From October 2022 to March 2023, the University of Denver hockey season held six months of excitement. From the highs of having the second consecutive 30-win season to the lows of losing in the first round of the NCAA tournament, the 2022-23 season was one for the books.
The season started with the co-hosting of the Ice Breaker Tournament where DU beat both Notre Dame and Maine by scores of 5-2 and 3-1, respectively, and won the tournament overall.
“You want your young guys to get a taste of what it’s like to win a trophy and having to close games out, and to do that early I think is good for the confidence of the group, particularly for the new people that are in the room to be a part of that. I think it’s a really good thing for us going forward to lean back upon later in the year,” said Head Coach David Carle after winning the Ice Breaker trophy.
They then traveled to UMass where they had one of only two pairs of weekend-long losses falling 2-4 and 0-3. They bounced back and showed resilience to losing for a pair of wins vs Providence for homecoming weekend, one of which was an overtime win, one of only four throughout the season. The national championship banner from last season was raised into the rafters of Magness Arena before the first game against Providence.
The Crimson and Gold started NCHC play in late October in Oxford, Ohio with another pair of weekend wins and the beginning of a series sweep vs. the Miami Redhawks. They continued conference play against who became their toughest opponent of the season, the St. Cloud State Huskies. The Huskies beat the Crimson and Gold in three of the four matchups this season and outscored them 15-9.
DU then conquered North Dakota, who they swept for the first time since the 2009-10 season. They then split their only weekend match-up with Omaha 0-3, 6-3 in Denver. Arizona State traveled to Magness Arena at the start of December and was swept 3-2, 5-2. Minnesota Duluth was next up for Denver and sent both games to overtime but the Crimson and Gold were able to get two victories in the games against the Bulldogs.
DU then faced two non-conference opponents back to back between the holiday break, sweeping Lindenwood and splitting with Alaska Fairbanks. Miami (OH) was outscored 14-0 here in Mangess in January with Carter King (Calgary, Alberta) and Tristan Broz (Bloomington, Minn.) recording hat tricks on separate nights against the RedHawks
“He is a really fast player. We saw it on the goal where he drove by. You thought he might have to fight off a check to get to the net, but he just blew past a guy and really showcased his speed,” said Carle postgame after Broz’s four-goal game.
The battle for the Gold Pan started in late January with a special game at Ball Arena with DU winning it in a shutout, 2-0. The following weekend they traveled down south to Colorado Springs to secure the trophy with a 4-1 victory.
After the season sweep of North Dakota, the Crimson and Gold traveled to Duluth in hopes of adding back-to-back season sweeps but that ended in the second game of the series after UMD captured a 6-5 victory.
The team then traveled to Kalamazoo, Michigan for their only series vs Western Michigan, who was ranked 5th at the time, but that didn’t stop Denver as they swept the weekend 5-2 and 3-1 to clinch the Penrose Cup as NCHC regular season champions.
The regular season came to a close and the team prepared for the NCHC Playoffs. Denver hosted Miami (OH) and swept the best of three series with ease, 6-2 and 7-2 with Jack Devine (Glencoe, Ill.) scoring four goals in game one.
“I think for myself just having a whole ‘nother year of development. A whole ‘nother year of just being able to work with the coaches. … I’ve been able to learn a lot and improve and develop my game, so I think that just trusting in their process has been one of the keys,” said Devine post-game after his four-goal game vs Miami (OH).
They then traveled to St. Paul, Minn. for the semifinal round of the Frozen Faceoff where they fell to CC for the first time this season, 0-1. DU secured a number one seed for NCAA Regionals and traveled to Manchester, New Hampshire to face Cornell. The Crimson and Gold were shut out for the second straight game, and their season ended with a 0-2 loss.
“I tip my hat to those guys, their coaching staff and players. They have been able to stay at the top of college hockey for a long time,” said Cornell’s Head Coach Mike Schafer on DU Hockey after that loss.
“When we recruit student-athletes to Denver we talk a lot about playing in this tournament, playing in big moments, getting to Frozen Fours and hanging banners. We fell short of that goal this season,” said Carle post-game.
Denver ended the season 30-10-0 and captured their second straight 30-win season for the first time in program history. Alongside the great team accomplishment, many individual accolades were captured by the team this season.
Senior goaltender Magnus Chrona (Stockholm, Sweden) was named Goaltender of the Year in the NCHC and was also the recipient of the Three Stars Award. Senior captain Justin Lee (Waskada, Manitoba) was named the NCHC Defensive Defenseman of the Year while junior defenseman Mike Benning (St. Albert, Alberta) was named Offensive Defenseman of the Year. The NCHC All-Conference first team included sophomore forward Massimo Rizzo (Burnaby, B.C.), Benning and Chrona while the second team included sophomore forward Carter Mazur (Jackson, Mich.). Sophomore defenseman Sean Behrens (Barrington, Ill.) was named an honorable mention on that team and helped Team USA take home a bronze medal in the World Junior Ice Hockey competition back in December and January.
With four members of the team already signed professional contracts and more to come within the upcoming weeks of the postseason next year’s squad will have to adjust and connect without many of their current members.
“Winning championships is not easy, and our group last year found a way to do that, all these players who are graduating were a part of that. They’ll walk together forever as champions with last year’s group,” said Carle after the round one loss to Cornell in the NCAA semifinals.
