It pays to be flexible, and the NCHC demonstrated Wednesday night that it is willing to be just that.

Faced with three series postponements, including No. 6 Denver’s vs. No. 5 St. Cloud State, the league has readjusted its schedule so the Pioneers now will play host to No. 15 Omaha on Saturday and Sunday nights at 6 p.m.

DU’s first series vs. the Mavericks was scheduled to take place last weekend, but was postponed due to the Mavericks’ Covid protocol issues. That series was rescheduled for Feb. 4-5 at Omaha, but that weekend will be when St. Cloud pays a visit to Magness Arena.

Denver’s second series vs. Omaha will remain on Feb. 25-26, but will take place at Omaha.

The NCHC announced the changes Wednesday night on its website.

One good thing for the Pioneers is they will not have an even longer break. As it is, they’ve only played two games since the second weekend in December when they split at Minnesota Duluth.

The extra day off this week also provides a collateral benefit for DU, which was down seven skaters at practice earlier this week. The reasons were not formally announced.

Two weeks ago, two of the Pioneers’ leading scorers – sophomore Carter Savoie and freshman Massimo Rizzo – missed the series vs. Alaska Fairbanks due to Covid protocols.

The hope here is no one on any of the NCHC teams (or elsewhere for that matter) gets seriously ill or sustains any long-term effects.

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