As the calendar flips to a new season, it’s safe to say the Denver Pioneers hockey team has rarely – if ever – had a year as dynamic as 2017. Here are seven notable news stories from the year.

No. 7 – Finishing strong

Talk about playing to the whistle. DU won 19 of its final 20 games during the 2016-17 season, starting with a 7-2 victory at No. 14 Western Michigan on Jan. 14 and continuing through April 8, when the Pioneers won their eighth national championship. The only loss during that stretch was in an NCHC semifinal, 1-0, on March 17 to No. 11 North Dakota. Think about it, the Pioneers went from 14-6-4 to 33-7-4. They lost just once in three months, taking a season from good to historic.

No. 6 – Winning the program’s first Penrose Cup

The Pioneers rallied behind goals from Logan O’Connor, Troy Terry and Henrik Borgstrom to defeat Omaha, 4-2, on March 3 to win the NCHC regular-season title and its accompanying trophy, the Penrose Cup, for the first time. The triumph also gave them an NCAA-best 25 wins at the time.

Quotable:

“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.” – coach Jim Montgomery

No. 5 – The New Jersey Devils hire a Butcher

Defenseman Will Butcher was THE prize of the college free-agent derby this summer. Once he was emancipated from the team that drafted him, the Colorado Avalanche, on Aug. 15, the reigning

Hobey Baker Award winner and DU captain made a handful of visits and fielded offers from NHL teams. In the end he chose the New Jersey Devils, likely because of the opportunity to play in the League right away and because the Devils’ uptempo style fits his playing abilities. Other factors included their coach, John Hynes, had college coaching experience as well as some background at the U.S. National Team Development Program, where Butcher came to DU from. In addition a teammate and close friend of his at the NTDP, fellow defenseman Steve Santini, already was in the Devils’ system.

Suffice to say the move has worked out well for both sides. Butcher became the first Devils rookie to record three points in his debut and the first NHL player EVER to record eight points in his first five games. At year’s end, the Devils had 50 points – the third most in the Eastern Conference – making them one of the biggest surprises in the league. Butcher led all Devils defensemen with 23 points in 38 games. That figure tied him for 10^th among rookie scorers and was the most for a rookie defenseman.

No. 4 – Many happy returns

Will they or won’t they? That was the question, and the topic was returns, specifically of coach Jim Montgomery and star forwards Henrik Borgstrom, Dylan Gambrell and Troy Terry.

The Florida Panthers made no secret of their interest in interviewing Montgomery for their opening coaching position, and did so around the time of the NCAA coaches convention, conveniently held in Florida, in late April. While the Panthers dragged their claws, an NHL source speaking on the condition of anonymity told me the Los Angeles Kings also had reached out about their then-vacant associate head coach job. In the end, Montgomery returned for a fifth season of Monty Mayhem.

One popular narrative had both coach and Borgstrom heading to the Panthers. The fantastic Fin was a first-round pick of the Cats by the Keys in 2016. Both player and coach were resolute that Borgstrom wanted – and needed – another year of seasoning in college. And that’s what he is getting.

Terry’s performance down the stretch for DU, on the heels of his comeback from an upper-body injury and his captivating shootout heroics for Team USA during the World Junior Championship made him a popular conversation topic as well. A fifth-round choice of the Anaheim Ducks in 2015, Terry relished the opportunity to play another season for his hometown team and serve as an assistant captain.

Midway through the summer, Montgomery announced Gambrell, a 2016 second-round pick of the San Jose Sharks, also would return. Montgomery has emphasized to his players only to go when the situation is best for you, aka you can go directly to the NHL (Will Butcher) or spend little time in the minors (Danton Heinen). Gambrell has impressed the Sharks two summers in a row at prospect camps and it likely was a very close call, but he, too, returned.

No. 3 – Hardware Hat Trick

The Pioneers needed to build an addition to the hockey program’s trophy case after the 2016-17 season. Not only did Jim Montgomery win the Spencer Penrose Award as the national coach of the year, but Tanner Jaillet became the program’s first recipient of the Mike Richter Award for the top NCAA goaltender and defenseman Will Butcher captured the Hobey Baker Award, the second Pioneer to do so (Matt Carle was the other).

Montgomery guided the Pioneers to their fourth consecutive year-over-year improvement, capped by an NCAA title one season after reaching the Frozen Four for the first time in a decade. DU topped out at 33 wins.

Jaillet was Mr. Consistent in the net, going 28-5-4 with a .929 save percentage and a 1.84 goals-against average.

Butcher, the Pioneers’ captain, also was the first defenseman to win the Hobey since 2009. That was on top of being selected the NCHC’s player of the year and an All-American. Amassing 36 points in 43 games and playing massive minutes in every key situation will do that for a guy.

No. 2 – An American Hero

The funny thing about Troy Terry and shootouts is he almost never scores on them during Pioneers practices. Several teammates verified this over and over. Yet there he was scoring three times in the shootout to beat Russia in the semifinals at the World Junior Championships in Montreal on Jan. 5. He then got the lone shootout goal to topple Canada in Toronto in the gold-medal game on Jan. 6.

Quotable:

Team USA (and St. Cloud State) coach Bob Motzko after the victory over Russia, “The one thing about Troy Terry is he just has ice in his veins. His pulse just doesn’t change. So we had five shooters and once he scored, we tried him again and again.”

Terry after the gold-medal game, “”It was such an up-and-down game. We were down two goals twice. I think when we were down 2-0 and came back to tie it we got some confidence because it sucked to go down two goals right away. But, we knew as a team that no matter how we played, we had the confidence to get back into the game.”

No. 1 – Pioneers win eighth national championship

If you like compelling story lines this game had a bunch. Jarid Lukosevicius became the first player since his coach to score a hat trick in an NCAA Division I hockey championship game. The Pioneers then hung on after defenseman Tariq Hammond suffered a gruesome lower-leg injury in the third period for a 3-2 victory over Minnesota-Duluth, thanks in large part to the play of one of Hammond’s roommates, goaltender Tanner Jaillet. Hammond then hopped on to the ice on crutches to join his teammates in celebration. In the process Montgomery became only the fourth man in NCAA history to win a championship as a coach and a player, something his DU predecessor George Gwozdecky also achieved.

Quotable:

Will Butcher on the Pioneers weathering UMD’s late charge, “It’s terrible seeing a brother (Hammond) go off like that. He’s battled the whole year. It was tough. We knew they were going to come with a push. We just stuck with it, we might not have played our best period but we had TJ (Jaillet) back there making saves.”

Montgomery on Hammond’s reappearance on the ice despite being in excruciating pain, ““When I saw him come back out, I was overcome by emotion. But I’m not surprised. He’s a warrior.”

Lukosevicius on when asked if he knew his coach had been the most recent player to score a hat trick in an NCAA championship game, “I didn’t know it before. I guess it’s my turn to start balding.”

Follow @MagnessMayhem on Twitter and like us on Facebook for Denver hockey updates

Copyright First Line Editorial 2017