By Jordan Long
The defending national hockey champions University Of Denver (DU) Pioneers will start the 2022-2023 season on October 7th and 8th. They will host Notre Dame on October 7th and Maine on October 8th at home. Their first conference game is on October 28th when they hit the road to face Miami of Ohio. DU decided to extend Head Coach David Carle’s contract through the 2026-2027 season.
David Carle took over the hockey program when Jim Montgomery was hired as the Head Coach of the Dallas Stars prior to the 2018-2019 season. Montgomery was very successful as the Head Coach of the Pioneers. He was with them from 2013 to 2018. During that time, the Pioneers became a powerhouse under him, going 125 wins, 57 losses, and 26 ties. Denver went to the NCAA tournament every year under Montgomery and even advanced to the Frozen 4 in 2017. They beat Minnesota Duluth 3-2 in the National Championship game. Once DU hired Carle, there were high expectations. The goal was to go to the NCAA tournament and win a national title.
Carle has met those expectations. Since taking over the program, they have skated to a record of 86 wins, 43 losses, and 13 ties. The Pioneers even went to the NCAA tournament twice, 2019 and 2022, skating their way to the Frozen Four both years. In 2019, their season ended in disappointment falling to Massachusetts in the National Semi-final by a score of 4-3. This past year they won the National Title, knocking off Minnesota State 5-1.
The Pioneers rewarded Carle for his hard work for keeping them as a powerhouse in college hockey offering this extension on his contract. According to MSN.com, Carle said, “Being entrusted to lead this historic program is a tremendous responsibility and honor. Our staff and players are excited to build upon the many accomplishments we have achieved together in recent years. We remain steadfast in our pursuit of excelling in the classroom and winning on the ice, and we can’t wait to defend our championship this upcoming season.”
Denver is anticipating the same results with Carle behind the bench with this new deal. They want him to keep coaching this team at a high level. The deal makes a lot of sense. It keeps Carle with the team until the end of the 2027 season. Denver wants to continue earning NCAA births with him and advancing to the Frozen Four. Hopefully, they can be successful with Carle as their Head Coach. If they start to fall off and miss NCAA tournaments for a few years in a row, then it might be time to let Carle go but that is not on his mind. Carle wants to keep helping this team win national titles.
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