News & Notes From Around PioNation

(above) Security video from the lobby of the Aloft Green Bay Hotel appears to show a pasty faced red head tampering with the fire alarm at 7 AM on Sunday morning

DU started four Coloradans against the Fighting Sioux on Sunday.  Drew Shore, Luke Salazar, Chris Nutini and John Ryder.  Certainly a great indicator on the strides youth hockey has made in the state.

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Mike Chambers Blog has a story about the fire alarms going off in the team hotel on Sunday morning.

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DU's inability to score on several good power play chances early in the second period, cost them some momentum according to the Denver Post.

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Good luck to DU's graduating Seniors: Joey Brehm, Jon Cook, Dustin Jackson, Anthony Maiani, Kyle Ostrow, Chris Nutini, Josh Rosenholtz, Jesse Martin & John Ryder.  Martin, Jackson & Ryder have eligibility left and may choose to play for DU next season or in the future.  The Seniors who depart, leave with over 100 career victories and four NCAA Tournament invites.  Both school records.

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Congrats to Patrick Wiercioch on recording his first NHL point with the Ottawa Senators. Chris Neil’s goal was originally credited to Nick Foligno, with assists to Neil and Jesse Winchester, but was later changed to Neil from Winchester and Wiercioch.

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Yesterday was the busiest day in LetsGoDU history with 2,407 visits.  This month almost 40,000 visits will be recorded.  Sometime over the summer we will receive our millionth visitor.  Thanks as always to our loyal readers, fans, alumni and students who have made this all possible.

Photos From DU's Senior Night

(above) DU seniors Jesse Martin, Anthony Maiani, Chris Nutini, Dustin Jackson, Joey Brehm, Jon Cook, Josh Rosenholtz and Captain Kyle Ostrow were honored during the first intermission

DU Vows Revenge For Springs Debacle

From: Denver Post
by Mike Chambers

For a rugged and proud defensive specialist with deep Colorado roots, University of Denver senior Chris Nutini treats the Pioneers' 9-2 loss at Colorado College on Nov. 6 as an unwelcome keepsake.

DU has lost only once in its past 16 games since being blown out at the Colorado Springs World Arena, but Nutini isn't forgetting that memory. The Centennial native and Pioneers assistant captain wants to remember that loss until he helps DU make up for it by winning the Gold Pan awarded to the season series winner between the teams [read rest of article].

Nutini Plans On Building His Career After Hockey

(above) When Chris Nutini's hockey career ends, his building career will begin in earnest

From: DenverPioneers.com
by Pat Rooney

Through his first three seasons with the Pioneers hockey team, Chris Nutini never tallied more than four points in a season. Yet that does not mean he has not been a force for DU, as the Colorado native as logged at least 27 games in every season, providing a bruising defensive presence along the Pioneers' blueline [read rest of article].

LetsGoDU Midseason Awards

(above) Great Brittain was an immovable object in the nets for the Pioneers in the first half of the season

The University of Denver by all accounts has exceeded preseason expectations. Sitting second in the WCHA, 6th in the Pairwise and #7 in the Polls, teamwork and overcoming injuries were the major stories of the first half of the season.

Midseason MVP - Drew Shore: Tied for the team team in goals, plus/minus & tied for second on the team in assists. Most impressive stat; scoring on 26% of his shots on goal.
MVP Contenders - Sam Brittain, Jason Zucker & Matt Donovan.

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Midseason Defensive Player - Matt Donovan: Tied for second on the team in assists and second on the team in plus minus. Established himself as one of the elite WCHA defensemen.
Defensive Contenders - David Makowski & John Lee

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Midseason Freshman - Jason Zucker: Tied for the team lead in goals. Easily one of the two best Freshman in college hockey.
Freshman Contenders - Sam Brittain, David Makowski

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Most Under-rated Player - John Ryder: Four assists and plus 8 in the first half of the season. NHL scouts are taking notice of Ryder's big hitting game, while he quietly is fourth on the team in plus/minus.
Under-rated Contenders - Dustin Jackson, Chris Nutini, Luke Salazar & Paul Phillips

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Most Inspirational Player - Jesse Martin: DU has gone 10-2-1 since Jesse's serious neck fracture.
Inspirational Contenders - Kyle Ostrow.

