The clock was running down, and Kyle Mayhew knew it.

He’d carved out a nice junior hockey career with the Fairbanks Ice Dogs of the North American Hockey League. He’d had some conversations with Division I colleges. But nothing was concrete late in the third period of his final season of junior eligibility.

“It was pretty late, very unconventional,” the Denver defenseman said. “It wasn’t like a lot of guys who get recruited and commit when they’re 16. I was pretty late in my 20-year-old year. I was at the NAHL Top Prospects Game, and I had talked to a couple of schools, but I wasn’t signed.

“Then my head coach from Fairbanks texted me and said, ‘Hey, Denver wants your transcripts. Can you send them?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, sure, Denver wants my transcripts. Whatever.’ I didn’t believe it.”

Mayhew shipped them off. Soon DU assistant coach Tavis MacMillan was on the phone, then in Alaska in person to scout him.

“I still didn’t know if it would really happen,” Mayhew said. “When I did get the offer, it was a surreal moment I’ll remember the rest of my life.”

It turns out that was only the beginning.

Who is this guy?

Mayhew is one of the more unlikely success stories for a Pioneers team that enters the NCAA Tournament as the top seed at the Manchester, N.H., regional.

Consider: He started his DU career mainly playing forward. Although he was a good junior player, he wasn’t a massive points producer. And he stands just 5-foot-8 and weighs 160 pounds.

Yet here he is five years later, one of the Pioneers’ assistant captains and with an opportunity to win a national championship for a second season in a row. If DU reaches the Frozen Four it would be the third time in five seasons the Southern California native has been there. He teams with sophomore Sean Behrens to form DU’s top defense pairing. It’s a versatile tag team that is equally adept at generating offense and preventing opponents from doing so.

“He’s added a ton of value in his five years here,” Denver coach David Carle said. “His role has expanded every season. There’s not much more to be said. His impact has been tremendous all five years.”

So how did Mayhew get to this point?

Kyle Mayhew worked his way up DU’s lineup

Mayhew played in just 17 games as a freshman in 2018-19, mostly at forward due to a rash of injuries. He appeared in the final 13 games as the Pioneers made a bit of a surprise run to the Frozen Four before losing to UMass in overtime.

He played in all 36 games – mainly on the third pair – the next season, which was canceled in March due to the pandemic. His role was similar in 2020-21.

“All of those different experiences, I’ve been able to cherry-pick here and there what I can take and implement now,” Mayhew said. “Playing forward gave me an appreciation for what defensemen can do and how I can make a forward’s job easier, what they like, what they don’t like.

“My sophomore and junior years I was playing but it wasn’t a ton of minutes. I learned a lot by watching, being a good teammate, being an energy guy on the bench. I had some great people to watch – Griffin Mendel, Ian Mitchell, Michael Davies. They helped me, the coaching staff helped me. (The next step) was a culmination of things.”

It all came together last season when Denver concluded the campaign with its record-tying ninth NCAA hockey title. Mayhew appeared in 40 games and found a great fit on DU’s top pair with Behrens. It was a turning point for both of them.

DU’s defense is topped by a pair of aces

Behrens came to DU as an 18-year-old (he’s more than five years younger than Mayhew) who had been selected in the second round of the NHL Entry Draft by the Colorado Avalanche in 2021 after two seasons at the U.S. National Team Development Program. Still, the leap to NCAA hockey wasn’t an easy one.

“He’s a huge part of the success I’ve had the past two years here,” said Behrens, who made the NCHC All-Rookie Team after putting up 29 points in 37 games as a freshman. “To come in as an 18-year-old and have a guy like him not only on the team but be able to play with him has been something I’ve really appreciated. He’s helped me on the ice, off the ice, with school. Really anything, he’s been there for me. He’s been a guy I look up to.”

The pairing could produce offense; Mayhew added a career-high 11 points. They both can defend. They’re first-call penalty killers. They finished 1 and 2 in blocked shots on the team with 45 (Behrens) and 43 and were a combined plus-24 while drawing tough assignments.

That’s continued this season. Mayhew’s 58 blocks lead the team, while Behrens has 55. They’re a combined plus-30 and have 30 points.

The fit was seamless.

“I’ve thought about that a lot,” Mayhew said. “It’s something that just kind of clicked. The first week of training camp (in 2021), DC told me, ‘We just threw you together.’ They do that to see how guys will mesh.

“Berry’s a special player. He reads the ice so well, and he makes my job easy. It’s just effortless to read off him. We have similar styles of games and we just feed off each other.”

The combination provides the Pioneers a pairing of elite skaters who, despite neither being taller than 5-10, are very difficult to play against.

“His skating ability allows him to (jump into plays and) get back,” Behrens said. “He’s probably the best skater on our team, either him or Jared Wright. That’s a big part of his game.”

Elite skating, fearlessness are Mayhew’s calling cards

There are good reasons for that. Mayhew, who has been an NCHC Distinguished Scholar-Athlete (GPA 3.5 or higher) and is nearly done with a Master’s degree, takes a cerebral approach to the art of skating.

“I still love working on my skating,” Mayhew said. “There’s always something you can pick up from everybody. There’s not a limit you can hit. You can always improve that. For me, it’s such a vital part of my game, I might as well try to perfect it as best I can.”

There’s another area Mayhew often makes an impact on during games. It involves impact.

“He gets into people, he takes away time and space especially well,” Carle said. “Those are obviously the strengths of his defensive game. He has a little nastiness to him. He can get into people and make them uncomfortable.”

Mayhew said several factors combined for his development there. One was observation.

“One guy I’ve always loved to model my game after was Michael Davies,” he said. “He was a phenomenal skater, and I was in awe of the things he did on the ice that no one noticed. I like to do things off the puck or behind the play people don’t notice. It might be little things that help us break out of the zone, but he was really good at that. He didn’t pass up an opportunity to hit someone.”

Davies isn’t much taller than Mayhew, and both are masters of leverage.

“I’ve always been undersized. I was 5-foot-nothing in Midgets and Bantams,” Mayhew said. “I learned how I’ve got to use my body to bump off of checks or get under guys or their sticks. That’s part of it.

“(Director of sports performance) Matt Shaw has been a huge part of it. I was strong when I came in, but nowhere near where I am now. He’s completely changed my confidence on the ice, the way I can center my balance, stay strong on the puck, stay strong on my stick. That’s another part of my progression.”

Add it up, and the player that few colleges seemed interested in has emerged as a defenseman for all seasons, and Denver has re-emerged as a national title contender concurrently.

©First Line Editorial 2023