The NCHC playoffs officially begin this Friday, but Denver coach David Carle and his Pioneers must feel like they’ve already been there for weeks.
Despite being 26-9-1 tied with Boston College and Western Michigan for the most wins in the country, defending national champion Denver had plenty to do in order to secure a favorable draw for the start of the 2025 postseason. A home-and-home sweep last weekend against in-state rival Colorado College saw the Pioneers lock up the No. 3 seed for the NCHC playoffs, where they’ll face CC again this weekend at home in a best-of-three series.
“We were in a home-ice battle, really, from January on,” Carle said. “There were a lot of parts of the second half where we were sitting in a place where we were looking like going on the road, and that was a challenge for us to try and get ourselves in a position to get home and get back to Magness Arena for home ice.
“We felt like everything was in our control, and I’m just proud of the guys for going out and executing at a high level to get the sweep last weekend and secure that home ice.”
Denver is entering the playoffs in a good spot, having won five of the Pioneers’ last six games. Most recently, sophomore Eric Pohlkamp’s career-high four points with three assists helped Denver to a 4-1 home win Friday to clinch the Gold Pan season series with CC. When the venue changed Saturday to the Tigers’ Robson Arena in Colorado Springs, four different Pioneers scored in a 4-3 victory that saw DU withstand a two-goal third-period comeback attempt from its host.
“You can see our group dial it in a little bit more with the way we need to play to have success,” Carle said of the seasonal muscle memory his team has started showing again. “That’s led by our guys wearing letters, our returners, our guys who played in big games and big moments and had success winning national championships, conference championships, Gold Pans, regular-season championships.
“There’s a lot of winning that has occurred in the room, and they know what it takes but every year is also different, and it’s about how each team responds. There are people who were on those teams that aren’t in this room, so people have to step up in different ways.”
Now, Denver has to tap the reset button before facing CC again for a fifth, sixth and potentially seventh time this season. Both teams know there’s still a lot out there for them to achieve. Denver would be a regional No. 3 seed if the NCAA tournament began today, and just like the Pioneers have shown in recent weeks, keeping the right mentality going forward can only help.
“Our approach is to have a killer instinct,” Carle said. “This is the best time of year, because you get the opportunity to send teams home, and that’s the task at hand.
“The hardest thing to do in sport is to end teams’ seasons, but it’s a learned skill and you need to have a real killer instinct and a ruthlessness about you to be able to accomplish that.”