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Most Improved Player - Drew Shore: Made the adjustment from role player to elite forward look easy.
Improvement Contenders - Luke Salazar, Dustin Jackson, Chris Knowlton

News & Notes From Around PioNation

Kyle Ostrow was officially named Captain next season. Jesse Martin, Chris Nutini and Dustin Jackson are the assistant captains.

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Tyler Ruegsegger's younger sister Rebecca, has been invited to USA hockey's most prestigious goaltender camp. Rebecca is the starting goaltender on the University of Wisconsin's women's team. 36 goaltenders will attend the third annual Warren Strelow National Team Goaltending Camp, May 27-30, in Ann Arbor, Mich. The goaltenders chosen represent the top goaltenders eligible for international play in select age groups.

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The International Ice Hockey Federation has awarded the World Under 18 Championships in 2015 and the World Junior Hockey Championships in 2018 to the United States. Colorado would be a great host for one of these two events, but no sites have been determined yet.

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Rumor has it that the New York Islanders are trying to entice Matt Donovan to leave DU this summer and report to the AHL Bridgeport Sound.

News & Notes From Around PioNation

One can't help but notice that while Coach Gwozdecky is trying to renegotiate his current contract with DU, his two proteges signed contract extensions with their respective schools. Enrico Blasi at Miami University and Seth Appert at RPI. And one of Enrico's assistants at Miami just named the head coach at Western Michigan. The family tree is growing.

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More post season honors for DU skiers. Senior Nordic skier Antje Maempel, and sophomore alpine skiers Leif Kristian Haugen and Lindsay Cone were named Collegiate Skiers of the Year by Ski Racing magazine. DU skiers swept three of the four awards. Maempel, who won the NCAA individual titles in both the classical and freestyle races for the second consecutive year, was named Women’s Nordic Collegiate Skier of the Year. Haugen, who won the 2010 NCAA individual title in men’s giant slalom, was named Men's Collegiate Alpine Skier of the Year. Haugen represented Norway at the Vancouver Olympic Games, finishing 28th in giant slalom. Cone won the Women's Collegiate Skier of the Year award after finishing second in both slalom and giant slalom at the NCAA Championships, earning All-American First Team honors in both events.

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Goaltender Marc Cheverie earned his second consecutive Most Valuable Player honor, while senior captain Rhett Rakhshani was named Most Inspirational Player as the University of Denver celebrated its 54th Annual Hockey Awards Evening at the Cable Center. Matt Donovan earned the Barry Sharp Memorial Award as top freshman, while Nate Dewhurst and Chris Nutini shared the Murray Armstrong Award as most improved players. Matt Glasser earned the Dr. Ken Bredesen Award for sportsmanship and shared the Dr. Art Mason Award for top scholar-athlete with Tyler Ruegsegger. Barandon Vossberg earned the Bob Martin Memorial Award for community service for the fourth consecutive season.

DU News And Notes From Albany

Mike Chambers of the Denver Post has been very busy in Albany with the University of Denver hockey team team. He posted four reports today.

First, both DU and RIT had/have 10-game win streaks this season. He compares the two in his first report.

Second, Jesse Martin did not practice today but is likely to play tomorrow. Chris Nutini went through a full practice and appears ready to go. Mike posted this second report.

Third, he went through the various machinations of DU's potential Friday line-up depending upon who plays. Here is his third report.

Lastly, he has some notes about the teams in the regional and a quick interview with Patrick Wiercioch. Here is the last report.

DU Clarion: DU Back On Top Of National Polls

(left) With Chris Nutini out with an injury, Senior Cody Brookwell will play a larger role for the Pioneers

From: DU Clarion
by Eddie Fischermann

With just four games left in the regular season, the Pioneers (16-4-4 WCHA, 22-6-4) are on the verge of clinching the WCHA regular season title. Currently three points ahead of St. Cloud State (15-8-3 WCHA, 20-10-4), they need just two more wins in their last four games to clinch.

Their first chance comes this weekend in Mankato, Minnesota. The team will travel there to play Minnesota State (8-15-1 WCHA, 14-6-2), who is coming off a sweep of Alaska-Anchorage. Earlier in the year, the Pioneers seemed to struggle against the Mavericks, winning the first game 4-3 then tying the second game 4-4.

Minnesota State is currently second to last in the conference.

However, being that it is late in the season, senior captain Rhett Rakhshani knows that every team has to be taken seriously.

