Frozen Four

Minnesota State University Mankato Athletics. After defeating Minnesota 5-1 in the Frozen Four semifinal game on Thursday, April 7, the University of ...

It became a 3-1 lead at 13:34 of the third, with DU capitalizing on an odd-man rush. Minnesota State outshot the Pioneers by a 9-3 margin in taking a 1-0 lead in the opening frame. Then, just as a Minnesota State penalty expired, defenseman Mike Benning wired a shot from the left dot that found the back of the net at 7:33 to give DU at 2-1 lead. The goal, the 12th of the year for Pavel, also drew an assist from Josh Groll. Then at 13:17, sophomore center David Silye ripped a shot high blocker side from the right dot to make it a 4-1 Minnesota State lead. Denver responded with five unanswered third-period goals in claiming the national title with a 5-1 win. The Mavericks bounced back in the second period, scoring twice to take a 2-1 lead into the final 20 minutes of regulation.

A trio of Detroit Red Wings picks pushed Denver to the NCAA hockey title at the Frozen Four, plus two undrafted players who could help the Wings.

He might have put up more, but he missed a month while playing for Team USA in the Beijing Olympics. In four games there, he had two goals, two assists and a plus-1 rating. He showed some offensive skill in the first round of the tournament, with three assists in Minnesota State’s 4-3 win over Harvard. This season, Meyers won 57.4% of his faceoffs, a number dropped only by his OK 45.6% (26-for-57) performance in three NCAA tournament games. The freshman played like it this season, too, with three goals and 15 assists (10th among Pioneers) with a plus-18 rating (ninth for DU) in 39 games. For as big as Tuomisto looms on the ice, with a 6-5, 210-pound frame, the Finn didn’t dominate the scoresheet. He was the only Pioneer with multiple points, and he also had two shots and finished with a plus-2 rating. Lee then fired a shot that was deflected by Montreal draft pick Brett Stapley for the score. Benning connected on a one-timer and suddenly the Pioneers, who had trailed 1-0 for nearly 30 minutes, were up 2-1. Mazur only had one other point in the NCAA tournament, but it was a big one: He fired the puck toward the net with less than three minutes to go in a tied first-round game against UMass Lowell, and teammate Cameron Wright deflected it into the net to keep the Pioneers from being upset in front of essentially a home crowd in Loveland, Colorado — about an hour outside of Denver. (It’s also the Pios’ fourth this century — to go with wins in 2004, 2005 and 2017 — while the Wolverines haven’t won a title since 1998.) But the 2019 second-round pick (No. 35 overall) was still effective on defense, wrapping things up with a plus-19 rating, tied for seventh on the DU roster. Let’s take a look at how that trio fared, plus a pair of Frozen Four participants (who didn’t play for Michigan; we’re pretty sure you’ve heard all about them by now) who could be of interest to the Wings.

With Hobey Baker Award winner Dryden McKay in goal, surely the Mavericks would hold on for their first national championship as a Division I program. What could ...

Denver delivered the dagger at 13:34, when Massimo Rizzo, on a two-on-one rush with Carter Mazur, scored to make it 3-1. … There will be time to look at this down the road. "I feel for the whole group,'' Hastings said. A dominant two periods of hockey at the NCAA men's Frozen Four had produced a 1-0 lead for Minnesota State, which had held Denver, the team with the highest national goals per game at 4.27, to eight shots on goal through 40 minutes. "Couldn't stop the bleeding,'' Mavericks coach Mike Hastings said. With Hobey Baker Award winner Dryden McKay in goal, surely the Mavericks would hold on for their first national championship as a Division I program.