The first time I saw Trevor Moore play hockey, he was a 12-year-old Pee Wee on a powerhouse L.A. Selects ’95 team that would win consecutive  USA Hockey Youth Nationals titles and come within an overtime of winning a third in a row.

On a team loaded with players now enjoying careers in NCAA hockey, the Western Hockey League and the American Hockey League, Moore’s stick handling and ability to find open teammates, as well as the back of the net, was dazzling.

I remember there were some qualifiers: “He’s on the small side.” (He might have weighed 100 pounds as a Pee Wee). “Look at who he’s playing with.” (The list was impressive).

Baloney. He could play then, and he can play now. One doesn’t lead a powerhouse program like DU in points as a freshmen (32), then tack on 44 more as sophomore if he can’t. He got off to a rough start to this season by his lofty established standards  (10 points in 15 games), in large part due to a bout with walking pneumonia we’ve come to find out.

As the calendar turned to 2016, so did Moore’s game. He’s put up 23 points in the year’s 13 games heading into tonight’s historic Battle on Blake against Colorado College and has improved in every tangible – and intangible – way it seems. He’s stingier on defense, more vocal on the bench. As DU coach Jim Montgomery preaches, “getting back to DU hockey, being tough to play against.”

I’ve watched Moore play on and off since 2007, when I was covering grass-roots hockey in California, and this is the best I’ve ever seen him play.

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The first time I saw Danton Heinen play in person was last season after my family relocated to Colorado. What I saw blew me away. Like Moore, he had an innate ability to play a step ahead of most of the opposition and make plays the vast majority of hockey players can only dream of. And could he ever finish.

It was no wonder then that the Boston Bruins were bearish enough on the Langley, British Columbia, product to select him in the fourth round (116th overall) in the 2014 NHL Entry Draft. He was the centerpiece of Montgomery’s first full recruiting class at DU, and he didn’t disappoint, winning the NCHC’s Rookie of the Year award after leading the conference in scoring with 45 points.

Three takeaways I’ve had from speaking with Heinen: First, he’s fairly straightforward,  but in a politely Canadian way. Second, he doesn’t really like to talk about himself or his interests for more than a few syllables, but he will speak at length about the ability and work ethic of his teammates. And third, he works very, very hard.

The first time I interviewed Heinen, he raved and raved about what it was like to play with Moore last season when they teamed up with center Daniel Doremus one month into the season. The second time I interviewed him I waited … and waited … and waited. He has this post practice habit of shooting the puck, and it’s not unusual for him to spend as many as 30 minutes doing it, day after day.

With that context, I found it interesting earlier this season that he and the biscuit appeared to not be on speaking terms. That changed in Omaha on Jan. 8. In DU’s past 11 games the sophomore has 18 points, with 15 (including seven goals) coming in the past seven games. It was fair to ask after 14 points in 22 games “What happened?”

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The first time I talked to Heinen and the first time I talked to Moore in several years came while researching a story for Colorado Rubber Hockey Magazine about “Who will play with Moore and Heinen?” this season.

A related question was will Montgomery even keep the dynamic duo together? The coach did and he didn’t. They played some with senior Quentin Shore and then some with freshman Dylan Gambrell. Bear in mind this is a coach who knew a thing or two about the composition of powerful NCAA lines – he was part of one as a player at Maine.

Interestingly enough, it was the freshman who held down the DU fort on what would come to be known as the Pacific Rim Line. After getting on the scoresheet for the first time with two assists in his third collegiate game, Gambrell has pretty much maintained a point-per-game pace all season, recently surging above it (33 points in 29 games now). Since his debut series against Air Force, only twice has he been shut out for a weekend (at Minnesota-Duluth and at North Dakota), and he was in good company in the latter of those two.

It’s no wonder then that Gambrell’s name appeared on the NHL Central Scouting Service’s list of players to watch and later its North American skaters list.

Talk to the Washington state native for any length of time and it’s not hard to notice how detailed he is – it can be in describing the play of a teammate or what his favorite pre game meal is. He pays attention to the details.

That is an invaluable trait for any hockey player, but especially one who is centering superlative talents such as Heinen and Moore. As Montgomery has said several times this season, “He knows how to play with those guys.”

As the trio has returned to full health and built some chemistry, the results have spoken for themselves.

The Pioneers, who crawled into the Christmas break with a 7-7-2 record after back-to-back shellackings at North Dakota and at home to St. Cloud State, have gone 9-1-3 since and re-inserted themselves in the national conversation. A home NCHC playoff series was a hope, now it’s a starting point.

And the Pacific Rim Line has led the way with 62 points in 13 games.

Should the trio play 13 more games at that level, the Pioneers could find themselves right where they’ve said all along their goal was: playing for a national title.

The Pioneers have believed that all season. The Pacific Rim Line is making it believable for the rest of us.