The 2023–24 Denver Pioneers men's ice hockey season was the 75th season of play for the program and 11th in the NCHC. The Pioneers represented the University of Denver in the 2023–24 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season, played their home games at Magness Arena and were coached by David Carle in his sixth season. The team won the 2024 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey tournament for their NCAA record tenth national championship.
Season Personnel changes As Denver entered the season, the team saw very few changes to its forward contingent. With only two of its top ten point producers leaving, the Pioneers returned most of their firepower from the year before. To that already potent roster, Denver added two NHL draft picks in Sam Harris and Miko Matikka. The defense was a little more uncertain; Denver lost half of its defensive corps and would have to rely on some very green additions to take over. However, through the new pieces were as yet unproven, one had already been selected in the draft while another was expected to be a very high pick at the end of the season. Zeev Buium, younger brother of Pioneer defenseman Shai Buium, was ranked in the top 5 of North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting and promised to add speed and scoring to the Denver blueline. In goal, the team was expecting to use last year's backup, Matt Davis as the starter, though he had some large shoes to fill in replacing 4-year starter Magnus Chrona.
Questions in goal From the start, Denver didn't seem to have any trouble scoring. Averaging nearly 5 goals per game in October, the Pios were led by the forward tandem of Massimo Rizzo and Jack Devine with Zeev Buium jumping in from the blueline. Davis, however, had a little trouble getting up to speed and didn't look ready for the starting job. After surrendering 5 goals to Augustana, a 1st-year program, Davis was put on the shelf with a lower-body injury. Denver turned to freshman netminder Freddie Halyk to hold the fort and the early returns looked good. In his first three games, Halyk allowed just 2 goals and swept long-time rival Colorado College in the first meeting of the season. Unfortunately, Arizona State was able to figure out Halyk and score 10 goals on the young netminder in the very next weekend.
After that series, the injury bug bit again and Denver lost Garrett Brown for the remainder of the season after the defenseman underwent surgery to correct a lower body issue. After another less than-stellar weekend, David Carle brought in another netminder, Paxton Geisel, to help take some of the pressure off of Halyk. That same weekend, Denver experienced a rare event where a game took nearly 24 hours to complete. The match against Omaha on November 18 was halted after the first period due to poor ice conditions. A patch of ice behind the Denver net didn't freeze properly and after attempting to address the problem for over an hour, the game was postponed until the following day. Because an entire period had already been played, the game resumed at the start of the second.
During the Thanksgiving weekend, Halyk posted consecutive shutouts but that was more to the weakness of the team's opponent (Yale) than it was to improved play in goal. As if to illustrate that point, North Dakota lit up Halyk with 7 goals in the next game. Denver was able to use its powerful offense to escape tumbling down the rankings as it finished off the first half of the schedule but the team found itself in the middle of the NCHC standings and needing better results in goal if the team had any hope of realizing its championship aspirations.
Davis returns After missing over two months of actions, Matt Davis was back in goal at the start of 2024. With the Pioneers scoring in bunches, Davis was able to ease his way back into game shape and Denver began the second half of its schedule by winning five of six. The team was stymied at the end of January when North Dakota held the Pios to 2 goals in each of the two games (the first time all season that Denver had not scored at least 3 goals in a game). The losses all but guaranteed that Denver wouldn't be able to win the regular season title but the team had bigger fish to fry and were looking to secure one of the four #1 seeds in the NCAA tournament.
In a bad loss to Western Michigan, Rizzo went down to injury and it was unknown if he would return before the end of the season. In the absence of the team's leading scorer, Tristan Broz was promoted to the top line and the team used their two-week break to refocus. When the Pioneers resumed, Davis finally seemed to get comfortable in goal and backstopped the team to a good finish. Denver went 6–1–1 down the stretch and scored at nearly the same rate as they had before losing Rizzo. The Pioneers ended the regular season #3 in the pairwise in a tie with UND.
NCHC tournament Denver's opponent in the conference quarter finals was Minnesota Duluth, who were in the midst of a terrible season. The Pios were able to easily handle the Bulldogs in the first game and looked ready to do the same in the rematch. After Denver scored three goals in the second, UMD made things interesting by getting a pair in the third. Broz and Rieger Lorenz ended the comeback attempt with empty-net goals and allowed the Pioneers to advance to Saint Paul.
Now facing St. Cloud State, Davis had a fairly poor night and allowed 4 goals on just 25 shots. St. Cloud got in the lead four times but each Husky goal was followed by one from the Pioneers. The two teams each scored twice in the first two periods but then went dry in the third. In overtime, the two teams were fairly even through the first 6 minutes, however, Zeev Buium continued to earn his plaudits when he got a break in on goal from the blueline, avoided two defenders, and slid the puck around the St. Cloud goaltender for the winning marker.
