All season long the mantra has been to play for something bigger.

Sunday afternoon at Cincinnati, Denver gave itself the opportunity to do just that, knocking off Penn State, 6-3, to capture the NCAA Midwest Regional final and earn a berth in the Frozen Four for the second consecutive season.

Sophomore Troy Terry scored three goals among his career-high-tying five points, Jarid Lukosevicius scored two goals, Henrik Borgstrom had three assists and defenseman Adam Plant chipped in a goal and two helpers. Terry has a team-high 22 goals among his 41 points, trailing Borgstrom by a point for the team lead.

The victory made coach Jim Montgomery the fastest coach in DU’s history to reach 100 victories and gives him another chance to join a small group of men who have won NCAA titles as a player (Montgomery’s was at Maine in 1993) and as a coach. That club also includes Montgomery’s predecessor, George Gwozdecky.

“It was a hard game to prepare for. They really come at you,” Montgomery said. “You have to be aware of what you’re doing defensively to stop that attack.

“They gave us everything we could handle.”

The triumph also gave DU (31-7-4)  16 wins in its past 17 games and capped a weekend in which it outscored opponents 11-5. That’s fine for a non-conference series against middling opponent, but given it came against top-20 opponents that won their respective conference tournaments in compelling fashion (the Big Ten for Penn State and the WCHA for Saturday’s vanquished opponent, Michigan Tech), it stamps the top-ranked Pioneers as a front-runner for their eighth NCAA title.

However, DU’s road to a championship isn’t going to be easier. Their semifinal foe is No. 12 Notre Dame (23-11-5), which knocked out Northeast Region top seed UMass-Lowell in overtime Sunday. The Fighting Irish gave DU fits on New Year’s weekend last season, when goalie Cal Petersen – like DU’s Tanner Jaillet a Mike Richter Award finalist – made roughly 100 saves in a pair of low-scoring ties (1-1 and 2-2).

Should the Pioneers emerge from that matchup either No. 2 Harvard or No. 3 Minnesota-Duluth awaits. The No. 2 Crimson has won 16 games in a row – including Saturday’s East Regional final against Air Force – and has every bit of the top-end skill and goaltending DU does. The No. 3 Bulldogs have won seven in a row – including two last weekend to capture the NCHC’s Frozen Faceoff – and are another deep and talented veteran team that the Pioneers are all too familiar with, having split two NCHC games at Magness Arena in December.

“It’s nice to be going back to the Frozen Four for the second year in a row,” Montgomery said. “We think the experience from last year is going to help us immensely in our preparation.”

Each of the Frozen Four participants is in the top 13 in Division I in scoring and the top nine in defense.

On Sunday, DU took a 2-0 lead in the first seven minutes in change Sunday on goals by Lukosevicius and Plant. Penn State tied it on a shorthanded goal with five minutes to go in the first period and an even-strength strike two minutes into the second.

“We didn’t get down on our bench,” senior center Matt Marcinew said. “When it was 2-2 we had a great response with a couple of big-time goals.”

Added Terry, “We knew they were a high-flying offense and they were capable of that. That’s an area we can work on going forward. I was proud of how our guys came together, especially the seniors. They really kept everyone calm on the bench.”

From there, Terry and his tag-team partner Borgstrom took over. Terry had a hand in the next four Pioneers goals – three in the second period in three different forms – a power-play goal set up by a nice cross slot feed from Borgstrom, an assist to Lukosevicius at even strength and a 4-on-4 tally after Terry worked the puck from the right corner to Borgstrom, who then returned the puck to Terry inside the right dot. Terry added an empty-net goal in the final 3 minutes after the Nittany Lions had pulled to 5-3.

“The biggest thing I’ve learned is not to watch (Borgstrom), just get up in the play and be ready all the time,” Terry said. “On the first goal it was a 2-on-1 and I knew he was going to get it to me the whole time. He even faked me out a little bit, he sold the shot. That’s the biggest thing with him is he makes really creative plays all the time.”

Jaillet made 24 saves as the Pioneers outshot the Nittany Lions 28-27. Penn State entered the game as Division I leader in shots on goal.

Trailing 5-2, Penn State had a golden opportunity to cut into DU’s lead when Tariq Hammond was assessed a 5-minute major and a game misconduct for hitting from behind just 26 seconds into the third period.

The Pioneers rallied without one of their better penalty killers and kept the Nittany Lions off the board.

“I trust our penalty kill,” Marcinew said. “Our penalty kill was amazing in all three zones. … That gave us momentum for the rest of the game.”