The DU men’s hockey regular season is officially underway, and this past weekend the team played two home games as part of the Ice Breaker Tournament, the traditional start to the Division I college hockey season. Denver hosted the tournament alongside the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, marking the first time the tournament was co-hosted by two universities in its 23-year history. No. 1 DU defeated no. 11 Notre Dame 5-2 Friday night, and unranked Maine 3-1 Saturday night, en route to winning the tournament. DU is now 5-3 all-time in its four appearances in the tournament.
The weekend started with a tough opponent, the Fighting Irish. The game started very physically as both teams wanted to set the tone early. But the Irish would prove to be undisciplined and commit more penalties than Denver early on in the game. It would take two power play opportunities for DU to put up a mark on the scoreboard. Sustained control and pressure by the first power play unit led to quality chances on the second power play of the period. Sophomore defenseman Shai Buium (San Diego, Calif.) shot the puck off the post and senior forward Casey Dornbach (Edina, Minn.) finished away the rebound for the first goal of the regular season. This was Dornabch’s first career goal with Denver upon his transfer from Harvard University in July.
Special teams would continue to be the name of the game for DU. Sophomore forward Jack Devine (Glencoe, Ill.) would capitalize on the fourth power play of the game off of an incredible feed from freshman forward Rieger Lorenz (Calgary, Alberta). Devine exchanged the puck at the blue line with Lorenz who then drove hard to the net and fed Devine in the slot who finished into a wide-open net. DU finished the game two for five on the power play.
With 40 seconds left in the second period, sophomore forward Carter Mazur (Jackson, Mich.) expanded the lead to two for DU. Mazur fired a sharp wrist shot that went top shelf and gave Denver even more momentum going into the intermission.
DU’s defense was firm in the first two periods. They outshot Notre Dame 21-6 and only allowed a power-play goal that was near impossible to stop by senior goaltender Magnus Chrona (Stockholm, Sweden). Head Coach David Carle was satisfied with the defensive performance. “I thought we showcased the team speed we have. Our defensive gaps were good, our reloads were good and we made it really hard on them, ” he said.
Two more goals were scored in the third period to give DU the exclamation point. Sophomore forward Owen Ozar (Prince Albert, Saskatchewan) shimmied past the Irish defenseman and passed a backdoor feed to junior forward McKade Webster (St Louis, Mo.) who finished a wide-open goal. Ozar finished with two assists on the night. Dornbach finished his second goal of the night with an empty net goal and Denver would go on to win 5-2.
On Saturday night, the team’s focus shifted to the Maine Black Bears, who topped Air Force 4-1 the previous night, giving Denver the opportunity to win the whole tournament.
It was all DU in the first period. It would only take six minutes and 57 seconds for junior defenseman Mike Benning (St. Albert, Alberta) to get the scoring started. Benning took a cross-ice pass from sophomore forward Massimo Rizzo (Burnaby, B.C) and fired a laser that pierced the top right corner of the goal. Denver would continue to dominate for the rest of the period and ended up outshooting the Black Bears 17-6.
A power play 17 minutes into the first period led to the second goal of the game for the Crimson and Gold. Good pressure from the first power play unit led Dornbach to redirect a tipped shot to Mazur and capitalize on the man advantage. Mazur would also score another goal two minutes later, receiving another pass from Dornbach and firing a missile off of the far post of the net and in.
Denver had all the momentum going into the second period but sophomore goaltender Matt Davis (Calgary, Alberta) was called upon to make several saves that would keep the game in DU’s favor. Davis stopped 12 shots in the second period and kept the game scoreless 59 out of the 60 minutes the game was played. Davis thought the three-goal lead from the first period was great for him and gave him the confidence he needed to make saves. “It was awesome. It took a lot of pressure off myself so I could just go out there and play,” he said.
DU would go on to win the game 3-1 and allowed a goal with just 39 seconds left in the 3rd period. After the game, honors were awarded to fellow tournament participants and the trophy was presented to the champions of the tournament. Mazur was awarded Most Outstanding Player for the Ice Breaker Tournament, registering three goals and one assist on the weekend. Davis was awarded an All-Tournament Team Honor with his win Saturday night.
Denver hopes to continue the early success of the season with their first road trip. They take on the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, Mass. on both Friday and Saturday nights. They will return back home Oct. 21 and take on Providence, when DU will raise their 2022 National Championship banner into the rafters of Magness Arena.
