Preview: No. 2 UND at No. 3 Denver

Dec. 1—DENVER, Colo. — When UND and Denver play in men's hockey, it's often a matchup between two of the NCAA's best teams.

The schools rank first and third all-time in national championships. They've won a combined eight Penrose Cups in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference's 10 seasons (they tied once), including the last four.

In the last 20 years, they've had just one sub-.500 season. It was Denver during the pandemic-altered 2020-21 campaign. The Pioneers came back and won the NCAA national title the following year.

It feels like nothing is new this weekend.

UND and Denver will meet in Magness Arena (8 p.m. Central on Friday and 7 p.m. Central on Saturday) as the NCAA's No. 2- and 3-ranked teams, holding a combined record of 21-5-2.

"It's why you want to play in this league — to be in matchups like this," Denver coach David Carle said. "They've obviously had a great start to their year, which is really good for our league. We've had a great start to our year, which is good for our league. And now, I think it's a real good measuring stick of where we stand in the conference.

"These games are always tightly contested, a lot of respect for how they play. We make each other better. You need a nemesis to push you. Like, where would (Roger) Federer be without (Rafael) Nadal? I think we both push each other in a really good way. We make each other better. We're always just elevating the bar."

This matchup is another intriguing one.

Denver has the nation's No. 1-scoring offense. The Pioneers are averaging 5.5 goals per game. Nobody is even close to that mark. Second-place Quinnipiac is averaging 4.36.

Pioneers forward Massimo Rizzo is the nation's leader in points (25). Pioneers forward Jack Devine is the nation's leader in goals (13).

"Early on, we challenged our returning top guys," Carle said. "With the youth we have in goal and on the back end, we felt like we would need to score. . . Rizzo and Devine would need to be excellent early, and they were. Our depth scoring didn't really start to come until six games in. Since then, Rizzo, Devine and (McKade) Webster haven't slowed down and the other guys have started to figure things out from a chemistry perspective.

"Our back end can move the puck well. I think it's all connected that way. It's quite fascinating we're scoring as much as we are. I know it's a statistical outlier at this stage, but we don't leave the games thinking, 'Gosh, we got a bunch of fluke goals.' I think we're generating them in a pretty consistent way. I think that bodes well for it being able to continue."

On the other side, UND has been one of the NCAA's top defensive teams.

The Fighting Hawks are allowing just 1.93 goals per game, second nationally to Wisconsin's 1.86. Goaltender Ludvig Persson has been the team's backbone, holding a .924 save percentage — tops in the NCHC.

"I know our team is concentrating on our play away from the puck," UND coach Brad Berry said. "We want to make sure we're in good spots and we're in good situations where we don't give up outnumbered rushes and give teams an opportunity for momentum that way.

"I think you want to create a lot of offense, but you have to do it smartly. You've got to make sure that you defend well. We've been finding that out compared to last year. If you defend well, you're going to get your opportunities and looks."

The players are excited to play in a game that will have a national spotlight.

"It's going to be fun," UND forward Griffin Ness said. "These are the best weekends. . . the games you can get up for. It's two great teams going at it and also a big six points in the NCHC standings. We have to take it like another series, play our game and I think we'll be fine."

UND Stat DU

3.64 (9th) Off 5.50 (1st)

1.92 (2nd) Def 2.64 (20th)

17.3 (39th) PP 24.2 (12th)

85.7 (15th) PK 82.7 (25th)

55.1 (5th) FO 51.7 (24th)

.921 (5th) SP .889 (49th)

National rank in parenthesis. Categories are offense (goals per game), defense (goals against per game), power play percentage, penalty kill percentage, faceoff percentage and team save percentage.

UND — F Carson Albrecht (undisclosed) out, F Jake Schmaltz (upper body) expected to play

Denver — D Garrett Brown (lower body) out, G Matt Davis (lower body) questionable, D Shai Buium (undisclosed) expected to play

Massimo Rizzo, who was once committed to UND, has been dominant this season. He's the nation's leading scorer with 25 points in 14 games. He has eight multi-point games and a pair of four-point nights. His plus-19 rating ranks No. 1 nationally, too. Last season, he scored each night of Denver's sweep of UND in Magness Arena.

