NOTEBOOK: Eric Pohlkamp Stays Hot to Open New Season

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NOTEBOOK: Eric Pohlkamp Stays Hot to Open New Season

DENVER – Denver Pioneers hockey defenseman Eric Pohlkamp picked up where he left off from last season.

The junior from Baxter, Minnesota, closed the 2024-25 campaign with points in each of the final two NCAA Tournament contests—including a key goal in the Regional Final versus No. 1 Boston College—and opened the new season this past weekend with points in both of DU’s games. He contributed the primary assist on Friday to help the Pioneers tie Air Force 1-1 before scoring his first career hat trick on Saturday in a 6-0 victory against Bentley in the home opener at Magness Arena.

Dating back to that BC game on March 30 in Manchester, New Hampshire, Pohlkamp now has six points in the four contests with four goals and two assists. He had 22 points (seven goals, 15 assists) in his last 27 outings of 2024-25.

Pohlkamp found twine on Saturday with pinpoint accuracy off wrist shots for his third career multi-goal game, but he quickly credited his teammates for getting him the puck on his tape.

“I didn’t do much, the guys just gave me the puck,” Pohlkamp said. “The first one was in the slot and I kind of just whacked it home. Then (on the second) Reiger Lorenz just passed it backdoor and got lucky enough. The third one was probably my favorite, Kieran Cebrian and Brady Milburn made a heck of a play to get it to me. Hats off to those guys, they deserve it more than me.”

He joined a select list of Pioneers with his hat trick performance, as he became just the 12th defenseman in Denver history to tally three goals in a game. Former teammate Zeev Buium was the last to do it when he accomplished the feat with an empty-netter in the final minutes of play last Nov. 15 at North Dakota.

Prior to Buium, Ryan Caldwell was the previous Pioneer rear guard with a hat trick on Feb. 14, 2004 at home against Minnesota State. In NCHC history, Pohlkamp is just the fourth defenseman to score three goals in an outing as he joins Buium and Ronnie Attard, who did it twice for Western Michigan on Oct. 19, 2021 at Colgate and Feb. 4, 2022 at Colorado College.

Pohlkamp also scored a rare short-handed goal on Saturday as well, as the last time a DU defenseman tallied shorthanded was more than four years ago when Antti Tuomisto did it on Jan. 23, 2021 at Omaha during that COVID-shortened season.

That man-disadvantage marker was Pohlkamp’s second of the night and came just at the end of DU killing off a five-minute major penalty while holding onto a 2-0 lead. The Pioneers’ offensive floodgates, so to speak, opened from the tally as it began a run of three goals in a matter of 2:23 to secure the Pios’ lead en route to the shutout win.

“Obviously Fish (Jake Fisher) scored right after that, back door. So I think that gave us some momentum and kind of relaxed us a little bit because yesterday we were all kind of tensed up,” Pohlkamp said. “So it was nice to get that one, for sure.”

Saturday’s game was also good for Denver to finally score a flurry of goals and earn the win after a strong performance on Friday resulted in only a tie. DU outshot Air Force 59-24 overall, but only Clarke Caswell’s redirection off Pohlkamp’s shot with 4:07 left in the third period found the back of the net in the season-opening contest.

“I think it’s nice for the guys to get rewarded,” said head coach David Carle on Saturday. “Certainly, you know, we had a lot of shot volume on the weekend, and lots were made on the new people on the team and trying to get them comfortable at the level and the timing and all of that. So to see some go into the back of the net was really good for everyone.”

GEISEL IN GOAL

Paxton Geisel made his return to the Denver crease on Saturday after missing nearly all of last season with a lower-body injury. He shined in net by posting a 21-save shutout.

“Felt good. Obviously, it’s been a while since I’ve played a full game, last year having surgery,” Geisel said. “Guys played great in front of me, pretty much limiting a lot of great A’s (scoring chances). So yeah, feels good. We were on top of everything in this game.”

It was Geisel’s second career start and first on home ice, as his last and only other start came on Dec. 9, 2023 at Western Michigan—an overtime victory. Saturday was his third career game, as he last saw action in relief on Feb. 2, 2024 at home against WMU.

