Denver’s Sports Hot Streak

Denver has reached the strange part of a sports run where five different fan bases can wake up feeling like they’re in first place. On Friday, April 10, the Denver Nuggets had won 10 straight games, the Colorado Avalanche had already locked up the top seed in the Western Conference, and the Colorado Mammoth were sitting atop the National Lacrosse League standings. (espn.com) (nhl.com) (nll.com) Even the team that usually drags the city back to earth was briefly helping. The Colorado Rockies carried a four-game winning streak into Thursday night before losing 7-3 to San Diego in 12 innings on Xander Bogaerts’ walk-off grand slam. (winnipegfreepress.com) (mlb.com) The Nuggets are the cleanest example of how fast this can snowball. Denver entered Friday at 52-28, good for third place in the Western Conference, and that 10-game streak turned a messy playoff picture into a live shot at home-court advantage when the postseason opens on April 18. (espn.com) (nba.com) The Avalanche are already past the scramble stage. Colorado beat St. Louis 3-1 on April 7 to clinch both the Central Division and the conference’s top seed, which means every West team now has to go through Denver’s bracket line if it wants a Stanley Cup Final trip. (nhl.com) College hockey is feeding the same mood from a different part of town. The University of Denver reached the Frozen Four for a third straight season, then beat Michigan 4-3 in double overtime on Thursday night in Las Vegas to move into Saturday’s national title game against Wisconsin. (denverpioneers.com) (nytimes.com) Women’s soccer added the loudest single-day number of the bunch. Denver Summit Football Club drew 63,004 fans for its March 28 home opener against the Washington Spirit at Empower Field at Mile High, setting a National Women’s Soccer League single-game attendance record and a record for a stand-alone women’s soccer match in the United States. (espn.com) That matters because sports momentum in one building spills into the next one like a block party moving down the street. A city that sees 63,004 people show up for a new women’s soccer team is also a city where sponsors buy more signs, broadcasters book more live shots, and casual fans are more willing to try a Mammoth game or a Rockies series on a warm night. (espn.com) (nll.com) (mlb.com) Denver has had championship teams before, but this run feels different because it is stacked all at once. Basketball is chasing seeding, hockey already owns the top line in the bracket, college hockey is playing for a trophy on Saturday, lacrosse is leading its league, and even baseball managed to join the party for four straight wins. (espn.com) (nhl.com) (nytimes.com) (nll.com) (winnipegfreepress.com) For a few April days, Denver is not acting like a one-team town or even a two-team town. It looks like a place where every scoreboard in the city is flashing the same message at once: buy a ticket now, because something good is probably happening tonight. (nba.com) (nhl.com) (espn.com)