Is it possible to win consistently with one line being so dominant?

No. 2 Denver will find out soon enough. The Pioneers enter their NCHC series this weekend against No. 4 St. Cloud State on a four-game winning streak largely powered by a surging first line, solid team defense and exemplary goaltending from Magnus Chrona.

Sophomores Carter Mazur (the NCHC’s player of the month for October) and Massimo Rizzo have teamed up with grad transfer Casey Dornbach to wreck havoc on opponents not named UMass this season. They’ve particularly come to life in sweeps of Providence and Miami the past two weekends.

Mazur has seven of his 12 points and six of his 10 goals in the past three games. His goal total, half of which he accumulated last weekend at Miami, ties him with Omaha’s Jake Randl for the Division I lead.

Rizzo has been every bit as en fuego, piling up 11 points in the past four games, including seven vs. Miami. His 14 points are second in the nation to Michigan’s Adam Fantilli, who is projected to be a top-three pick in next summer’s NHL Entry Draft.

And Dornbach, like Rizzo, has points in seven of the Pioneers’ eight games, including seven in the past four contests.

Add it up and the trio accounts for 68 percent of DU’s goal scoring and 55 percent of its points production.

“Both are really easy guys to play with,” Rizzo said. “Maze is fast and hungry for pucks. He’s always in an area to get the puck and shoot the puck, he’s hard around the net, so that helps.”

Mazur is only four goals behind his production from all of last season, when he had 38 points. He’s shown the ability to score picture-perfect goals as well as grimy ones, a rare combination.

“He’s such a unique player that brings such a unique element where he can play both (ways), whether it’s get to the hard areas or make a skilled play in the open ice,” Dornbach said. “He likes to shoot it a little bit more.”

Rizzo also has picked up where he left off last season, when he, too demonstrated a scoring touch, getting 36 points and 12 goals as Mazur’s center. There is one notable difference this season.

“I had 12 shots on Saturday, which is very unlike me,” he said. “But it’s something I want to implement more in my game this year, having a shooting mentality. Usually I’m a pass-first guy, which I still am, but I am trying to shoot more.”

Dornbach’s production shouldn’t be a surprise either. He had 90 points in three seasons at Harvard. He’s fit in seamlessly with the dynamic duo.

“Casey’s a super smart player, makes great passes because he sees the ice really well,” Rizzo said. “It’s pretty easy to play with those two guys.”

Of course having a grad transfer riding shotgun with them is nothing new for Mazur and Rizzo. They formed a formidable second line with Cameron Wright last season. Wright came in with 101 career points in 144 games at Bowling Green then went on to have a career-high 23 goals and 34 points, which he parlayed into an AHL contract with the Colorado Eagles.

That trio accounted for 34.6 percent of DU’s points and 28 percent of its goals in its championship season. But they also weren’t getting all the attention this trio is drawing.

There was a good reason for that. Actually three of them – Bobby Brink, Cole Guttman and Carter Savoie. That trio amassed 147 points and 56 goals, or 46.2 percent and 32 percent, respectively, of the Pioneers’ total.

“Coming in as sophomores there is a bigger role for us, a little more ice time. We have more confidence from the coaches and more confidence in each other,” Rizzo said. “Last year, we had Bob, Gutter and Sav, so other teams were always matching up against them with the top D pair.

“This year, I think our line is getting that most of the time when we’re on the road. It’s a good challenge for us.”

Mazur essentially said bring it on after the sweep of Providence, when he scored a tying goal and Rizzo got a go-ahead tally before Jack Devine won the Saturday game in overtime.

“We like being those types of players,” Mazur said. “We want to produce every single night, influence the game every way we can. Our chemistry has been growing off the charts recently, so we want to keep that growing.”

It clearly did at Miami, when the trio combined for seven goals and nine assists.

But is this sustainable in the rigors of the NCHC? After St. Cloud, a trip to North Dakota awaits. A visit to Minnesota-Duluth lingers down the road. The second half features trips to St. Cloud and its Olympic sheet, Western Michigan and visits from the Fighting Hawks and Bulldogs. Can one line carry a team to where the Pioneers want to go?

They’ll need help, and DU has no shortage of candidates. Still, this trio is a special group that is striving to at least match the standard that last season’s top line set, including the collective final outcome.

“They’re two great players,” Dornbach said. “I think we’re all a little different, which makes coming together an interesting combo. They’ve made it easy one me. We’re all really great friends off the ice, and we’re always trying to get better.

“We’re hungry for more. We’ve had some chemistry early on, but we have a mindset of expecting more from ourselves no matter what’s happened so far. Some of its organic, you don’t know why, it’s just happening.”

©First Line Editorial 2022