After putting up a lackluster 9-12-1 regular-season record, the fifth-seeded DU hockey team played the Omaha Mavericks in Grand Forks, N.D. on Saturday for a single-elimination NCHC Frozen Faceoff Quarterfinal game. Denver’s three goals in the third period gave them the edge for a 5-4 win to advance to the semifinal game.
Junior forward Hank Crone (Dallas, Texas) opened the scoring for the game, ripping a wrist shot into the goal at 8:25. The Mavericks got into a groove six minutes later with a goal on their second shot of the game, followed by another goal 58 seconds later to give Omaha a 2-1 lead at the end of the first period. Though the Mavericks only put up 5 shots to Denver’s 15, the Mavericks scored on 40% of those shots.
The second period had penalties galore, with a total of 34 penalty minutes between the two teams. Both teams were given five-minute majors and game misconducts for contact to the head, with freshman defenseman Antti Tuomisto (Pori, Finland) getting ejected at 5:17.
Omaha made it 3-1 with a backdoor goal from Tyler Weiss at 14:47. Sophomore forward Bobby Brink (Minnetonka, Minn.) found the goalpost with a one-timer on the final power play of the period at 16:57. This gave Omaha a 3-2 lead going into intermission. Denver outshot Omaha 15-5 for the second period in a row.
Things heated up for DU in the third period with freshman defenseman Mike Benning (St. Albert, Alberta) tying up the game 42 seconds in, burying a one-timer over the glove of Omaha goaltender Isaiah Saville. Another goal from Benning 10 minutes later gave Denver their first lead in the game since late in the first period.
Though Omaha had 18 shots in the third period, more than triple than that of the first two periods, only one found its way past sophomore goaltender Magnus Chrona (Stockholm, Sweden) who went go on to finish the game with 24 total saves.
The game stayed tied for less than two minutes before graduate transfer defenseman Bo Hanson (Boise, Idaho) got one in the net. Skating as a forward for the first time in his career, Hanson positioned himself in front of the net. At 14:57, he batted the rebound from freshman forward Connor Caponi’s (Nashville, Tenn.) shot past Saville. The goal marked Hanson’s first-ever for Denver.
Senior forward and team captain Kohen Olischefski (Abbotsford, B.C.), who had 3 shots and 1 assist in the game, called Saturday afternoon “the greatest, proudest moment” of his career so far at DU.
In a postgame press conference, head coach David Carle said, “I think our guys were always confident that if they kept going and playing the right way that they’d get rewarded, and I’m really happy for our players that they got the win.”
On Monday night, the team faces North Dakota in Grand Forks for the semifinal game. If DU wins, they will advance to the NCHC championship game. The seeding for the larger NCAA Division I hockey tournament will be announced on Sunday, March 21. The bracket can be viewed here when the teams have been announced.
