Instant reaction from the University of Denver’s 3-2 loss to Western Michigan in the 2025 Frozen Four semifinals at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis:
1. DU flips the script — almost too well
DU was due. And as a 3-2 loss to Western Michigan ended in heartbreak at the start of a second OT, the Pios deserved better. DU had taken a 3-0 lead into the third period of the Frozen Faceoff vs. Western Michigan last month. And lost in OT, 4-3. The Broncos took a 2-0 cushion into the third period of the Frozen Four semifinal Thursday and should’ve been up more. WMU outshot the Pios 32-8 through the game’s first 40 minutes and probably would’ve had a 4-0 or 5-0 cushion if it weren’t for DU goaltender Matt Davis, who racked a whopping 44 saves through the first OT, and a little Mile High puck luck.
But that’s the thing about champions — they make their own luck. The Pios saved their best for last, as forward Aidan Thompson squibbed a wrister at the WMU goal with 13:11 left, only to charge forward, line up his rebound and fire it past Hampton Slukynsky to get DU on the board.
This time, it was the Pios who put Western on the back foot, grabbing momentum by the thorax and putting the squeeze on with 2:39 left, when a scramble in front of Slukynsky’s crease ended with DU junior forward Jared Wright poking a loose puck through the goalie’s “5” hole to knot the contest and send the traveling Pios fans at the Enterprise Center into delirium.
2. Zeev dinged up, no call
Did a slew foot slay the defending champs? No, but it didn’t help. And was totally missed. With 6:07 left in the second period, star DU defenseman Zeev Buium was facing the boards behind his goal when Western Michigan winger Wyatt Schingoethe skated in behind the D-man, extending his right shin into Buium’s planted lower left leg and sending the latter to the bench with a nasty limp. At game speed, it sure looked like a slew foot. On replays, it absolutely looked like one. But no call was levied against the Broncos, while Buium returned to the ice but never looked quite the same. About 40 seconds later, WMU’s Owen Michaels fired a rope from the right faceoff circle to beat Davis glove-side, giving the Broncos a 2-0 lead with 5:26 left in the second stanza. It was the first time Davis had given up more than one goal in an NCAA tourney start.
3. Pios hung in through early barrage
The crowd at Enterprise was a loudly partisan one for the Broncos during pregame introductions — while the Pios were lustily booed — and Western Michigan seemed to feed on that early. The fired-up Broncos outshot DU 8-2 over the first 13 minutes of the contest and extended that gap to 12-3 at the end of the first period. On the flip side, the Pios hung in there, thanks largely to Davis, who was fortunate when a Zach Nehring laser fired into a wide-open net dinged hard off the crossbar 64 seconds into the game. The veteran netminder made his own luck after that, though, recording five of his dozen first-period stops during a furious Broncos power play.
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