Denver beat Wisconsin 5-4 in the Frozen Four championship in Las Vegas, a title game that matched two programs with championship pedigrees and a roster full of NHL prospects. The Pioneers were chasing their 11th national title while Wisconsin was trying to finish a rare sweep of the men’s and women’s hockey championships.
Eight Denver players in the lineup already had national championship experience from last year’s win, and the Pioneers entered with 13 NHL prospects. Wisconsin had six prospects on its roster, giving the game 19 in all. The Los Angeles Kings had three prospects on Denver’s side, while the Montreal Canadiens and Buffalo Sabres each had two players in the game.
The result added another banner chase to Denver’s recent run under David Carle. The Pioneers were looking for their fourth national championship in the last 10 years and were the only school with 10 or more titles. Wisconsin, by contrast, was trying to cap a comeback season that began with a six-game losing streak in January and a 7-1 loss to Ohio State in the Big Ten tournament.
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That early slide made Wisconsin’s path to Las Vegas sharper. The Badgers reached the NCAA tournament as an at-large team and a regional three seed, then beat Dartmouth 5-1 in the Worcester Regional before edging Michigan State 4-3 in overtime. In Thursday’s semifinal, they held North Dakota scoreless for 58 minutes and 52 seconds before North Dakota scored with its goalie pulled, and G Daniel Hauser and the defense protected the one-goal lead to send Wisconsin through.
Denver’s route was built around a different kind of lift. Freshman goaltender Johnny Hicks took over as the starter in late January after a 1-7-0 stretch, then did not lose in his next 16 starts heading into the championship push. He stopped 49 of 52 shots against Michigan in a double-overtime game, a performance that steadied Denver at the exact moment the season could have gone sideways.
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Wisconsin was trying to complete the men’s and women’s championship sweep it last pulled off 20 years ago, after the women had just beaten Ohio State for a second-straight national title. That made the Frozen Four final about more than one trophy; it was a chance to link two seasons, two teams and one school’s history in the same spring. The only thing left was whether the Badgers could finish the story they had spent months forcing open.
What made the championship feel bigger than a single game was the number of elite prospects in the building. With 13 for Denver and six for Wisconsin, plus the NHL teams already tracking them, the final looked less like an ending than a snapshot of where the next wave of du hockey talent is headed.
