Western Michigan (4-0) at Denver (4-2)

Friday: 7:30 p.m., Altitude2; Saturday: 7 p.m.

Click here to read our in-depth scouting report on Western Michigan

Three things to watch for

1 – Special teams

NCAA referees are calling it tighter this season. No one can deny that. Western Michigan, as much as any team, has capitalized on that, scoring three goals per game on the power play and hitting at a Division I-best 31 percent. DU has scored just four times on the PP in six game and its 12.5 percent success rate is in the bottom third of the nation. The teams kill penalties at roughly the same rate – WMU is at 87.5 percent and DU is at 85.2 percent. The big difference is DU is taking fewer than five penalties per game, while Western is averaging eight.

2 – Goaltending

DU has a pronounced advantage in net as junior Tanner Jaillet is off to a sterling start. He has won four games in a row and allowed no more than one goal in the past three. His goals-against average is just 1.82 (13th in the nation) and his save percentage is .927 (tied for 14th). Should he falter, the Pioneers can turn to senior Evan Cowley. Western, meanwhile, is playing a freshman and a sophomore, and one wonders how they’ll hold up in an NCHC road series. The Pioneers have allowed an average of just two goals per game (tied for seventh in the nation), and they’ve accomplished that against teams ranked seventh (BU), 16th (Ohio State) and 17th (BC) in the nation in offense. DU’s defense and goaltending is legit, and it will be interesting to see if Western can continue its high-scoring ways this weekend.

3 – Check the O-zone levels

The Pioneers’ defense also has done a good job exiting pucks from the zone and getting th offense going. DU has received big contributions from the Henrik Borgstrom–Troy Terry pairing on the top line. The guess is Jarid Lukosevicius returns to round out the line this weekend. The Tyson McLellan–Evan Janssen–Logan O’Connor trio also seems fairly set and demonstrated against Boston University it’s capable of putting up points. Beyond those groups, the offensive contributions have been few and far between, and as a result DU is averaging just 2.5 goals per game (tied for 42nd in the nation). The Pioneers need some offense to appear elsewhere in their lineup at some point, including from the blue line, where Will Butcher again has done most of the damage.

The last word

The Broncos have a believer in DU coach Jim Montgomery, who said after last weekend’s sweep of Michigan State that he believes this might be their best team in the 4-year-old NCHC. “They have a really good freshman class and their sophomores are really good. They’re a lot faster, they’re a lot more talented. (The coaching staff) thought they were going to be the biggest surprise team in the NCHC.”