Denver rallies past Wisconsin in 3rd period, captures NCAA Frozen Four title

Down but not out, the Denver men’s hockey team leaned on its experience to claim another national title.

The Pioneers showed their championship mettle and dug deep in the third period on Saturday, rallying for a 2-1 victory over Wisconsin at T-Mobile Arena in the Frozen Four national championship game.

Freshman winger Kyle Chyzowski scored the go-ahead goal on a deflection with 5:52 remaining in the third period to give the Pioneers their third title in the past five years and record 11th in school history.

Denver (29-11-3) finished the season on a 13-game winning streak.

“We certainly bent but didn’t break,” Pioneers coach David Carle said. “We found a way again. Johnny (Hicks) kept us within range, and we saved our best period for last. We found a way to make one more play.”

Wisconsin (24-13-2), which was in the title game for the first time since 2010 and looking for its first national championship in 20 years, controlled play for most of the opening two periods and held the Pioneers to five shots on goal.

But the Badgers couldn’t put away Denver and paid the price in the third period.

Goaltender Johnny Hicks kept the Pioneers in the game with 29 saves and was named the Frozen Four’s most outstanding player. The freshman, who took over as the starter in January, outdueled Wisconsin’s Daniel Hauser and ended the season on a 17-game unbeaten run.

The Pioneers won the national title despite being outshot 82-41 in two games at the Frozen Four.

“Johnny Hicks is unbelievable,” Denver captain Kent Anderson said. “We couldn’t have done any of this without him.”

Wisconsin had multiple opportunities to take a two-goal lead. Freshman winger Blake Montgomery had a pair of chances early in the second period, and forward Grady Deering was turned away by Hicks in the second with the Badgers up 1-0.

Badgers winger Jack Horbach also was stopped by Hicks early in the third period after he found room down the right side. Denver finished with 31 blocked shots to help Hicks.

“I thought we had some opportunities, we just didn’t capitalize,” Badgers coach Mike Hastings said. “We needed, in my opinion, to get it to two (goals), and we just couldn’t do that.”

The Pioneers, who have 13 players with Frozen Four experience, found the equalizer at 7:31 of the third period when Hauser couldn’t control a drive from Denver defenseman Garrett Brown. Senior winger Rieger Lorenz won a battle in front for the loose puck and knocked in his 17th goal of the season.

It was Denver’s eighth shot of the game.

“(Carle) has been on me all four years I’ve been here to get in front of the net and use my body. I guess I finally listened to him,” Lorenz said. “Our first 40 (minutes) definitely wasn’t even close to good enough. We needed a big spark there. Glad I could give the guys that little bump.”

The goal ignited Denver, and the Pioneers went ahead 2-1 after Chyzowski tipped a shot by defenseman Boston Buckberger for his 13th goal. Hauser (13 saves) lost his stick earlier as Denver swarmed the Badgers in their own zone.

Wisconsin nearly tied the game with 4:30 remaining, but defenseman Ben Dexheimer’s shot hit the crossbar.

The Badgers were on top of Denver from the opening faceoff and went ahead 1-0 at 13:36.

Vasily Zelenov got free down the left wing and his wrist shot from the top of the left faceoff circle beat Hicks on the short side.

Wisconsin held Denver to two shots on goal in the opening 20 minutes, which tied a championship game record for the fewest shots on goal in a period.

“It’s a 60-minute game for a reason,” Carle said. “It took us a while to break through what they were doing.”