Now that's a PK clear!

Call me a homer, but this may have been the college hockey goal of the year.  DU's David Makowski:

The McNaughton Cup

For the WCHA regular season champion!

The Gold Pan returns to Denver

And your DU Pioneers head into the WCHA playoffs as the # 1 team in the country!

God bless America

In case you missed it, the USA beat Canada for the Gold Medal in the World Junior Championships Tuesday night in Saskatoon (yes, really). 

The USA gave up two late goals to Cananda that sent the game into OT tied at 5-5.

John Carlson scored this game winner in overtime!  The team included DU D-man Matt Donovan and incoming DU recruit Jason Zucker. 

Congrats to the boys!

The good news for the Leafs.....

....they signed former DU center Tyler Bozak and - as we know - he is the real deal. While in the pre-season, this beauty was his first NHL goal.

The new Boone mascot

Last Thursday in Washington DC, at the Lincoln Memorial, staff from the always brilliant "Let's Go DU" Hockey Blog presented the new "unofficial" Denver Pioneers Boone mascot. One of our staff was in attendance to capture this quality photo of our new hero.On an amusing side note, I heard the following conversation:

Child "I want to get my picture with that pirate!"

Dad: "I'm not sure that's a pirate?"

Mom: "I don't know what that thing is!"

Reminder...

The Tournament starts tomorrow (oh, today). Our beloved DU Pioneers go in as a # 1 seed and face the Miami Redhawks - Friday March 27th at 3: 30 PM MST. Here is a link with the bracket and a link with the TV schedule.

Remember, playing hockey, watching hockey, and drinking beer makes you a better person. Especially if you can combine those last two. At least that is what Sean Connery says......

Editorial # 14 - Total class!

I think a lot of you have heard about David Carle, the younger brother of Former DU Pioneer Matt, who won the Hobey Baker trophy while playing for DU. David (pictured above, thanks to the LetsGoDU Blog) had signed to play at DU starting this Fall and was rated to be about a 2nd or 3rd round NHL draft pick.

A couple of days before the draft, doctors conducting tests on David Carle found a heart abnormality. He was diagnosed with the same heart condition that led to the deaths of basketball players Reggie Lewis and Hank Geathers.

This obviously signaled the end of Carle's hockey career. Carle called coach Gwozdecky at DU and the NHL to let them know that his career was over. In a move that I did not find surprising, Coach Gwozdecky told Carle that the school would honor his scholarship and that he would be part of the team in a non-playing capacity.

Then surprisingly, David Carle was drafted in the last (7th) round of the NHL Draft by the Tampa Bay Lightning. The new ownership group basically said that since he had worked so hard to get drafted by an NHL team, they did not think he should lose that honor. You can read the story on the Let's Go DU BLOG.

In a time when sports stories are so negative and magnify the lack of perspective of many in the world of competitive sports, I thought this was a refreshing story. So, next time you get a chance, tip a glass to Coach Gwozdecky and the DU Pioneers, as well as the Tampa Bay Lightning!

Voting for Boone, part 2?

Once again, time to vote for Boone. A chance to help DU get away from the jelly donut logo and re-embrace tradition. Follow this link to express your views.

To follow up on Peter McNab's thoughts, you can see one of our all-time favorite DU Pioneers, Conor James, from earlier this year scoring his first NHL goal for the Pittsburgh Penguins - right here - go to the second goal in the 3rd period.

It is tournament time....

You had to know that this week's entries would all relate to college hockey. The big reminder though is that the Frozen Four is in Denver on April 10th and 12th at the Pepsi Center - here is the info link. It is rare to get to see this nostalgic of sporting events, so I hope I see you there!

The State of College Hockey?

That's right, read 'em and weep. Colorado gets all three of it's Division 1 college hockey programs into the National Tournament. And if you are scoring at home, that is more teams than from any other state - including Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, and New York!
Mike Chambers alluded to this in his Denver Post college hockey blog, and the blog to which all bloggers should aspire - "Let's Go DU" - (where I stole this picture) also links to several articles.

The Anthony Maiani goal

DU Freshman forward Anthony Maiani scored the winning goal in game 2 against Minnesota-Duluth in the first round of the WCHA tournament. He did it again in the # 2 vs. # 3 seed, semi-final game against the hated Sioux of North Dakota, on the way to DU's WCHA tournament championship.
There are also two great fundamentals on this play to think about: keep your feet moving and be aware of your defensive positioning. Honestly though, this is a pretty goal and one of the best backhands you will ever see. You can tell how great it is from the announcers laughing "That was ridiculous" commentary. Enjoy!

DU's finish - what a bonanza!

Denver University had a remarkable comeback against St. Cloud State on Saturday night, courtesy of sophomore winger - # 9 Rhett Rakhshani and his late hat trick. If you didn't get to see the game, here is the last 6 minutes - all you really need to see!

The Tyler Ruegsegger goal

One of the alternate captains for Denver University this season is sophomore forward Tyler Ruegsegger - from Lakewood, via Littleton, Colorado. For an interesting note about Colorado hockey - follow this link. For his spectacular goal from two weeks ago, you can see it here as it is the early front-runner for goal of the year.

New training regimen?

An interesting article about one of the DU Hockey team's offseason training programs.

My Top 10 favorite goals - # 6

The comeback vs. Duluth - 2004 Frozen Four.

As you may know, although not really my style of player, Lukas Dora was always one of my favorite DU Pioneers. Yes, the # 13 probably helped. He was a very good college hockey player with an extra nasty streak. To call him a pest would be an understatement.

Some of us took Thursday April 8, 2004 off from work to go watch the game - E5 was in attendance after his pseudo-concussion (sorry E) - and The Shot Pimp called us from Ohio and forced us to do shots after DU goals.

The game started poorly for the Pios and they were down 3-2 going to the 3rd period. Defenseman and Captain, Ryan Caldwell, got the game tying goal on a break-away early in the 3rd period. Caldwell was another favorite as he struck me as that no-nonsense type captain. Oddly, at the awards ceremony that year, coach Gwozdecky said that season was the first season Caldwell had ever donned the "C". Earlier in the year during a captains / senior skate, he got into a fight and punched out his friend and roommate. He just had that "all business" approach you love.

So anyway, the stage was set and our guy Dora got the game winner later in the 3rd. DU added an empty netter to win 5-3. But Dora's goal - while not a thing of beauty - was an awesome lamp-lighter that had us jumping out of our chairs. Even greater was his show of emotion that you can see in the bottom picture - one of the reasons I always loved the guy.

DU went on to the Finals...but you can read about that at a later date....

The DU logo debate - bring back Boone?

The debate is probably best described here.

A quality analysis between the two is here.

A less funny analysis is here.

To actually vote - click here.

The faces of DU hockey?

Yes, on the road to the Frozen Four in 2004 the DU Alumni website had some extremely attractive people on their front page. Particulary sexy were two drunken fools who never attended DU - but were not afraid to drink beer at the alumi party after a 1-0 win over North Dakota!

The home of the who?

The DU Orange and Lemon game

The Seniors from the 2005 Denver University National Championship hockey team.

They also took part in a long-standing DU hockey traditio of the lemon and orange game.

Click the title to see the video.