They waited with skates on in the dugouts at Coors Field on Friday, ready to take the ice. Denver along the first-base line where Carlos Gonzalez normally sits; Colorado College across the diamond behind third base.
Denver and Colorado College got their first look at outdoor college hockey with back-to-back evening practices before their rivalry game Saturday night at Coors Field.
“I flipped the puck up in the air, wondering if that could be some kind of strategy,” Denver coach Jim Montgomery said. “But the rink is perfectly centered. So when you flip it up in the air, it’s never in the lights. It’s not like a flyball.”
The makeshift rink — which will also be used next week for an NHL game between the Avalanche and Detroit Red Wings — got its first real workout Friday. If the ice played soft after temperatures reached the mid-60s in Denver, the players didn’t seem to mind.
“It’s beautiful out here,” DU junior Trevor Moore said. “I thought it would feel smaller. But it’s so big out here.”
The rink — which runs lengthwise from left field to right, centered over second base — is built on stilts. A regular rink sits on concrete.
“I don’t know if you’ve ever been on a hollow rink, but it sounds hollow,” Colorado College coach Mike Haviland. “You can hear yourself skating.”
DU’s hot line. The rink may be new, but the DU-CC rivalry isn’t. And Saturday’s game is certainly not an exhibition.
No. 10-ranked Denver, after an impressive weekend sweep of North Dakota last week, routed Colorado College 4-1 on Thursday.
“We have to shut down their top line,” Haviland said.
DU’s trio of Moore, Dylan Gambrell and Danton Heinen are flying lately, having combined for 25 points in their past three games. Moore and Gambrel lead the team with 33 points. Heinen paces the Pioneers with 13 goals.
“They’re the best line in the country right now,” Haviland said. “They can all skate. And they have great chemistry going.”