“It doesn’t really matter when it comes or that I got a shutout,” Geisel said of his first start in nearly two years. “Regardless, the team played great, big improvement from last night too. I think us as a group, we’re all doing pretty well moving forward. So I think that’s the goal for us.”

It was the first clean sheet since Matt Davis and Freddie Halyk shared a team shutout last season on Feb. 14 against North Dakota. The last Denver shutout in the home opener was by Evan Cowley (26 saves) on Oct. 17, 2014 versus RPI.

The Pios will likely use all three of its goaltenders through the early season as they adjust to life without Matt Davis, with Geisel joining freshmen Quentin Miller and Johnny Hicks in the rotation. Miller made the start in the season opener on Friday at Air Force and finished with 23 saves on 24 shots.

PENALTY KILL DELIVERS

The Pioneers weren’t on the penalty kill often during opening weekend, but they were up the task when they were down a man on the ice. DU went a perfect 4-for-4 in man disadvantages and was successful in several key moments that could have turned the tide of the outings.

With Air Force having just scored on Friday, the Falcons had nearly three minutes of power play time at the end of the first and early in the second, including a 1:03 advantage at 5-on-3. Denver survived thanks to several faceoff wins by Samu Salminen during that two-man disadvantage late in the opening frame, allowing the Pios to get to the locker room down by just one.

“I thought the kills at the end of the first–especially the 5-on-3–Samu Salminen winning those three faceoffs to essentially kill off the 5-on-3 was critical in the hockey game,” said Carle on Friday night. “You look at the data and the odds once we killed that, your odds of winning go up tremendously if you can kill off an extended 5-on-3.”

On Saturday, DU was up 2-0 early in the third period but Bentley had a chance to get back in the game with a five-minute major power play. The Falcons had three shots in the five minutes and while they did find the back of the net, that goal was quickly overturned by the on-ice officials as it was batted in by a Bentley player’s hand.

The Pioneers flipped the momentum with Pohlkamp scoring shorthanded with two seconds remaining in the Falcons’ extended man advantage, pushing their lead to 3-0 and starting a four-goal third stanza.

“It was nice, there wasn’t a lot of whistles. I think whistles help the power play a lot of times, and especially on a five-minute major. So we were able to keep the clock moving, and it’s hard for them to change on the fly,” Carle said after Saturday’s game. “I like their pressure and what we’re able to do on that.”

MORE NOTABLES

Freshmen Clarke Caswell, Kyle Chyzowski, Kristian Epperson, Eric Jamieson, Brady Milburn, Quentin Miller, Payton Nelson and Reid Varkonyi all made their collegiate debuts on Friday while Payton Nelson played in his first game on Saturday.

DU was starting the season on the road for the third-straight season.

The Pios are now 44-25-8 all-time in season openers and are unbeaten in the past five (4-0-1).

DU is unbeaten in its last nine home openers (7-0-2) and is 15-1-2 in its past 18 home opening nights. Overall, the Pioneers improved to 54-18-5 all-time in home openers and sports a 20-5-2 record in home-opening contests at Magness Arena.

DU is 14-1-1 in its past 16 games versus non-conference opponents.

Clarke Caswell scored his first career goal/point on Friday at Air Force. He had his first multi-point game on Saturday with a pair of assists.

Kristian Epperson, Eric Jamieson and Brady Milburn all picked up their first career collegiate points with assists in the outing, and Jamieson tallied his first career goal in the game as well.

The matchup on Saturday marked the first-ever meeting between Denver and Bentley.

Denver was facing Air Force for the first time since Oct. 28, 2023 at Magness Arena and last visited the Academy on Oct. 15, 2021.

Denver is now unbeaten in its last eight games against Air Force (7-0-1) and is 41-4-2 all-time against the Falcons and 14-2-2 at Cadet Ice Arena.

DU had its shutout streak over Air Force end on Friday night at 176:45, stretching across four games and dating back to the Oct. 15, 2021 at the Academy.

The Pioneers’ 59 shots on goal was its most since firing 66 on Lake Superior State on Oct. 20, 2017. DU’s season high for shots on goal last year was 46 on Nov. 8 vs. Lindenwood.

Denver’s 22 shots on goal in the third period were its most in a frame since having 23 in the second period on Nov 3, 2023 against Colorado College. DU’s season high for shots in a period last year was 20 on March 2 against St. Cloud State.