In front of a crowd of 17,952, the most for an indoor college hockey game since 2018, DU shutout Colorado College — the fifth shutout of their last six meetings — with a 2-0 victory. Following the win and a Minnesota Duluth sweep of St. Cloud State, Denver is back in pole position for the Primrose Cup, which is awarded to the NCHC regular-season champion.

Senior goaltender Magnus Chrona (Stockholm, Sweden) has been particularly dominant against Colorado College, not conceding a goal in his last six games against the Tigers. The senior netminder has been a mainstay in the DU net over his four years at Denver. Senior defenseman and Team Captain Justin Lee (Waskada, Manitoba) commented on the impact Chrona has had on DU hockey. 

“He means a ton to the program. He has kept us in countless games over his four years here and is a big part of our team. We are lucky to have him,” said Lee.

However, the biggest story of the night was the raucous atmosphere inside Ball Arena, which hosted a near-sellout crowd. Chrona was pleased with the atmosphere of the game and was asked to compare it to last year’s Frozen Four. 

“It was better,” he said. 

While the atmosphere was special, there was still a game to be played, and DU harnessed the energy by striking quickly, opening the scoring just over five minutes into the game. The opener came when freshman forward Jared Wright (Burnsville, Minn.) deflected a point shot from senior defenseman Kyle Mayhew (Anaheim Hills, Calif.) past Colorado College goaltender Kaidan Mbereko. 

Despite the early goal, Head Coach David Carle was not pleased with the overall first-period performance. 

“I didn’t love our first period with the puck. We really struggled to have any sustained offensive zone time, to get through the neutral zone. To be honest, I thought we were fortunate to be up 1-0,” he said.

Part of this can be attributed to the progress CC has made as a program this season, going from pushover to a team that is capable of springing an upset even against the best teams in the country, as seen by their two wins over St. Cloud State. Chrona commented post-game that CC was “more structured this year in the offensive and defensive zone.” 

Despite the structural improvement, it broke down midway through the second period when junior forward Mckade Webster (St. Louis, Missouri) pulled off a brilliant piece of skill to get past his defender and pick out a pass to junior forward Connor Caponi (Milwaukee, Wisc.), who found himself alone in front of an empty net, which he did not miss. This was the first goal of the season for Caponi, who is the quintessential scrappy fourth-line grinder. 

While Denver was in control the rest of the game and put CC under a barrage of pressure, both at even strength and during their numerous power plays, CC’s goalie Mbereko was a wall in front of goal, making what could have been a four- or five-goal victory for DU a 2-0 win. His standout moment was when he robbed sophomore defenseman Shai Buium (San Diego, Calif.) in such a ridiculous manner that the goal horn operator mistakenly blew the horn.

Overall, the night was a massive success both on and off the ice for DU. Head Coach Carle summed it up best. 

“We took a lot of pride in what the night was, and that is not even on the ice but just the event that it was,” he said. 

Denver will play CC in Colorado Springs next Saturday in their second meeting of the season. They will return home to Magness Arena on Feb. 10 to take on another NCHC rival, North Dakota.