covering the NCHC. He currently works as the sports editor at the Bottineau Courant in Bottineau, N.D.","url":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/author\/msemisch\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139328"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139328"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":139339,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139328\/revisions\/139339"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139328"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=139328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}