Three UND players have experienced a win in Magness Arena with the Fighting Hawks. Riese Gaber, Louis Jamernik V and Griffin Ness were all in the lineup when UND beat the Pioneers 5-1 on Jan. 18, 2021, behind closed doors. But there will be others in the lineup Friday night who have done it more recently. Defenseman Garrett Pyke and forward Cameron Berg both had one-goal, two-point nights in leading their teams to wins in Magness last season. Berg was playing for Omaha. Pyke was at Alaska. Pyke figures to play an especially large role this weekend in trying to slow down Denver's No. 1-ranked offense.

If either team is able to get more than a split out of this series, it would be a huge boost and give that team an upper-hand in the battle for the Penrose Cup. But that also seems like a tall task. Expect a split with two high-scoring games.

Friday: UND 4, Denver 3

Saturday: Denver 5, UND 3

Scoring

9 Jackson Blake (CAR), so, f, 10-8—18

17 Riese Gaber, sr, f, 7-6—13

14 Cameron Berg (NYI), jr, f, 4-8—12

22 Owen McLaughlin (PHI), so, f, 3-9—12

28 Hunter Johannes, 5th, f, 6-4—10

7 Garrett Pyke, 5th, d, 1-9—10

18 Jayden Perron (CAR), fr, f, 7-0—7

6 Logan Britt, 5th, d, 2-4—6

27 Louis Jamernik V, sr, f, 2-4—6

4 Jake Livanavage, fr, d, 1-4—5

21 Ben Strinden (NSH), so, f, 3-1—4

26 Dylan James (DET), so, f, 1-3—4

29 Jackson Kunz (VAN), jr, f, 1-3—4

8 Jake Schmaltz (BOS), jr, f, 0-4—4

11 Griffin Ness, sr, f, 1-2—3

20 Keaton Pehrson, 5th, d, 0-3—3

2 Bennett Zmolek, so, d, 0-3—3

5 Dane Montgomery, so, f, 1-1—2

13 Carson Albrecht, sr, f, 1-1—2

25 Abram Wiebe (VGK), fr, d, 0-1—1

32 Ludvig Persson, sr, g, 0-1—1

15 Nate Benoit (MIN), fr, d, 0-0—0

26 Michael Emerson (CAR), fr, f, 0-0—0

10 Tanner Komzak, fr, d, 0-0—0

30 Hobie Hedquist, fr, g, dnp

1 Kaleb Johnson, so, g, dnp

Goaltending

32 Ludvig Persson, sr, 11-2-1, 1.85, .924

30 Hobie Hedquist, fr, dnp

1 Kaleb Johnson, so, dnp

Scoring

13 Massimo Rizzo (CAR), jr, f, 6-19—25

4 Jack Devine (FLA), jr, f, 13-11—24

15 Carter King, sr, f, 8-11—19

28 Zeev Buium, fr, d, 4-14—18

6 McKade Webster (TBL), sr, f, 6-9—15

2 Sean Behrens (COL), jr, d, 1-13—14

9 Boston Buckberger, fr, d, 3-10—13

16 Tristan Broz (PIT), jr, f, 4-8—12

10 Miko Matikka (ARI), fr, f, 7-3—10

14 Rieger Lorenz (MIN), so, f, 6-4—10

8 Shai Buium (DET), jr, d, 3-7—10

7 Aidan Thompson (CHI), so, f, 2-8—10

18 Jared Wright (LAK), so, f, 4-4—8

22 Connor Caponi, sr, f, 2-5—7

12 Sam Harris (MTL), fr, f, 3-2—5

24 Kieran Cebrian, fr, f, 2-2—4

5 Garrett Brown (WPG), fr, d, 0-4—4

21 Kent Anderson, so, d, 2-1—3

3 Cale Ashcroft, fr, d, 1-2—3

11 Lucas Olvestad, so, d, 0-2—2

39 Alex Weiermair, fr, f, 0-1—1

1 Freddie Halyk, fr, g, 0-1—1

29 Tristan Lemyre, so, f, 0-0—0

35 Matt Davis, jr, g, 0-0—0

17 Peter LaJoy, fr, f, dnp

30 Paxton Geisel, fr, g, dnp

31 Jack Caruso, sr, g, dnp

Goaltending

1 Freddie Halyk, fr, 7-2, 2.32, .899

35 Matt Davis, jr, 3-1-1, 3.22, .872

30 Paxton Geisel, fr, dnp

31 Jack Caruso, sr, dnp