No. 5 Denver (5-0-1, 2-0 NCHC) at No. 2 St. Cloud State (7-1, 2-0 NCHC)

6:07 p.m. Friday, 5:07 p.m. Saturday at St. Cloud, Minn.

Radio/Webcast: AM 1600 / NCHC.tv (subscription)

Series: Denver leads 55-44-6

Last meeting: Denver won 4-1 on March 17 to win the NCHC Frozen Faceoff title at Saint Paul, Minn.

Overview

Lost in the attention over David Carle replacing Jim Montgomery as the Pioneers’ coach is the fact that the Huskies also have a new coach, Brett Larson, a former Minnesota-Duluth player and assistant who replaced Bob Motzko after Motzko took the Minnesota job. On the surface, neither team’s character has changed demonstrably. The Huskies still score bushels full of goals (34 in eight games, 4.25 per game) and have an excellent power play (27.6 percent, 8th in Division I). One area that appears vastly improved is their defense (1.67 allowed per game) and their penalty kill (91 percent), which leads D-I. … The Pioneers also keep the pedal to the metal both offensively and defensively and are near the top of D-I in both goals per game (4.33, tied for second) and goals against (1.67, fourth fewest). The penalty kill, however, has been a bit of an issue (81 percent), one that’s amplified because DU takes an average of 13 minutes of penalties per game. … Sophomore David Hrenak has started five of eight games for St. Cloud and is 5-0 with a 1.40 gaa and a .940 save percentage. His counterpart, fellow sophomore Devin Cooley, has been nearly as good (5-0-1, 1.64, .930)… These are Denver’s first games away from home since its season opener at Air Force a month ago.

Three keys

Finishing moves – Slow starts don’t faze the Huskies, who pick up steam as games go along. Twenty-six of their 34 goals have come in the second and third periods, and they rallied twice last weekend in sweeping Colorado College. … Denver is very balanced, getting virtually the same output in every period (9-8-8) with the difference being it is 1-0-1 in overtime.

Offensemen – The Huskies are one of the few teams that can at least match DU’s firepower from the blue line. Junior Jack Ahcan has 11 points and all-conference senior Jimmy Schuldt, the program’s first three-time captain, has seven. Schuldt probably will be in the Hobey Baker Award conversation. … In addition to sophomore Ian Mitchell‘s eight points, the Pioneers have three more D-men among their top 10 scorers – junior Michael Davies (5), freshman Slava Demin (4) and senior Les Lancaster (3). All of them have scored goals.

Senior moments – That Jarid Lukosevicius is leading DU with seven goals isn’t much of a surprise. After all, he had 21 last season. But another fourth-year player, Patrick Newell, leads the Huskies with six, which is as many as he had all last season and one short of his career high.

©First Line Editorial 2017-18