As a longtime Denver fan, I'll be watching the Duluth-North Dakota with interest. I didn't get to see Duluth in person during the regular season since the Pioneers played UMD in Duluth, but the Bulldogs weren't scheduled to play in Magness Arena.
I realize that in terms of wins and losses the Bulldogs had a more successful first half of the season than second half. Regardless, I think the Bulldogs are a team to be taken seriously. UMD dismissed Denver in the WCHA title game last year and where Denver is concerned there are enough players from last year's squad playing on this year's team that the memory of that defeat won't be far from anyone's mind.
I have been greatly impressed with the job Scott Sandelin has done this year in the face of MacGregor Sharp's graduation and the loss of Alex Stalock to the the AHL.
Speaking only for myself, if I had the chance to select any player on an opponent's team I'd like to have playing for Denver, that player would be Justin Fontaine. I've always enjoyed watching him. The puck seems to follow him around the ice and when it catches up to him Fontaine has shown he knows how to make plays with it. The Pioneers have had stretches in which they've had difficulty scoring and I think Fontaine's presence on the Pioneers' squad would have helped Denver overcome those "power outages."
Looking forward to the UMD-NoDak game.