No. 6 Denver vs. No. 4 UMass

NCAA Tournament Frozen Four semifinal

Thursday, April 11, 6:30 p.m., ESPN2

Series: Denver leads, 3-0, with that 6-1 win coming in November 2014 at Magness Arena

Records (Pairwise): DU 24-11-5 (8) / UMass 30-9-0 (4)

How they got here

• Denver defeated American International, 3-0, in the NCAA West Region final on Saturday, one day after shutting out No. 9 Ohio State, 2-0. The Pioneers finished fourth in the NCHC, won their first-round series vs. North Dakota in two games, lost to NCHC champion Minnesota Duluth in the semifinals, 3-0, then routed Colorado College, 6-1 in the consolation game.
• Massachusetts won the Northeast Regional with consecutive 4-0 victories over Notre Dame (in the final) and Harvard. It edged Northeastern and Providence by five points to win the Hockey East regular-season title, swept New Hampshire in a quarterfinal series but lost to Boston College, 3-0, in a semifinal.

How they match up statistically

Goals: DU 112 (2.80 per game) / UM 147 (3.77)

Goals against: DU 79 (1.98) / UM 77 (1.97)

Power play: DU 14.9% / UM 21.2%

Penalty kill: DU 83.2% / UM 87.5%

Leading scorers: DU – Liam Finlay 36 points (16 goals), Jarid Lukosevicius 19 goals (29 points) and Emilio Pettersen 24 assists (30 points). UM – Cale Makar 48 points, 32 assists, 16 goals; Mitchell Chaffee 17 goals (41 points); Jacob Pritchard 45 points (16 goals).

Top goaltenders: DU – Devin Cooley 11-6-2, 1.85 GAA, .934 save%;  Filip Larsson 13-5-3, 1.87 GAA, .935 / UM – Filip Lindberg 10-3-0, 1.42 GAA, .939; Matt Murray 20-6-0, 2.11 GAA, .919.

Past 10 games: DU 6-3-1 / UM 7-3-0

DU coach David Carle on the matchup: “At the end of the day when we’re playing to our strengths and playing to them well, we can outplay anybody in the country. We’re continuing to fine tune some things. Having some practice time is really good for us. We can continue to learn and grown and get better. … Now it’s about re-channeling and refocusing our game to prepare for some things we’re going to start presenting to the team about a really good UMass team.”

Also on April 11 at the Frozen Four: No. 2 Minnesota Duluth vs. No. 11 Providence, 3 p.m., ESPN2

MORE Frozen Four: Magness Mayhem and LetsGoDU review the NCAA West Regional and look ahead to the Frozen Four.

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