Frozen Four set: Denver vs Wisconsin

Denver needed 92 minutes and 33 seconds to get out of its semifinal, and the puck that finally did it came off captain Kent Anderson’s stick in the second overtime after Michigan had already pushed the game past midnight on the East Coast. (denverpioneers.com) That win set up a national championship game against Wisconsin on Saturday, April 11, at 5:30 p.m. Eastern time in Las Vegas, with ESPN carrying the broadcast. (ncaa.com) The Frozen Four is college hockey’s version of the Final Four in basketball: four teams, two semifinals, then one winner-take-all title game two days later. This year’s last two standing are Denver out of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference and Wisconsin out of the Big Ten Conference. (ncaa.com, espn.com) Denver got there the hard way, surviving top-seeded Michigan 4-3 while goaltender Johnny Hicks stopped 49 shots. When a goalie sees that much rubber and still wins, it usually means the rest of the team spent long stretches hanging on by its fingernails. (denverpioneers.com) Wisconsin’s path was shorter but not softer: the Badgers beat North Dakota in the other semifinal after already knocking out Michigan State in the regional final. That means Wisconsin reached the title game by beating the No. 2 overall seed and then the team that had just come through one of the strongest regional brackets. (espn.com, ncaa.com) Now the championship turns into a clash between the sport’s old heavyweights and its current pressure. Denver enters with 10 national titles, the most in Division One men’s hockey, and Saturday gives the Pioneers a chance to make it 11. (ncaa.com) For Denver, the recent history is almost as loud as the long history. The Pioneers are chasing a third national championship in five years, which is the kind of run that turns a strong program into the team everybody measures themselves against. (denverpioneers.com) For Wisconsin, the charge comes from a different place. The Badgers arrived in Las Vegas as a lower seed than Michigan and North Dakota, then knocked both favorites out of the bracket, which is how a tournament team goes from dangerous to one win from a banner. (espn.com, ncaa.com) The one-game format is what makes this matchup feel so sharp. Denver just proved it can survive a game where its goalie has to make 49 saves, and Wisconsin just proved it can beat teams that looked better on paper before the puck dropped. (denverpioneers.com, espn.com) So the last night of the season comes down to a program trying to add an 11th trophy and a program that has spent the past two rounds wrecking everybody else’s script. By Saturday evening in Las Vegas, one of them will have turned a two-week tournament into the only result anyone remembers. (ncaa.com, ncaa.com)