It’s once again that time of year. The national championship game for Division I collegiate hockey, the Manchester Regional Semifinal, is Friday at 5:30 PM ET, the Denver Pioneers hockey team plays the Cornell Big Red in the NCAA Tournament Northeast Regional Semifinals at SNHU Arena. The match will be broadcast nationally on ESPN News. The game will also be available on GamePassLive in USA & Canada without cable.
Denver is the No. 4 overall seed in the national tournament and the top seed in the Manchester area. The national polls had Cornell as the No. 12 team and the No. 4 seed.
After playing each other in a non-conference series on December 5-6, 2014 in Ithaca, New York, this is the first time DU and CU have met. The Big Red took the opening match of that weekend’s series before the Pioneers fought back the next evening to split the two games.
How to Watch the NCAA Tournament Manchester Regional Semifinal Today?
Game Date: Thursday, Mar. 23, 2023
Game Time: 5:30 p.m. ET
TV Channel: ESPN news
Live Stream from Anywhere: GamePassLive.
Denver defeated Cornell in the 1969 National Championship Game, while the Big Red triumphed three years later in the national semifinals. The teams have faced off against one another four times previously in the national tournament. In the 1986 national quarterfinals, the teams split a two-game series, with DU moving on based on goal aggregate (7-6).
Denver (30-9-0, 19-5-0 NCHC), after falling to Colorado College 1-0 in the NCHC Frozen Faceoffs Semifinals last Friday at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, received an at-large bid to the national tournament. Magnus Chrona started the game and made 20 saves, and Matt Davis finished it off by turning away all five shots he faced. Denver enters the tournament with an 11-2 record over the previous 13 games and a 14-4 record over the previous 18 games dating back to January 7.
In the ECAC playoffs last Friday, Cornell (20-10-2, 15-6-1 ECAC) fell to Ivy foe Harvard 1-0 in overtime. The Big Red had won four straight games before the defeat, including a two-game conference quarterfinal sweep of Clarkson.
Rank 2 seed Before DU and CU, Boston University and No. 3 seed and NCHC rival Western Michigan will square off in Manchester’s second quarterfinal at 12 p.m. MT (ESPN 2). The regional final will take place on Saturday at 2 p.m. MT between the winners of the two semifinal matches (ESPNU). The four Manchester teams have won 16 national championships in all.
The Pioneers will compete in the national tournament for the 32nd time, and in four of their previous five Big Dance appearances, they have advanced to the Frozen Four.
Cornell vs. Denver Tournament Preview:
Denver and Cornell have previously faced off four times in the NCAA Tournament, with DU holding an overall record of 2-2. At Colorado Springs, the Pioneers overcame the Big Red 4-3 thanks to DU goaltender Gerry Powers’ (just deceased on February 18) triumph over future Hall of Famer Ken Dryden. DU was defeated 7-2 by Cornell in the 1972 national semifinals. In the two-game quarterfinal series in 1986, both teams won, with the Pioneers moving on to the semifinals based on goal differential (8-7).
