Photo by: Michael Furman
After a weekend off, the top-ranked Pioneers head to Wisconsin to face Western Collegiate Hockey Association rival, Wisconsin.
Wisconsin is currently ranked No. 3 in the USCHO.com poll and the USA Today poll.
The Pioneers will be fresh after a break over the weekend. However, they will be short two players for the first game.
After the fight at the end of DU’s last game against the University of Alaska-Anchorage, both junior John Ryder and freshman William Wrenn received one-game suspensions for leaving the bench to join the fight.
Wisconsin is coming into the weekend after facing Denver’s in-state rival, Colorado College. The two teams each won one game.
In the first game of the series, it was a great performance from Wisconsin goaltender Scott Gudmandson as he propelled Wisconsin to a 4-0 win. Gudmandson made 35 saves in the contest.
The second game saw a much different performance. Gudmandson was pulled from the game just more than 14 minutes in. After 17 shots and four goals allowed he gave way to back-up goalie Brett Bennett.
However, Wisconsin came storming back in the game, but fell just short losing 6-5.
The match-up this weekend has a few things to watch.
Two Hobey Baker hopefuls face-off off as both senior captains try and make a statement in these games. Wisconsin’s Blake Geoffrion and Denver’s Rhett Rakhshani were teammates before college for two years at the United States National Team Development Program.
Another major story line is where these teams will be in the WCHA standings at the end of the weekend.
Denver is currently No. 2 in the WCHA, two points behind Minnesota-Duluth with two less games played. Wisconsin is in fourth place, three points behind Denver.
With the top six teams in the WCHA within six points of each other, there could be a lot of moving around in the standings. With two months of conference play left, there are many different teams who will have a say in how the standings end up.
This is the first time these two teams will meet this season, after Denver won all five games the two teams played last year, including the WCHA semi-final game.
Denver will look to continue their success against Wisconsin this weekend, and hold on to their spot at the top of the polls.
