No. 7 Denver (16-7-4, 8-7-2-2 NCHC) vs. Miami (10-16-4, 4-12-2-1)

Friday and Saturday at 7:07 p.m. at Magness Arena

TV / radio: NCHC.tv (both nights) and Altitude (Saturday) / 104.3 FM

Series: Denver leads 14-11-3

Overview

Denver has been very good at home all season (9-1-4), and with just three regular-season home dates left, this is a good weekend to make an upward push in the NCHC standings and ensure a home playoff series. … The Pioneers have five games in nine days, including next Tuesday’s make-up game at Colorado College and next weekend’s series at Omaha. … DU continues to win because it’s getting great goaltending from Filip Larsson and Devin Cooley, the NCHC’s past two goalie of the week winners, and playing better team defense. Cooley (9-4-1, 1.93 GAA, .934) will start Friday. Offense has been a big challenge lately, as the Pioneers have scored just seven goals in the past five games yet have three wins in that span. In fairness, they’ve just come out their toughest second-half stretch – at No. 9 Western Michigan, vs. North Dakota and at No. 3 Minnesota Duluth. … 2019 has been a disaster for Miami, which ended a nine-game losing streak with Saturday’s 4-2 at Omaha. Overall, it is 1-10-1 in the new year.

Three keys for Denver

1. Re-ignite the freshmen – Five of DU’s top eight scorers are freshmen, but collectively the group has slumped of late. Slava Demin has two points in eight games, Emilio Pettersen has two in seven, Cole Guttman and Brett Stapley (who likely won’t play this weekend due to injury) have one in six, and Tyler Ward has one in seven. Demin had the lone goal in the win at Duluth.
2. Put the special back in special teams – Denver has connected on just 6.8 percent of its power plays in the new year, worst in Division I. It’s penalty kill is 73.5 percent in that span, 50th in the nation. The latter has been better of late.
3. Shoot and shoot some more – Do you really think the offensive droughts will continue with this lineup? I don’t. After generating 37 shots in the second game at Western Michigan, the Pioneers have registered 27-27-22-16 in the past four.

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