The first-ever Frozen Four played in Las Vegas culminates with historic blue bloods Denver and Wisconsin meeting for a national championship on Saturday.
The competitors have taken different paths to the ultimate game. Denver (28-11-3) carries 12-game winning and 16-game unbeaten streaks to be within one victory of its record 11th all-time title. Wisconsin (24-12-2) seeks to complete a Cinderella run to its first crown in two decades after receiving a proverbial second life in the NCAA tournament following a Big Ten quarterfinal loss.
In their semifinal round games on Thursday, both teams bent but didn’t break.
The Pioneers, who recently won it all in both 2022 and 2024, were outshot 52-26 but topped No. 1 overall seed Michigan 4-3 on senior captain and defenseman Kent Anderson’s double-overtime goal. It was the third-longest game in Frozen Four history.
“It means everything to play in this national championship game,” Anderson said. “It’s our goal at the beginning of the year. It’s what we work for and what we play for at Denver.”
Though the Pioneers boast a Frozen Four-high 15 NHL draft picks, this time of year in hockey is all about unsung heroes. Anderson is certainly one of those, having scored just one previous goal this season and five in his first 148 career games.
“Really proud of him and how he’s led this team,” Denver coach David Carle said. “Not many had him on the ‘BucciOT Challenge.’ No matter.”
Meanwhile, the Badgers got goals from Simon Tassy and Ryan Botterill 27 seconds apart in the first period and went 5-for-5 on the penalty kill — including 1:57 of 5-on-3 time in the second — before holding off a late North Dakota surge in a 2-1 win.
“It doesn’t have to be (a) Mona Lisa,” Wisconsin coach Mike Hastings said. “You just have to find a way to make sure you’re living for another day.”
The Badgers entered Thursday with the second-worst penalty kill in the country (70.9%), but they stepped up at the most crucial time against a high-octane offense.
“Guys took a lot of effort on blocking shots, getting in lanes,” said defenseman Ben Dexheimer, who propelled Wisconsin to its first Frozen Four since 2010 with an overtime goal for a 4-3 win over regional top seed Michigan State on March 28 in Worcester, Mass.
Denver is at its best on the back end, having entered the Frozen Four tied for the fourth-best scoring defense in the country (2.10 goals per game).
On that note, the best penalty killers and key reasons why both teams advanced were the goaltenders: Wisconsin’s Daniel Hauser and Denver’s Johnny Hicks — both older freshmen with past Canadian major junior experience.
Hauser made 21 saves in Thursday’s game, posting his eighth win in nine starts.
However, no goalie on the planet is on a hotter run than Hicks, who is an incredible 15-0-1 with a .957 save percentage since taking over the net from Quentin Miller in December. He stopped a season-high 49 shots against Michigan, staying in the game after taking a third-period hit on a drive to the net.
“He’s a battler. He’s unfazed. He was our best player,” Carle said. “Made the saves you’re supposed to. Made a lot that he wasn’t supposed to.”
The two teams had one previous national championship meeting in Boston in 1973, with Wisconsin winning 4-2. That was the first of six Badgers titles, the most recent coming in 2006.
–Field Level Media
