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After years of starting the season with the pressure of either defending national champions or high expectations for a veteran-stacked roster, the DU hockey team is enjoying the opposite. The 2007/08 team fields 13 freshmen and eight sophomores, so pre-season predictions are not a concern.
“This coming season has a very different feeling to it in a sense. Many people have us pegged as underdogs which is probably rightly so. Based upon the fact that about 50 percent of our team are freshmen, our look is very different than what it has been in the past few years,” said Head Coach George Gwozdecky, entering his 14th season at the helm.
The team could dwell on the what-ifs and might-have-beens of past stars Paul Stastny, Ryan Dingle and Geoff Paukovich not having gone pro and being seniors this season, but it’s chosen to focus on the reality of the future and goals of the future. If you ask any player or coach they will tell you this is not a re-building year. Instead, there are three goals for this season: becoming a team, getting DU back into the playoffs after two seasons’ of absence, and making it to the Frozen Four here in Denver in April.
“Our No. 1 goal is to become a team, that is our No. 1 goal,” emphasized Gwozdecky. “I think our four captains and some of our older players are aware of that and have done a really good job of pursuing so far.”
Certainly, the team’s leaders are excited about the coming campaign. “It’s going to be a long year. I think the guys understand that one of our main goal’s this year is to make the Frozen Four here in Denver,” said senior captain Andrew Thomas.
Making the Frozen Four will be no easy task. In the last two years the team has learned that simply making the playoffs in the competitive and parity-based WCHA is no easy task.
Much of the team’s success will ride on the shoulders and pads of senior goaltender Peter Mannino, who is expected to receive most of the starts this season. After having
an 18-4-1 mark with five
shutouts as a freshman and
leading the Pioneers to a
national championship, Mannino
has gone a combined 20-14-3 the
past two seasons with four shutouts.
The coach is confident that
Mannino is up to the challenge.
“If there is pressure, it is the kind
of pressure that you would want
to be under. The sky is the limit
for him. He is capable of being
the best player on the ice,
dominating a game and makes a
good team great,” said
Gwozdecky about the
pressure that Mannino faces
this season.
There will also be pressure on
the eight juniors and seniors to
use their experience and leadership
to bring this youthful team together. The leaders of that project will be captain Andrew Thomas and assistant captains J.P. Testwuide, Chris Butler and Tyler Ruegsegger.
“I think we are all excited over the fact that we have some new challenges. We have talent, much of that talent doesn’t have the experience at this level, and yet we have some really key people returning,” said Gwozdecky.
The top returners are sophomores Brock Trotter, Rhett Rakhshani and Tyler Ruegsegger. Last season Trotter led the team with 40 points in 40 games on 16 goals and 24 assists, Rakhshani scored 10 goals and dished out 26 assists for 36 points, and Ruegsegger tallied 34 points on 15 goals and 19 assists.
On defense Thomas, Testwuide and Butler will lead the way for the Pioneers. Last season Thomas led the team with 71 penalty minutes and scored two goals and recorded five assists. Testwuide committed 22 penalties for 63 minutes and dished out three assists. Butler scored 27 points on 10 goals and 17 assist while sitting in the penalty box for 42 minutes.
DU will be motivated by hosting appointment that it has endured over the past two seasons.
“There is no question I think everybody knows that the Frozen Four is here. I think what sits in everybody’s mind is the disappointment of the last month of our season last year and the understanding of why that happened,” said Gwozdecky.
Denver was swept by Wisconsin in the first round of the WCHA playoffs last season, ending any hopes of advancing to the NCAA tournament. According to Gwozdecky, the NCAA selection committee told him that one more win by DU at any point during the season would have given them a bid.
The Pioneers begin the season ranked No. 12 in the USA Today hockey poll, behind No. 1 North Dakota and No. 2 and defending champion Michigan State. DU was also picked No. 4 in the preseason WCHA coaches’ poll, behind No. 1 North Dakota, No. 2 Minnesota and No. 3 Colorado College.
Denver will begin the season this weekend at home against non-conference foe Maine on Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday at 7 p.m. in Magness Arena. The Pioneers last played the Black Bears during the 2005-06 season, when DU lost 5-1 and 4-1 in Maine. The East Hockey Conference opponent is the same team the Pioneers defeated 1-0 in the national championship game in 2004, when DU weathered a dramatic final offensive frenzy by a Maine team that had a 3-man advantage to win the first of its back-to-back national championships.
“Our next game is our most important game, based upon the type of team we have this year and the things that we have learned about playing in this conference as recently as last year,” said Gwozdecky.
It will be a season of question marks and challenges, but most of all a season with the Frozen Four serving as a goal that fans and team hope to celebrating together at season’s end.
