From: CollegeHockeyNews.com4. Colorado College vs. Denver
Denver leads 151-99-9
Distance apart: 65 miles
WCHA tournament titles: Denver 13, CC 1
NCAA titles: Denver 7, CC 2
These intra-state rivals not only play for conference position, bragging rights and pride, but also Gold. A Gold Pan, that is. Since the 1993-94 season the winner of this season series takes home a dinged-up old mining pan lovingly referred to as the Gold Pan trophy. CC kept the Pan in Colorado Springs six years in a row until the 2003-04 season when the Pioneers brought it to Denver. Denver not only held on to the prize in 2004-05 by tying CC in the season series, they beat the Tigers in the WCHA title game, and again in the NCAA Frozen Four in Columbus.
The CC-Denver rivalry, one of the longest in our top ten, began 56 years ago and has tallied over 250 games. Colorado College head coach Scott Owens remembers his time in goal for the Tigers in a game at archrival Denver, seeking protection from the very net it was his job to protect.
"The student section at Denver's old arena was way up at one end, overlooking the visiting goalie's net for two periods, and I used to get all sorts of stuff thrown down at me from there. During one game, I spent the entire third period, when the puck was in their end, backed into the net to avoid getting hit."
Hopefully there where no animals involved this time around.
"At another game," added Owens, "someone let about 100 live mice loose on the ice. It may have been closer to fifty, but it seemed like 100. The game was held up for about 20 minutes while everyone scurried around trying to catch them."
You know someone in Denver's research lab was pissed. Any retaliation?
"At a game at the Broadmoor Arena, one of our fans released a black swan on the ice. I'm not sure what it was supposed to signify exactly, but it was pretty funny. You know how college kids are. Always trying to do some crazy stunt."
Well, at least that stunt didn't take as long to corral.
1 comment:
Jimbo had this take on another DU Rivalry from the 1960's...
Definitely a good list, but I think that there is one old time rivalry that should be and needs to be mentioned. Denver/Michigan Tech. It was a classic. Nothing especially dirty or anything like that. It was just outstanding, great hockey. This rivalry was at its high point during the 60's when the Huskies and the Pios ruled the roost. 9 times it was one or the other who appeared in the NCAA tournament. 6 times it was one of these teams who won it all. It was like the ultimate chess match between two of the greatest coaches ever--John MacInnes and Murray Armstrong. It was about great players--for MTU guys like Lou Angotti and Tony Esposito and for DU it was Bill Masterton and Keith Magnuson. No disrespect to CC but the DU/MTU games were the ones I loved to see. Fans were never cheated and it was College Hockey at its absolute best.
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