No. 7 Denver (15-6-4, 7-6-2-2 NCHC) at No. 4 Minnesota Duluth (17-7-2, 10-5-1)

7:07 p.m. Friday and 6:07 p.m. Saturday at Duluth, Minn.

TV / Radio: CBS Sports Network (Friday), NCHC.tv (Saturday) / 104.3 FM (both nights)

Series: Denver leads 125-78-12, including a split at Magness Arena in mid-November

What’s at stake

Playoff positioning in the NCHC. The Bulldogs have a six-point lead on the fourth-place Pioneers for second place in the conference, and that could be the difference between playing a team such as Omaha, Miami or Colorado College, or a North Dakota or Western Michigan in the first round of the conference playoffs. Denver has a three-point lead on North Dakota, and the Fighting Hawks play Western Michigan this weekend, so spots 2-5 could reshuffle a bit. The Pioneers will have a lot to say about where they finish because these are the first two of nine NCHC games for them in a 23-day stretch. … Another layer to this is Denver is just 1-5 on the road in NCHC games so a top-four finish in the NCHC could only help.

Overview

This is always entertaining matchup. Both teams have plenty of speed and skill, and both have excellent goaltending. The question for DU is which goaltender – freshman Filip Larsson or sophomore Devin Cooley – will get the call. The guess here is Larsson, who was off the charts against NoDak two weekends ago, stopping 76 of 78 shots. Cooley is on the trip and could play after missing the past eight games with an upper-body injury. Cooley shut out the Bulldogs, 2-0, in the opening game at Magness in November. Both have excellent numbers – Cooley is 8-4-1 with a 2.08 GAA and .929 save percentage, while Larsson is 7-2-3 with a 2.29 and a .923. … Their counterpart, Hunter Shepard, has been excellent as well with 17-7-2, 1.75 and .924 numbers. … Both teams score more than three goals per game and have balanced offenses – DU has 11 double-digit scorers, led by junior Liam Finlay (26 points, 12 goals) and Emilio Pettersen (22, 16 assists); UMD has 12, topped by forward Justin Richards (25, 17 assists) and defenseman Scott Perunovich (24, 21 assists). … It’s uncertain if senior assistant captain, Jarid Lukosevicius, DU’s leading goal scorer with 13 and a constant thorn in UMD’s side, will play after sustaining an upper body injury against North Dakota. He practiced this week but wore an orange no-contact jersey.

Three keys for DU

1. Special teams – Statistically, the Bulldogs rate a big edge here – 24 percent to 16.2 percent on the power play and 91.7 to 79.8 on the penalty kill. Denver has to improve in these phases if it expects to be successful down the stretch.
2.  Keep the intensity – As we saw in the second meeting at Magness, UMD is capable of going into overdrive and turning a game. Any let-ups could be lethal for DU.
3. Play tough but play smart – UMD is also a significantly bigger team and undoubtedly is going to follow the template DU’s recent foes have tried with physical play. As mentioned previously, Denver doesn’t want to get into a special teams war with a team this skilled.

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