For the second straight season the DU hockey team will be making a trip to the NCAA Frozen Four.
On Sunday Denver’s 4-2 victory over the New Hampshire Wildcats insured that all four teams in this year’s Frozen Four, to be held April 7-9 in Columbus, Ohio, would be from the WCHA.
Denver was ready for a tough battle against the Wildcats and that is exactly what they got in a physical and close game.
Pioneer junior Gabe Gauthier got things off on the right foot with his 21st goal of the year, but the Wildcats tied the game before the end of the first period.
New Hampshire was the first to score in the second period, but just a few minutes later Gauthier added another goal and tied the game before the end to the second period.
The third period started with the Pioneers ready to take the lead and punch their ticket to Columbus.
With less than five minutes remaining in the period and overtime looming, freshman Ryan Dingle put all that to rest with his 13th goal of the season and the eventual game winner.
With under one minute remaining, New Hampshire pulled their goalie looking for the game-tying goal, but instead found Kevin Ulanski’s stick.
He fed it to Jeff Drummond who gave it to Gauthier for the hat trick on the empty net.
“Twenty guys were a part of this team last year and the experience they gained from it is invaluable, the physical and emotional energy needed to accomplish something like that,” said Head Coach George Gwozdecky.
The Pioneers defeated Bemidji State 4-3 in overtime on Saturday morning to advance to the northeast regional final against New Hampshire.
Against Bemidji State the Pioneers trailed 1-0 early, but freshman Andrew Thomas answered with his second goal of the season.
Later in the period the Beavers scored again to make it 2-1, but freshman Tom May scored his second goal of the season one minute later.
It was 2-2 after one period until Ulanski gave Denver its first lead of the game just one minute into the second period.
After a 3-2 Pioneer lead heading into the third period, the Beaver’s aggressive play didn’t stop as they scored two minutes into the period to tie up the score.
After neither team could find the net the rest of the third period, Ulanski answered again for Denver with his 11th goal of the season just three minutes into overtime.
Denver is now set to square off in a much-anticipated battle against Colorado College April 7.
The Pioneers and the Tigers have met five times this season, with Denver winning three of the games and the last meeting coming in a 1-0 DU victory at the finals of the WCHA tournament.
The other match up on April 7 features WCHA foes Minnesota and North Dakota, with the winners of the two games meeting April 9.
“This year’s team is different. We have a different identity, we are much more consistent than last year,” said Gwozdecky. “We are the top scoring team in the nation this year, but both teams are key down the stretch.”
The Pioneer’s are looking for their third back-to-back title-winning season. The last time this happened was in 1968 and 1969.
“This year we have been great offensively throughout the team. Eight guys have ten or more goals and we are a difficult team to match up against,” said Gwozdecky.
