Boone (below) and the DU Pioneers will need to be sharp in the East Regional to beat the scrappy Tigers and stout Big Red
The University of Denver has a proud hockey history.
Their 7 NCAA Titles are the second-most in the history of Division 1 hockey. The Pioneers have maintained a competitive club for most of coach George Gwozdecky’s 15-year tenure in Denver. And their 2004 & 2005 National Championship years also produced Center Paul Stastny, the beating heart of both the Colorado Avalanche and the silver medal-winning USA Olympic Hockey team.
DU won the McNaughton Cup as the WCHA regular season Champions with a 27-9-4 record that included a 10-game winning streak and no back-to-back losses. The Pioneers also boast two Hobey Baker Award (NCAA Hockey MVP) Top 10 Finalists in prolific Forward Rhett Rakhshani and Goaltender Marc Cheverie.
So why are Pioneer fans so nervous about the upcoming NCAA Tournament?
Well, it has a lot to do with a WCHA Tournament that saw Denver storm in as the top seed and then do what they hadn’t done all season: lose two games in a row.
DU dropped their opener to North Dakota 3-4 after dominating the Fighting Sioux in two games in the regular season by a margin of 6 goals to 2.
Then, in the 3rd Place Game, the Pioneers were outplayed at every level by Wisconsin in a 3-6 shellacking. Would-be star goalie Marc Cheverie was chased out of the game after giving up 3 early goals on 8 shots.
The Pioneers, who were known for their consistency in the regular season, could not find any kind of rhythm on offense or defense in the postseason.
Luckily the Conference Tournament is just a warm-up for the NCAA Tourney. Denver can still end up National Champions this season, but the road is difficult and fraught with peril. First up is the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) Tigers, who won the Atlantic Conference in convincing fashion with a 6-1 drubbing of Sacred Heart.
Now, the Atlantic Conference pales by comparison to the WCHA. The Tigers are only NCAA-bound because they won their Conference.  (The only way an Atlantic team was finding its way into the 16-team Tournament.) And RIT will enter the East Regional in Albany, New York as the #4 seed.
So, despite their offensive voracity, RIT will need some serious mojo to move past the Pioneers in their first NCAA appearance. This is a could-be trap game, but I expect Denver to find its scoring touch early en route to trouncing the Tigers by three goals. Without an early score, though, the Pioneers may find themselves in the same position that killed them in both WCHA Tourney games: playing from behind by 2+ goals.
DU & RIT share the East Regional with the #2 Cornell Big Red and the #3 New Hampshire Wildcats. All you Pioneers fans out there, pay very careful attention…
Cornell is built to beat DU! Go New Hampshire! Beat Big Red!
Seriously, the difference in match-ups for Denver is night and day. Cornell sports a seriously stifling defense and one of the better goalies in the tournament. The Pioneers are 4-4 in regular season play versus the Big Red and 2-2 head-to-head in the history of the NCAA Tournament. That compared with a 9-3 regular season, 2-0 tournament record versus the Wildcats of New Hampshire.
No good can come of a second-round matchup with Cornell, as even a victory would be the kind of hard-fought, blood ‘n guts affair that wears a hockey team down. That kind of game early in the tourney could spell doom for the Pioneers against the likes of Wisconsin, Miami, Michigan, North Dakota or Boston College down the road.
Those 5 teams are the biggest fish outside of our own region. Check out the bracket here, and then check out the full NCAA Division 1 Tournament Preview here.
You can watch DU vs RIT live at 1:07 MST on Friday, March 26th on ESPNU HD (Direct TV 614, DishNet 148) or listen to the game in live streaming audio here.
