Denver plays Cornell in NCAA opener on Thursday

Denver center Carter KingDenver center Carter King. Photo courtesy of Jamie Schwaberow / Clarkson Creative via Denver Athletics

Defending national champion Denver will play Cornell in a first-round 2023 NCAA Tournament game on Thursday at 3:30 p.m. MDT on ESPNews.

The Pioneers (30-9) received one of the NCAA Tournament’s four top seeds and will head to the Manchester, N.H. regional. DU won the NCHC regular-season title but lost in the conference’s semifinals on Friday to Colorado College, 1-0.

C0rnell (20-10-2) reached the ECAC semifinals before falling to Harvard. It has the second-stingiest defense in Division I, something that helped it finish third in the ECAC regular season behind Quinnipiac and Harvard.

Here is a statistical comparison of the teams:

Team

Denver

Cornell

Record

30-9

20-10-2

Goals per game

3.8

3.4

Goals against per game

2.2

2.0

Power play

26.6%

25.9%

Penalty kill

78%

81.9%

Face-offs

50.3%

54.5%

Shots per game

32

29

The other game in the regional features a team DU knows well – fellow NCHC member No. 9 Western Michigan – facing off against No. 5 Boston University.

About the Author

Mayhem
Longtime journalist with more than two decades of experience writing about every level of amateur and pro hockey. Almost as longtime of an adult league player.

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