A national champion reasserting itself, a third-place game that held more importance than usual, and a night of scoreboard-watching for a couple of programs awaiting to hear their NCAA tournament fate.
All those converged in a busy Saturday at Xcel Energy Center as the NCHC Frozen Faceoff made its first appearance in St. Paul.
By the end of the night, defending NCAA champion Denver had won the tournament title, beating top-ranked St. Cloud State in the final in front of an announced crowd of 11,327. And earlier, North Dakota beat Minnesota Duluth 4-1 for third place, before both had to wait out the evening, with Bulldogs making the NCAA field and the Fighting Hawks missing out.
"I'm really proud of our group,'' said Denver coach Jim Montgomery, who got 28 saves from tournament MVP Tanner Jaillet. "We were relentless. … After we scored that first goal, we started to play Denver hockey.''
The Pioneers' Kohen Olischefski scored 4 minutes 24 seconds into the first period and Jake Durflinger made it 2-0 with six seconds left in first to send Denver on its way.
"If we hang on for five more seconds,'' St. Cloud State defenseman Jimmy Schuldt said, "it could be a different game.''
Instead, Denver used that lift and stretched the lead to 3-0 on Ryan Barrow's goal 2:06 into the second. That prompted Huskies coach Bob Motzko, looking for a spark, to pull goalie David Hrenak in favor of Jeff Smith. "He really wasn't at fault for them; they were kind of fluky goals,'' Motzko said.
The Huskies cut it to 3-1 on Ryan Poehling's goal with 4:06 left in the third, but Denver's Dylan Gambrell scored with 2:54 left to seal the victory.
