After concluding the first half of the regular season with a loss to Minnesota Duluth, Denver returned to action with dominating performances against Alaska.

While his performance did eventually cool off, Chrona remained stout in goal and helped Denver produce another long winning streak, this time posting nine victories in a row.

While Brink was aided somewhat by the temporary absence of Nathan Smith due to trip to Beijing for the 2022 Winter Olympics, he nevertheless became just the second player in program history and the first in 40 years to lead the nation in scoring.

Carter Mazur and Massimo Rizzo were both clicking along at more than a point-per-game pace while Sean Behrens and Shai Buium aided an already impressive group on the blueline.

However, due to the difficulty of their schedule, the Pioneers didn't see any real drop to their rankings and were mathematically guaranteed to make the NCAA tournament before the season was over.

The small rough patch allowed North Dakota to catch up to the Pioneers in the conference standings, however, Denver was able to keep in contact with the Hawks and earn a regular season co-championship.

In a tremendous goaltending battle between Chrona and Ryan Fanti, Denver was shutout for the first time on the season and saw their hoped for a conference championship evaporate.

Due to their campus' proximity to the West Regional in Loveland, Colorado, the Pioneers were the only top seed to play any tournament games close to home.

The goal gave Denver the momentum entering the second but the Pioneers were unable to get another puck past the UMD netminder in the middle frame.

The Pioneers played a nearly perfect game, outshooting the Wolverines 33–21 and not taking a single penalty in the match but were still unable to put any distance between the two teams.

15 minutes into the extra session, the hero of the regional final, Carter Savoie, received a pass from Brink and potted the winner on his own rebound to send Denver to the championship game.

The reversal of fortune was so sudden that Minnesota State seemed unable to get back to their game and the Pioneers carried the play for the remainder of the match.