Pioneers advance to championship game on overtime winner

It was a time for Tristans on Thursday as the Denver Pioneers beat the Boston Terriers 2-1 in overtime of the Frozen Four to advance to the program’s 13th-ever NCAA title game.

And this Tristan might just get the extra period renamed Brozertime, as junior forward Tristan Broz again played the hero for Pios. His shot from the wing 11 minutes into overtime gave DU their third-straight 2-1 NCAA Tournament win. The team’s first win in the competition came thanks to Broz as well, when he notched the overtime game-winner against Massachusetts in the first round. The Pios then passed Cornell 2-1.

“I just think, I’m speechless. I want to be the guy to score but I just want somebody on the team to score,” Broz told ESPN after the game “We got a special team and we’ve got one more game.”

DENVER TO THE SHIP!!!!!!!!!

📺 ESPN2#MFrozenFour x @DU_Hockey pic.twitter.com/h8IbLJP8HY

— NCAA Ice Hockey (@NCAAIceHockey) April 12, 2024

Denver was thoroughly outplayed by Boston in the first half of the game but something flipped midway through the second period and the Pioneers applied the pressure. It was again Matt Davis who kept the Pios in the game until the team’s offense got going.

“Stick with it believe in each other and do it for each other,” Broz said about how DU turned the game around.

Tristan Lemyre got DU on the board thanks to a swelling attack late in the second period.

And yet the NCAA’s No. 1 offense this season was limited to scoring just two goals and needing extra time to do it. The Pios went 0-for-4 on the powerplay and it seemed DU’s best chances may have gone by the wayside. Two of the best saves you’ll ever see in hockey, kept the Pios’ best chances at a game-winner in regulation out of the net.

HIGHWAY ROBBERY!!!!! 😵

📺 ESPN2#MFrozenFour x @TerrierHockey pic.twitter.com/zNkV3zS88C

— NCAA Ice Hockey (@NCAAIceHockey) April 11, 2024

But Denver was able to stay out of the box themselves and played a clean, though physical game.

Broz may be a transfer but he too was in Boston the last time DU won a title, then he played for Minnesota who lost that year in the semifinal. David Carle still has a good chunk of players on the roster who won that 2022 title. And now Denver seeks a record-breaking 10th ice hockey championship, just months after Carle led Team USA to gold in the World Junior Championships.

One of Canada’s top players in that tournament this winter was Macklin Celebrini. Denver was able to keep the soon-to-be No. 1 pick in the NHL Draft scoreless in their comeback victory.

Now the Pioneers await the winner of Boston College and Michigan, who face off later on Thursday in St. Paul. If it’s the Wolverines, they also seek that record-setting 10th title. The championship game is on Saturday at 4 p.m. and if anything Carle will be hoping for another two goals—one each from the Tristans.