Denver was able to get a bit of good news prior to the championship as North Dakota had lost in the other semifinal, meaning that Denver was guaranteed to finish ahead of the Hawks in the PairWise. With a #1 seed now guaranteed, Denver met Omaha for the conference title. Early on, it appeared that the Pioneers would fall victim to the same thing that befell North Dakota; despite outplaying the Mavericks, Denver was held scoreless in the first thanks to a tremendous effort in goal from the Omaha netminder. The Pios were trailing entering the second but it didn't take long for McKade Webster to change that. Before 5 minutes had passed, the team's captain had scored twice and altered the complexion of the game. Omaha could no longer hold back and wait for their chances but they were still having trouble getting shots on goal. Denver suffocated the Mavs in the third, allowing only 3 shots on Davis while adding two more goal to their total to skate away with the championship and the #3 overall seed for the NCAA tournament.
NCAA tournament While Denver was the top seed from the western teams, a confluence of NCAA rules caused the Pioneers to be placed in the Northeast region. Not only did the team open the tournament 1,800 miles from home, but they were set against the bracket's host, Massachusetts. Playing in front of a hostile crowd, Denver had to fight through an inspired performance from the Minutemen and found it very difficult to score. Boston Buckberger got Denver the first lead of the game in the second but it didn't last long. In a sequence where Davis made a series of saves, but wasn't able to freeze the puck, UMass tied the match off of a second rebound. The Pioneers had several chances to score afterwards but weren't able to light the lamp and their season was only kept alive by the brilliant play of Davis. Both teams had their chances in overtime, with Devine failing to convert on multiple opportunities, but neither could find the net. with about 90 seconds left in the first OT, Denver avoided disaster when Davis tried to stop the puck behind his cage. Instead, the rubber was deflected to an oncoming UMass player who passed to a wide-open teammate right in front of the vacant net. Denver was only saved by the puck hopping over his stick when he went to shoot and their title chase remained alive. The game went into a fifth period and both sides continued to probe at one another, looking for the elusive game-winner. In the second half of the period, Broz fired a shot from the high slot and it sailed just past the outstretched glove of the Massachusetts goalie into the cage. Harris had made contact with the netminder prior to the goal and it was reviewed for interference but the officials deemed that Harris had been pushed in by a UMass defender and the goal was allowed to stand.
In the regional final, Denver was opposed by Cornell, the #1 defense in the nation. With the goals expected to be at a premium, the Pioneers would again need a big game from Davis. However, less than 7 minutes into the game, Denver found itself behind thanks to a scramble that was reminiscent of the lone goal from UMass. Cornell's stingy defense put the clamps on Denver through the entire game and limited the Pios to just 18 shots on goal, however, one of the few turnovers in the Big Red's defensive end resulted in a quick goal when Matikka fired in his 20th of the season near the end of the first. Davis was able to turn aside all further Cornell attempts and allow his team to take advantage of a second Cornell blunder when they got their first power play of the match. With just 4 seconds left in the middle frame, Harris was able to tip a shot through the legs of the Cornell netminder and it had just enough pace to slide into the goal. Denver played defense for nearly the entire third period, trying to win a 1-goal game. The play proved to be dangerous as Cornell had several good looks on goal but their chances either failed to connect or were stopped by Davis. Denver became the beneficiary of a second cornell penalty with two and half minutes to play that disrupted the comeback attempt. When the Big Red were finally able to pull their goaltender for an extra attacker, just 30 seconds remained in the match and Denver managed to hold off Cornell for the final buzzer.
As the team got ready for their appearance in the Frozen Four, Denver got a boost with the return of Rizzo to the lineup. For the second game in a row, Denver got behind early, this time by allowing a goal while on the power play. Fortunately, Davis recovered quickly and didn't surrender a goal for the rest of the game. Just past the midway point of regulation, the Pioneers got a gift when Tristan Lemyre scored just his second goal of the season on a shot in tight that leaked through the Boston University netminder. Denver had been thoroughly outplayed prior to the goal but then took over for much of the next 30 minutes. Unfortunately, the Pioneers were unable to earn a second marker and needed overtime to settle the score. Luck continued to follow the Pioneers who did not once find themselves on the penalty kill in the match, despite several instances where calls could have been made. In the extra session alone, two non-calls that drew moans from the crowd went unnoticed by the referees. Just after the second such act, Broz rushed the puck up the ice and just as he got to the top of the right circle, fired a shot that went right between the legs of the CU netminder for the winning goal.
National Championship