Since Ralph Engelstad Arena opened in 2001, no North Dakota home series has ever been rescheduled due to weather.
Late last week, there was a threat of that changing.
Denver was originally scheduled to fly into Fargo, N.D., on Thursday afternoon, then take an 80-mile bus ride up to Grand Forks. Most of the state was being hit by a winter storm from a Colorado low, though, which left Wednesday’s last two flights from Denver to Fargo canceled.
The fun — by that, we mean added work for DU director of hockey operations Travis Culhane — was only beginning. On the morning of Denver’s Thursday practice, the two flights to Fargo prior to the Pioneers’ were canceled, but theirs was still good to go. Until it wasn’t. DU coach David Carle and his staff were notified midday, while the Pioneers were finishing up lunch at Denver International Airport, that their flight was off.
They stuck around until their rebooked 8:30 p.m. flight to Minneapolis-St. Paul. The Pioneers reached their hotel in the Twin Cities around midnight, and bussed to Grand Forks the following day, arriving around 4 p.m., three hours ahead of their series opener with UND.
College hockey’s version of “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” didn’t seem to have an adverse affect on Denver. Instead, the Pioneers beat UND 3-2 on Friday and then doubled up the Fighting Hawks 6-3 on Saturday to earn DU’s first sweep in Grand Forks since 2010.
“In those situations, a lot of mental strength comes through,” Carle said. “You hear from people who often have the best games of their careers when they’re sick or injured. It breaks the routine, and I think it heightens your attention to detail and focus on the task at hand.
“I think that’s what we saw out of our team on Friday night. At no point during the game was I like, ‘Gosh, I wish we were on that bus.’ That’s a credit to our leadership group and our players for their ability to reset and refocus themselves. It was a mental toughness exercise in handling adversity and showing up to play regardless of the circumstances that are out of your control.”
Aidan Thompson and Jared Wright scored their first collegiate goals in Denver’s win Friday, and in a game where the Pioneers led three times, Wright scored the winner 6:33 into the third period on assists from Thompson and Lucas Olvestad.
On Saturday, Denver scored four of the game’s last five goals and got two apiece from Wright and Carter Mazur. That helped clinch a third weekend sweep of the season for the Pioneers, who now haven’t lost in regulation in their last eight games.
“We felt like we were finding our identity and who we’re going to be, and did that in a building where we hadn’t won in regulation since 2014,” Carle said. “Only one player on our roster was on the team in 2018 when we last won there.
“It was a big weekend for our players and for the program, to go win in a building for a very good team that’s very well coached and has a lot of depth. To come out with two wins is a great accomplishment, and doing it the way we did, handling that adversity Friday and coming back Saturday to play a really complete game, we were very happy with that.”
Denver, which has since jumped one spot to No. 1 in the latest DCU/USCHO Division I Men’s Poll, is now in its first bye week of the season. Carle doesn’t want his team to lose any momentum ahead of next weekend’s home set against Omaha, but he knows there are ways for the Pioneers to take advantage of this break between games.
“It’s been a grind of a first six weeks, and probably on paper the hardest portion of our schedule logistically travel-wise, and with the teams we’re playing,” Carle said. “We’ll get some rest and recovery, and we’re in Week 10 of our quarter, so finals are coming up.
“We’re encouraging the guys to be really smart with how they approach the bye week and get extra reps in the weight room training room and classroom. We’re taking advantage of the time we have to recharge the battery, and we have four straight weeks again before our next break. We want to make sure our bodies and minds are in a position to end the first half on a really good note.”
