I’ll say this: the Penrose Cup appears to be one hefty trophy. But I doubt the players on top-ranked Denver will mind carrying it around. Nor do I think they’ll be weighed down by  what they hope is the beginning of a collection of hardware this season.

The Pioneers took a trophy that could have been given to them with a comeback 4-2 victory at Nebraska-Omaha on Friday night. Technically, DU would have won the trophy, and its first NCHC regular-season title, regardless of its outcome when second-place Minnesota-Duluth lost 7-4 at Western Michigan. But I strongly doubt that’s how coach Jim Montgomery and his team, which is now has an NCAA-best 25 wins, wanted it to go down.

The Mayhem is rusty after a wild February on many levels, but we’re lacing ’em back up to take a closer look at three things that stood out from Friday’s win:

1. Other than next weekend’s NCHC quarterfinal opponent – Colorado College, which DU has defeated 12 times in a row – there might not be a team the Pioneers look forward to seeing more than the Mavericks. Friday’s victory gave DU nine wins in a row over the past two seasons against an Omaha team that had a shot at hosting a home playoff series next weekend. UNO’s loss now has it positioned to travel to Western Michigan, subject to Saturday’s results. That was least preferable of its options when the night began. … Meanwhile DU did what it’s been good at doing against a lot of teams …
2. The Pioneers trailed 2-1 in the second period and could have folded their tents, knowing they would receive a postgame ceremony win, lose or draw. But they didn’t. Logan O’Connor tied the score late in the frame, and then the top line took over in the third period to salt away the victory. In winning their 10th game in a row, the Pioneers have slayed the Friday night dragon that appeared shortly after the Christmas break. Fridays haven’t necessarily been easy (see last weekend vs. St. Cloud, two weeks before that vs. Colorado College), but DU is showing a ton of resiliency in winning these first games. That’s important at this point of the year when second games don’t happen if you don’t win the first one.
3. Even on a night when DU, and it’s dynamic top line in particular, wasn’t at its best, it still was good enough to blow a game open. Troy Terry, who obviously is at or near full capacity after sustaining an upper body injury in January, scored his fifth goal in five games to start scoring. He has 10 points in that span. Tag-team partner Henrik Borgstrom scored the winning and insurance goals in the third period. The man they call Nick has a team-high 19 goals and is tied with Dylan Gambrell for the points lead at 34 in 29 games. The tallies gave the man I like to call Hank the Tank four goals in the past three games. … Not to be outdone, goalie Tanner Jaillet keeps doing what he’s done all season – giving up two goals or fewer and winning. In his 32 starts, he has 23 wins and has allowed more than two goals just eight times.

The last word

Montgomery (via DU’s official website): “This is the first of three major trophies for us to win this spring and it was great to get this one with a hard-fought road victory like this. We weren’t playing up to our usual standard in the first couple of periods but in the third, when the game was on the line, we really stepped up and played solid, Denver-style hockey and that’s what got us the win. … This is a special group we have here and we all know that we’ve got to continue to focus on the process and stay in the moment if we want to reach all of our goals this season.”