Pioneers Ready For ‘Desperate’ St. Cloud State In NCHC Frozen Faceoff

The No. 3-ranked University of Denver Pioneers (26-9-3) will face the No. 17-ranked St. Cloud State Huskies (17–15–5) in the NCHC Frozen Four semifinals on Friday.

The Pioneers come into the matchup winners in three of their last four games, including a clean sweep of Minnesota Duluth in the NCHC quarterfinals. Denver outscored the Bulldogs 9-2 in the two-game series.

Since its inception in 2014, the Pioneers are the only NCHC squad to make the Frozen Faceoff every year, capturing the tournament championship in 2014 and 2018. Denver is 2-7 all-time in the Frozen Faceoff semifinals.

The Huskies advanced to the semifinals in a winner-take-all Game 3 against Colorado College last weekend. St. Cloud State dropped Game 1 in overtime but came back to take the next two.

SCSU has won the tournament twice before, including 2023 when the Huskies topped Colorado College 3-0 in the championship game.

The two teams will headline Friday night from the Xcel Energy Center, with puck drop set for 7:30 p.m. CT.

Familiar Foes

The Pioneers and Huskies enter Friday night having played all four of their previous matchups this season after the holiday break.

Denver took the first game at Magness Arena in mid-January, then tied the Huskies the following night. St. Cloud State picked up the extra point in the shootout.

Less than two months later, the matchup shifted to St. Cloud, where Denver outscored the Huskies 13-4 in the two-game sweep.

The series was the start of a four-game losing streak for St. Cloud to close out the regular season. It’s probably fair to say that the Huskies will be seeking retribution.

“Definitely familiar with them,” Huskies’ fifth year senior captain Dylan Anhorn said of Denver in a media call on Tuesday. “In having played them four times, they’ve got a great forward group. They’ve got fantastic defense and a wonderful goaltender as well.

“It’ll be a great challenge for us. We know we’re going to have to bring it from right from the puck drop, make sure we bring our intensity, our aggressiveness, be detailed, and bring the same kind of energy we did against Western Michigan this weekend.”

Desperate Huskies

If the season were to end today, St. Cloud could potentially be on the outside looking in regarding the NCAA Tournament. Playoff Status has the Huskies at an 82% probability to miss the tournament.

With an NCHC tournament win, the Huskies could punch their ticket to the dance as an automatic qualifier.

In some regards, St. Cloud has the upper hand over Denver in that the Pioneers are a lock to make the tournament. The Huskies need Friday’s game more than their NCHC counterpart.

Denver knows that St. Cloud is going to give them everything they can handle.

“Certainly our challenge is — now being on the inside of the tournament picture — is to carry that same level of desperation and trying to match what we know St. Cloud will have,” said Denver head coach David Carle.

“We need to make sure that ours is to the level that it was when we (played in St. Cloud), what it was when we played CC, when we played Western — all these teams that we’ve been playing in the second half. It hasn’t been an easy run by any stretch. Our league has prepared us for the level required, and I think we’re confident that our guys will have that.”

Rizzo Remains Sidelined

The Pioneers are likely to be without Massimo Rizzo again. Carle indicated the junior forward is “highly doubtful” to suit up for Denver. Rizzo has not played since early February, and Carle even went on to say that the forward is doubtful to play in the NCAA Regionals next week.

If there is any good news, the Pioneers could be getting Carter King back into the lineup on Friday. The junior forward was named a finalist for NCHC Defensive Forward of the Year. Prior to his injury, King had established career-highs in goals (11), assists (12), and points (23). The Calgary native has been instrumental on Denver’s penalty kill, tied for the NCAA lead with four shorthanded goals.

However, Denver will continue to rely on others stepping up in Rizzo’s absence. Particularly in the second half, the Pioneers have seen a number of underclassmen develop into meaningful roles. Sophomore forwards Aidan Thompson, Rieger Lorenz, and Jared Wright all have at least 23 points. Freshmen Miko Matikka, Sam Harris, and Zeev Buium have notably put up big numbers as well.

“Our freshmen have grown up a lot throughout the year,” said Carle. “It’s a little bit of what we envisioned when bringing this team together, just with how young we were, with the 11 freshmen, that we’d have a real high ceiling. We just needed to keep getting pushed and keep working on our game and our league has done that for us.”

(Featured Image Credit: University of Denver Athletics)