Story by Alan Snel Photos by Hugh Byrne
LAS VEGAS, Nevada –– Expect Sports Town USA — Las Vegas — to make a bid again to host college hockey’s Frozen Four after this week’s NCAA hockey event won by Denver in a 2-1 thriller over Wisconsin Saturday afternoon.
Four college hockey bluebloods programs — Denver, North Dakota, Michigan and Wisconsin — came to T-Mobile Arena and Wisconsin coach Mike Hastings said he was impressed with the way the Frozen Four was staged by the NCAA and Las Vegas.
The Frozen Four might not have the star power of a Super Bowl or Final Four, but college hockey’s final four is the college sport’s marquee event and T-Mobile Arena did a solid job at hosting the event. ESPN, which broadcast the NCAA national championship game, gave the Strip lots of free publicity by showing images of the Frozen Four title trophy in front of the world-famous entertainment boulevard.
The NCAA s holding its Frozen Four event in Washington, D.C. in 2027 and Chicago in 2028. The next open year is 2029.
Denver won its NCAA-best 11th college hockey championship. The school with only 6,000 students defeated two giant Big Ten Midwest Powers in Michigan and Wisconsin. In both games, Denver was outshot by both the Wolverines and Badgers but found a way to secure one-goal wins.
It was a brutal loss for the Badgers. Players were on one knee after the one-goal loss to Denver.
The Pioneers’ coach, David Carle, is only 35 years old and has piled up an impressive 179-74-17 overall record, including the2022 and 2024 NCAA titles.
Win number 180 was a national championship.
For the record, Wisconsin jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first period on goal by Vasily Zelenov, who shot the puck past Denver’s freshman goalie, Johnny Hicks. Denver could muster only five shots on Badgers goalie Daniel Hauser through the first two periods.
Wisconsin took a 1-0 lead into the final 20 minutes.
But the Pioneers tied the score at one apiece thanks to a goal by Rieger Lorenz.
Would Denver go to overtime again like it did Thursday when the Pioneers defeated Michigan, 4-3, in double OT to win that national semifinal.
They might. Stay with us and find out.
The Pioneers took a 2-1 lead later in the third period and held on for the trophy win.
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