“At this point in the season you are going to get your opponents best effort every game,” said Rakhshani. “We need to be ready to play the game simply and intensely if we are going to have success this coming weekend.”

Denver is coming into the weekend on a high note. After previously top-ranked Miami of Ohio lost to the University of Nebraska-Omaha over the weekend, the Pioneers moved up to No. 1 in the nation.

Winning both games against last place Michigan Tech over the weekend, the Pioneers have some momentum coming into these games.

The Pioneers won the games 5-2 and 5-3. Although they let Michigan Tech hang around for most of the game both times, they still got the wins.

DU had a lot of diversity in scoring though.

Eight different goal scorers had goals on the weekend. The only Pioneer to score multiple goals was junior assistant captain Kyle Ostrow.

Junior Anthony Maiani had a five-point weekend, scoring one goal and contributing four assists.

Other Pioneer players who had a big weekend were junior defenseman Cody Brookwell (1 G, 2 A) and senior Brandon Vossberg (1 G, 2 A).

DU did encounter one problem over the weekend.

Junior defenseman Chris Nutini was injured on a play in the DU zone during the second period of the game on Saturday. He needed to be helped off the ice and went straight to the locker room. He did not return to the game, and according to Fox Sports Network, he left the rink on crutches.

He is doubtful for this weekend’s games.

Junior goaltender and Hobey Baker candidate Marc Cheverie made 53 saves on 58 shots over the weekend to get two more wins on the season. This brings his total number of wins on the season to 19, tying him for No. 1 in the nation. He still leads the nation in shutouts with six and is tied for the best save percentage in the nation (.937).

That makes eight straight wins for the Pioneers who have a record of 11-1-2 over their last 14 games.

“We have started to bring the necessary effort to win on a consistent basis,” said sophomore forward Joe Colborne. “The coaches have been preaching it all year and we are now seeing the results.”

The team puts that streak on the line this weekend against Minnesota State.

“We can’t look past a single game because every team we play can beat us if we don’t bring our best effort,” said Colborne.

Minnesota State proved that earlier this year, tying one of the games against DU and giving them a scare in the other.

The games are Friday and Saturday night at 6:37 p.m. MST and 6:07 p.m., respectively.

DU 5 - Michigan Tech 3 FINAL

(above) Drew Shore's backhanded goal in the 1st Period

Vote RAKHSHANI For Lowe's Senior Class Award

The University of Denver hockey team defeated Michigan Tech tonight 5-3 at Magness Arena. DU won its eighth straight game after jumping to a 4-1 1st Period lead. Patrick Wiercioch, Joe Colborne, Matt Donovan & Drew Shore scored in the First Period.

Kyle Ostrow added a goal in the Second Period.

Chris Nutini appeared to injure his right ankle late in the 2nd Period.

DU can clinch the WCHA Regular Season championship and the #1 seed in the WCHA playoffs with two wins in their last four games against Minnesota State or Colorado College.

Nebraska-Omaha's upset of Miami moved DU to the #1 spot in the Pairwise.

• Minnesota 7 - Colorado College 4
• Nebraska-Omaha 4 - Miami 2
• Wisconsin 7 - St. Cloud 4
• North Dakota 5 - Minnesota Duluth 1
  

Box Score

WCHA Standings

Pairwise Rankings

Denver Post Game Recap

USCHO.com Game Recap

Dan Olszewski Is DU's Newest Recruit

(left) Dan "Ozzie" Olszewski

Sixty Minutes. No Alibis, No Regrets Blog is reporting that Daniel Olszewski will be coming to the University of Denver next season. Since there is no confirmation from Hiesenberg's Recruiting Website, US Hockey Report or the St. Louis Bandits Website, its possible that Olszewski is a recruited walk-on.

DU has had success in recent seasons with players from the NAHL including Luke Salazar, Dusty Jackson, Chris Nutini & Brandon Vossberg. Obviously the Pioneers would be hoping for similar performance from Olszewski.

Olszewski plays for the NAHL St. Louis Bandits and is the team's leading scorer. He has 25 points (9g, 16a) in 27 games and is captain of the team. The Bandits also have the third best record in the NAHL this season.

Olszewski has been a key factor in the Bandits’ quick start. The 6-foot, 190-pounder has already surpassed last season’s point total of 13 and is thriving on the power play unit.

