Denver rallies past Wisconsin for 11th national hockey championship

Kyle Chyzowski’s deflection with 5:52 left turned a tense final into another Denver coronation, lifting the Pioneers past Wisconsin 2-1 for an NCAA-record 11th men’s hockey title.

Denver trailed 1-0 after the first period at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, then scored twice in the third period to finish off the comeback and add another trophy to a program that already sat alone at the top of NCAA Division I men’s hockey. Wisconsin had grabbed the lead late in the opening period on a goal by Vasily Zelenov and carried much of the early play, but Denver kept the game within reach until its depth and patience took over.

Johnny Hicks was the difference throughout the postseason and again in the championship game, stopping 29 shots and earning Most Outstanding Player honors. Hicks entered the final leading the nation with a 1.20 goals-against average and a .957 save percentage, then finished the Frozen Four with 78 saves over two games. Two nights earlier, he turned in a career-high 49 saves in Denver’s double-overtime semifinal win over Michigan, a performance that showed how much the Pioneers leaned on him when the bracket tightened.

The title gave Denver its third national championship in five years and its second in three seasons, a run that reinforces the program’s standing as a modern power rather than a one-off contender. Denver also won the 2024 title, a 2-0 victory over Boston College, and followed that with another run through a demanding postseason that included a 6-2 win over defending champion Western Michigan in the Loveland Regional before the narrow semifinal against Michigan.

The wider picture points to more than one hot spring. The National Collegiate Hockey Conference said Denver’s victory gave the league eight of the last 10 NCAA men’s hockey national championships and each of the last three, a stretch that reflects how often the conference has produced teams built to survive March pressure and execute late. In Wisconsin’s case, the loss was especially painful after a 2-1 semifinal win over North Dakota had put the Badgers within one game of a first national title since 2006 and a seventh overall.

For Denver, the finish was familiar in the best possible way. The Pioneers kept the game close, trusted their goaltender, and struck when the moment opened. That formula has now produced 11 championships, the most in the sport, and it continues to separate Denver from every other men’s hockey program in the country.