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The University of New Hampshire defeated #8 Boston University on Sunday to vault up to #2 in the Pairwise Rankings. The weekend victories by the University of Denver and the Wildcats set up a possible #1 vs. #2 scenario on Saturday night at Magness Arena.
But before that can happen, DU will have to face #9 ranked Yale University on Friday night, while New Hampshire travels to #17 Colorado College. Both the Bulldogs and Tigers will be itching for upsets, hoping that DU and UNH's players are looking past the first game of the weekend.
15 comments:
Seven of the eight future members of the NCHC are ranked in the Top 20 again this week.
DU #1
UND #5
SCSU #10
Miami #11
WMU #14
CC t#17
UNO t#19
Once finals are over, the coaching staff needs to really drill home the importance of this upcoming rence weekend. These are very important opportunities to bank some PWR comparisons against some very eastern opposition.
While I know DU will get up for UNH, I do have concerns about Yale and the letdown from the CC series. DU needs to put the accelerator on fromt he drop of the puck and compete hard.
Right now, I think Sammy has earned the #1 goalie I'd let him start both this weekend, assuming he does well.
Agreed.
With the students on XMAS Break Magness is going to be deader than a doorknob on Friday.
Friday night has "trap game" written all over it.
If DU Athletics was smart, they'd be running 2-for-1's and other deals this weekend. Unfortunately, they don't usually do that kind of thing.
Thanks to the new ticketing software over on DenverPioneers.com you can see exactly how many tickets and what seats are available.
I think the UNH game may come close to a sellout.
The Yale game looks to be in the 4,000 range.
The Thanksgiving weekend games have been a pretty good success, crowd-wise over the past couple of seasons.
Is it like a CC game? No. There are no students there, so the energy is...different. But many families seem to have found the Thanksgiving weekend games a welcome distraction during what has become a de facto 4 day homage to consumerism.
Also, DU youth hockey (think it's the Squirts and Pee Wees...) hosts a big tournament over the weekend, so there are generally lots of youth teams in attendance, which I always love to see.
Looking for a simple explanation for DU red hot start?
LaLeggia, Makowski, Mayfield &/or Zajac could start at forward for 80-90% of the teams in the WCHA.
So when DU's cycling the puck in the offensive zone its like have five forwards out there.
I seem to remember reading something a few years back that Makowski had been a forward and that his conversion to defense is why he played an extra year of juniors.
Didn't know that about Makowski but it sure explains a lot.
Wish they were still doing the Denver Cup format during Thanksgiving. I'm going to miss having that free game before the regular DU game later in the night. And it would be cool to see New Hampshire and Yale go at it.
My understanding was they could not find the fourth team to play. I love watching the extra games too, just watching hockey for the love of hockey. See two teams where I do not have a stake in play.
Looking forward to the Yale game on Friday night. I haven't been able to get to the Church of St. Maggie all season so far.
Well, you need to absolve yourself of that there sin and yourself in to the arena to cheer on the Pios!
As much as I would benefit from a 2 for 1 or other ticket offer I think DU is probably wise to avoid watering down ticket prices too much. Keeps the season ticket holders happy and avoids cheapening the product. In contrast, men's basketball seems to heavily reliant on free/highly discounted tickets (Rising Stars, sponsor employees, etc.) Even with a free DU faculty/staff ticket and gold club buffet offer for the Cal game the attendance was disappointingly low for a marquee Pac12 team that even had a Colorado player on its roster. The provost/chancellor have identified MBB as the key DI sport for revenue growth (with hockey already a stable producer) but it is not clear that the fan base is there, even with an entertaining experienced team on the court and some strong local players like Colorado Mr. Basketball Brett Olson. I would like to think that joining the WCC (Gonzaga, BYU, etc.) would boost attendance but there is no way to know for sure.
Basketball is a tough sell in Colorado, where there is no history of success at any school or even at the pro level.
DU has made progress, even with the subsidized tickets, there are more people coming. The problem with the Cal game was a 6pm start time (for TV), which is awkward for people who must come from work.
DU games should start at 7 pm or if you want kids there, 4 pm on wekeends.
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