Michigan crashes Denver's banner night and takes the No. 1 argument

Denver raised its 11th national championship banner on Friday night, and Michigan spent the next two and a half hours making the case that the next one isn't promised. The Wolverines won 4-1 in front of 7,099 at Magness Arena, a record crowd for the Pioneers in that building.

They did it without the puck, too, and that's the scary part. Michigan doesn't need the run of play to beat you.

My call: Michigan is the best team in the country right now, and Saturday's rematch is Denver's last chance to argue otherwise before the poll voters do it for them.

How it went

Denver outshot Michigan 28-20 and never once held a lead. Jayden Perron scored first at 8:25 of the first period, cashing a rebound off Tyler Krivtsov. Malcolm Spence made it 2-0 midway through the second off a Henry Mews feed, and Cole McKinney added a third at 7:47 of the third.

Kyle Chyzowski got Denver on the board on the power play at 16:19, and Spence closed it with an empty-netter.

Jack Ivankovic made 27 saves for Michigan, and that's the game. Denver had six power plays, including 1:06 of 5-on-3, and scored once. Krivtsov made 16 saves in his second straight start with Johnny Hicks out day-to-day.

The number

Michigan is 5-0-0, and in this week's USCHO poll, the Wolverines sat 25 points behind Denver, 954 to 979, with 14 first-place votes to Denver's 33. Friday also ended Denver's 15-game winning streak and its 19-game unbeaten run. If Michigan sweeps, that gap is gone by Monday.

Rivalry file

This is the first regular-season series between these two programs since 1981, and it exists because both coaches wanted it on the schedule. Denver still leads the all-time series 48-37-1.

The meeting everyone remembers is April's double-overtime Frozen Four semifinal in Las Vegas, which Denver won on its way to the title. Michigan clearly kept the receipt.

David Carle didn't sound rattled. "We didn't go away, we didn't back down from the fight, the battle," he said. He's right, because a 28-20 shot advantage isn't a team getting run; it's a team that couldn't solve an opposing goaltender.

Kessler's call

Denver wins Saturday and the series splits. The power play that went 1-for-6 gets a night of film, and Carle's teams don't drop two in a row at Magness very often. Michigan leaves town with a split and the No. 1 argument anyway.

Puck drop is 6 p.m. Mountain, and after that Denver gets no break at all: Boston College comes to Magness next weekend, so the defending champions go straight from a Big Ten test to a Hockey East one.