Denver’s sports surge

Denver has five different teams giving the city a reason to check scores right now, and none of them are playing the same sport. On Thursday, April 9, the Denver Nuggets carried a 10-game winning streak, the longest active run in the National Basketball Association, while the Colorado Avalanche had already locked up the top seed in the Western Conference two nights earlier. (nba.com) (nhl.com) The Nuggets’ streak pushed them to 52-28 and strengthened their grip on the No. 3 playoff seed in the West. Their April 8 win over the Memphis Grizzlies was their first double-digit winning streak since a 15-game run in 2013, which tells you how unusual this stretch has been even for a franchise built around Nikola Jokić. (nba.com) (espn.com) The Avalanche are even further along in the calendar and in the standings. Colorado beat the St. Louis Blues 3-1 on April 7 to clinch both the Central Division title and the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference, with Valeri Nichushkin scoring twice in the clincher. (nhl.com 1) (nhl.com 2) Then there is the part of this run that has nothing to do with standings and everything to do with turnout. Denver Summit Football Club drew 63,004 fans for its first home game on March 28 at Empower Field at Mile High, setting a new single-game National Women’s Soccer League attendance record by more than 20,000 over the old mark. (espn.com 1) (espn.com 2) That crowd matters because Denver Summit is an expansion team that had not played a home league match before that Saturday. A brand-new club filling an NFL stadium on day one is not the usual slow build of women’s pro soccer in the United States; it is more like opening a restaurant and finding the line already around the block. (espn.com 1) (espn.com 2) College hockey is part of the same citywide wave. The University of Denver reached the 2026 Frozen Four for the 21st time in program history by beating Western Michigan 6-2 in the West Regional final, and the school’s preview for the semifinal noted this was the program’s fourth Frozen Four trip in the last five seasons and seventh in the last 10 held tournaments. (denverpioneers.com) (denverpioneers.com) Lacrosse rounds out the picture. The Colorado Mammoth entered this weekend tied for the National Lacrosse League lead at 11-5, alongside the Vancouver Warriors and Saskatchewan Rush, with games left on April 11 and April 18 before the regular season closes. (nll.com) (nll.com) Even the Colorado Rockies, a team that usually sits outside this kind of spring conversation, were part of it earlier in the week. Major League Baseball’s official site showed Colorado on the road in San Diego on April 10 after a run that had put the Rockies among the league’s hottest teams entering Thursday, which is the baseball equivalent of hearing the quiet kid in class suddenly leading the room. (mlb.com) (mlb.com) Put it together and Denver is not having one good week from one contender. It has a basketball team on a 10-game heater, a hockey team with conference home-ice advantage, a new women’s soccer club drawing 63,004 people, a college hockey power back in the national semifinals, and a lacrosse team tied for first place all at once. (nba.com) (nhl.com) (espn.com) (denverpioneers.com) (nll.com)