Denver (31-7-4) vs. Notre Dame (23-11-5)

Thursday, 7:30 p.m. MDT, ESPN2

What’s the story?

The top-ranked Pioneers return to the Frozen Four for the second season in a row, and they are all business. The Irish said good bye to Hockey East by knocking off one its top teams, UMass-Lowell, to get to Chicago.

Offensive comparison

The game features two of the top 13 offenses in Division I. Denver is tied for eighth (with Minnesota-Duluth), scoring 3.40 goals per game. Notre Dame is 13th (3.26).

Ten players have 17 or more points for DU, topped by freshman Henrik Borgstrom’s 42, sophomore Troy Terry’s 41, sophomore Dylan Gambrell’s 39 and senior defenseman Will Butcher’s 36. Terry has 22 goals and is coming off a five-point game in the Midwest Regional final vs. Penn State. Borgstrom has 21 and four others are in double figures. Butcher has a team-high 29 points and is one of three finalists for the Hobey Baker Award.

Junior Anders Bjork (52 points), sophomore Andrew Oglevie and junior Jake Evans (41 each) do much of the damage up front for the Irish. Bjork and Oglevie have 21 goals apiece, and Bjork has eight points in five postseason games, while Oglevie has six. The defense, led by junior Jordan Gross (31 points) and sophomores Dennis Gilbert (22) and Bobby Nardella (21), is active.

Junior Tanner Jaillet has been one of the best goaltenders in NCAA hockey for Denver this season. Photo courtesy of Shannon Valerio, DU Athletics

Defensive comparison

Both teams’ goaltenders are among the final five finalists for the Mike Richter Award. DU’s Tanner Jaillet (26-5-4) is fourth nationally in goals-against average (1.85) and ninth in save percentage (.928). ND’s Cal Petersen (23-11-5) has 2.12 and .929 numbers. The big difference? Petersen has six shutouts, meaning he can steal a game, something DU should remember all too well from the teams’ meetings last season at Magness Arena. However, the Pioneers have D-I’s top defense (1.83), while the Irish have the eighth-best (2.33), but that spread is a half goal per game.

Special teams

It would be surprising if this plays a major role because both teams are among the most disciplined and least penalized in D-I. Neither takes much more than 10 minutes per game. If there is a parade to the penalty box, DU hits on almost 22 percent of its power plays (8th) while Notre Dame connects 18 percent of the time (34th). Both teams boast strong penalty kills – 85.4 percent for the Irish and 84.6 percent for the Pioneers.

And the winner is …

The cause for concern for DU would be firing a ton of shots at Petersen and having him get on a roll. However, the factors in the Pioneers’ favor outweigh that in my mind. DU is deeper, has every bit the equal in goal in Jaillet, has contained players on Bjork’s level already this season, and it has been on a mission since the season started. DU 4, ND 2