“Ozzie has been great for us,” St. Louis assistant coach Rocky Russo said. “He’s our captain and a leader, on and off the ice. He was a role player for the team last season and has developed into a complete hockey player.

“He has the potential to be an excellent Division I college player.”

Olszewski is from Janesville, Wisconsin and is twenty years old. He's 6'0 188 lbs.

2010 Recruiting Class
F Jason Zucker (U.S. Under-18)
D David Makowski (Green Bay, USHL)
F Nick Shore (U.S. Under-18)
F Beau Bennett (Penticton, BCHL)
F Dan Olszewski (St. Louis, NAHL)

2011 Recruiting Class
D Scott Mayfield (Youngstown, USHL)
F Zac Larraza (U.S. Under-17)
G Sam Brittain (Canmore, AJHL)

2012 Recruiting Class
F Tyler Pham (Team Illinios)

Photos From Friday Night's DU - CC Game

(above) This photo of Tyler Ruegsegger's 1st Period celebration is from the Denver Post site

(above) Tiger Woods isn't the only Tiger that was cheating this week as DU's Kyle Ostrow was tripped by Gabe Guentzel

Denver Post: Nutini's Defensive Play Thrills DU

(above) When Chris Nutini is in the lineup, Chevy's GAA is 0.667

From: Denver Post
by Mike Chambers

A goalie's best friend isn't always the crossbar or goalposts. Sometimes it's the unheralded defenseman who only cares about clearing the zone.

Junior Chris Nutini, a recruited walk-on from Centennial, is that kind of guy for University of Denver goalie Marc Cheverie.

"I love when he's out on the ice," Cheverie said of Nutini, who attended Regis Jesuit High School in Aurora before playing two seasons of junior-A for Wichita Falls of the North American Hockey League. "We have a lot of offensive D-men, but sometimes you really appreciate having the guys that are willing to stay back and sacrifice the points." (read rest of article)

Photo Gallery Of Friday Nights DU Game

(above) Chevy & Nutini

photo credit: Leanna Lofte

(above) Matt Glasser (#17) provided a much needed spark

photo credit: Leanna Lofte

(above) Patrick Wiercioch is back to last year's form

photo credit: Leanna Lofte

(above) Kyle Ostrow defies gravity

photo credit: Leanna Lofte

(above) The puck now belongs to Freshman goaltender Adam Murray

photo credit: Leanna Lofte

See Entire Photo Gallery

Changes May Be Acommin' For DU's Defense

Mike Chambers of the Denver Post spoke to coach Gwozdecky after the game on Saturday night. For those of you fluent in "Gwozspeak," this type of cryptic message usually means a teeth-rattling practice on Monday and a lineup shakeup on Thursday night against Ohio State.

"No question, our defensive corps really, really struggled," DU coach George Gwozdecky said. "The second period alone we gave up five 2-on-1s. I feel bad for Adam Murray. You hate to put him in that position, where guys are continually breaking down in front of him."

Gwozdecky has options. Third-year sophomore John Ryder was the seventh defenseman Friday and scratched Saturday. Junior Chris Nutini was scratched both games. The Colorado natives have the immediate ability to plug holes.

"We do have great depth," Gwozdecky said. "No question, you want to be able to throw the younger guys into the fire right away and see what they can do, what they need to work on. We found that out pretty evidently this weekend, and we go back to the drawing board Monday with everybody."

LetsGoDU Readers' "Dream Team" Lineup

Our readers have spoken. They want to tweak DU's lineup, so based on the suggestions from Sunday, we've made some changes.

Patrick Wiercioch and John Lee started the NCAA Playoff game against Maimi, proving that Lee was one of DU's best defensemen at the end of last season. We'll keep them together.

Everyone wants to see the Ostrow brothers play together. Pairing them with Colborne creates "The Calgary Stampede Line."

Vossberg is in on Fridays, Jackson becomes "Mr. Saturday Night." Nutini & Phillips most likely will have to fight it out for Ryder's spot.

Forwards
Rakhshani (15g, 22a) - Ruegsegger (15g, 11a) - Maiani (11g, 30a)
K. Ostrow (14g, 14a) - Colborne (10g, 21a) - S. Ostrow (Fr.)
Salazar (15g, 10a) - Shore (Fr.) - Martin (10g, 13a)
Gifford (4g, 8a) - Glasser (4g, 3a) - Vossberg (4g, 2a)
[Jackson (3g, 9a), Dewhurst (0g, 1a), Knowlton (Fr.)]

