Less than a week before the Legendary Frozen Four Championship begins, all the best Division 1 studs in the country from the Universities of Denver, Boston, Western Michigan, and Penn State are getting settled in St. Louis, MO to prepare for what will be a very high-paced grueling showdown starting on April 10th and ending on the 12th. There isn’t any other collegiate level sport that demands physically demanding perfection at breakneck speed, quite like the Frozen Four Championship. An NHL recruiters favorite time of the year to evaluate the level of heart these young men possess to make it to the show. Denver and Boston being at the top of every recruiter’s radar consistently.
One of the most highly touted teams in the Frozen Four championship, Denver University, isn’t talked about enough. The Pioneers have won the most NCAA D1 championships in history with a total of 10, looking to make it 11 on April 12th. Year after year, being the winningest Division 1 team in NCAA history, the defending champions and also this year’s No.3 seed aren’t to be overlooked or taken lightly, even though they had finished the regular season in 6th place and advanced to the Frozen Four after beating the No.1 overall seed Boston College 3-1 in what was a thrilling rematch of last year’s National Championship game. Putting 3 goals on the board against Boston College’s netminder Jacob Fowler, who is the 2nd best NCAA D1 tendy, was a statement that echoed throughout the entire college hockey fanbase.
The Pioneer’s main star Jack Devine has proven to be a top tier D1 player leading the nation in points and assists this season having Denver’s offense ranked at 1st place averaging 4 goals per game as a team. Devine has looked like a man amongst boys out on the ice for a couple years now and has made plenty dazzling NHL level plays, nonstop. The same goes for Aiden Thompson, who has been on a monstrous tear this year as well. Both Devine and Thompson have taken leaps and bounds to be able to develop at the pace that they have over the years. The increased chemistry between the two is simply incredible.
DU has a lot of depth on the front line especially and will need to utilize every skater as they have been, which is what the mastermind and coach, David Carle has continued to do for three seasons short of a decade now. Coach Carle is now in his 7thseason as the HC of Denver University with a (148-62-16) record and has led DU to win 30 games for 4 years in a row while also having won two of the last three NCAA championships. Most would say those numbers are remarkable to have on David Carle’s resume, who now deserves to be mentioned as one of the greatest NCAA D1 hockey coaches of all time.
The Pio veteran and Senior (G) Matt Davis will look to repeat last year’s success and continue gatekeeping the way that he has throughout the season but ultimately will want to level up to try and record a shutout one last time to add to the historical run that he has had as a Denver Pioneer since the beginning of his outstanding college career. This being his final year, Davis will look to go out with a bang, another banner, and another championship trophy to add to DU’s shrine of “Winners Only” hardware at Magness Arena in Denver, Colorado.
Dante Robinson | Senior NHL Analyst for TheNSR Network