Defensemen
Wiercioch (12g, 23a) - Lee (0g, 5a)
Donovan (Fr.) - Brookwell (0g, 3a)
Ryder (0g, 6a) - Wrenn (Fr.)
[Nutini (0g, 3a), Phillips (Fr.), Cook (0g, 0a), Brehm (0g, 0a)]

Goaltenders
Chevy (2.34 gaa, .921 sv%)
[Murray (Fr.), Paulgaard (1.61, .917 sv%)]

1st PP
Rakhshani, Colborne, Maiani
Wiercioch, Ruegsegger

2nd PP
K. Ostrow, Shore, Salazar
Donovan, Martin

1st PK
Colborne, K. Ostrow
Wiercioch, Donovan

2nd PK
Martin, Vossberg
Wrenn, Lee

Chambers Reports That Bozak May Miss Final 5

DU center Tyler Bozak, who has missed the past 17 games with a knee injury, might not return to the lineup until the opening game of the NCAA Tournament on March 27 or March 28, Pioneers coach George Gwozdecky told Chambers on Thursday. (read rest of article)

Chambers also breaks down the NCAA playoff situations for DU, CC and Air Force in an article in the Denver Post. Its a good read, so check it out.

Doyle Woody of the Anchorage Daily News reports that Alaska-Anchorage is confident that the Seawolves can steal the series this weekend at DU. UAA is on a four game winning streak and turned their season around with the OT win at Magness a few weeks ago.

DU recruit Shawn Ostrow and the Camrose Kodiaks did it again and leveled their AJHL playoff series with the Brooks Bandits at two games apiece. Ostrow did not record any points, but Camrose still came away with a hard fought 2-1 victory.

DU 5 - Wisconsin 0 FINAL

(above) The Goal Czar scores the easiest goal of his career

"The Badgers, evidently still suffering from the painful sting of Friday night’s overtime loss, were soundly booed as they meandered back to their locker room at the end of the 1st period."

- USCHO.com

The University of Denver Hockey Team did something unusual on Saturday night. They took the easy road back to Denver with a 5-0 victory in the Kohl Center. DU is now 13-2-2 all time in Wisconsin's hockey arena.

DU's first goal (see video above) was emblematic of the Badger's problems all evening. UW goaltender Shane Connolly badly mangled a play behind the goal and gave up an essentially empty netter to Luke Salazar. The game was less than 10 minutes old.

Rhett Rakhshani scored a nifty spin-a-rama six minutes later. Then Anthony Maiani drove a dagger into the Badgers heart with a goal with less than a minute left in the first period.

The concern for DU is shoulder injury sustained by star forward Tyler Ruegsegger late in the game. Wisconsin forward and leading goal scorer John Mitchell was ejected in the third period for excessive roughness on Ruegsegger. We probably won't know for a couple of days the severity of the injury, but Chris Nutini is still out of action with a similar injury.

Box Score

WCHA Standings

Pairwise

USCHO.com game recap

Rocky Mountain News game recap

Chambers' Blog: Mullen "Likely" To Be Suspended

According to Mike Chambers' Blog DU senior defenseman Patrick Mullen is likely to join sophomore blueliner Chris Nutini (upper-body injury) in the press box Friday night when the Pioneers visit Colorado College in a key WCHA game at the World Arena.

The league and the University of Denver have discussed the situation since Monday, and the matter was supposed to be resolved Wednesday. An official statement from the WCHA is expected on Thursday, said WCHA Director of Officials Greg Shepherd.

The good news is that Nutini is expected back at practice next week. [read entire article]

Denver Post Details Nutini's "Upper Body Injury"

(left) Chris Nutini suffered a scary injury on Saturday night

University of Denver defenseman Chris Nutini probably feels fortunate to have the use of his extremities, but the sophomore from Centennial likely won't be able to skate and shoot this weekend when the Pioneers visit Minnesota-Duluth to begin a five-game road stretch.

In a frightening play late in Saturday's 3-2 overtime loss to Alaska-Anchorage, Nutini crashed headfirst into the end boards and left the game with what the team is calling an upper-body injury. [read rest of article