Zajac sees Pioneer spirit return to DU
Senior defenseman helps spark recent roll
Nolan Zajac is on pace to crack the top 10 in career points for a University of Denver defenseman. But what he really is determined to get is another crack at winning championships.
The swift- skating senior believes the young Pioneers are growing into a group that can extend their NCAA record of consecutive 20- win seasons, challenge for the National Collegiate Hockey Conference crown and advance to the NCAA Tournament for the ninth consecutive year.
“I’d rather have a couple more wins undermy belt— and the bigger ones that wins championships,” said Zajac, whose 85 career points are two behind Brett Skinner for 11th and three in back of Ryan Caldwell for 10th. “That’s what sets players apart. There’s always good ones with a lot of points, but I thinkwhat it comes down to is how many wins in big games you’ve won.”
Skinner and Caldwell led DU to the 2004 national title. Skinner also won it in 2005.
Zajac wants to follow in their championship legacy before, hopefully, joining his oldest brother in the NHL. Travis Zajac of the New Jersey Devils was scheduled to play against the Avalanche on Thursday night at the Pepsi Center.
Denver ( 9- 7- 4) is riding a four- game unbeaten streak heading into this weekend’s two- game NCHC series against Western Michigan ( 7- 11- 2) at Magness Arena. The Pioneers have gone 2- 0- 2 since losing four in a row in series at North Dakota and against St. Cloud State before Christmas. They won 3- 0 and 4- 3 at Nebraska Omaha last weekend to pin the Mavericks ( 14- 5- 1) with their first losses of the season at home.
“We hit a rough patch before Christmas,” Zajac said. “Maybe you can use the excuse that we had a lot of freshmen coming in playing big roles. But as seniors we have to take it upon ourselves to get the team going. I think the break really helped us. We came back with a different mentality.”
DU is the only collegiate hockey program to win at least 20 games in each of the past 14 seasons. Third- year Pioneers coach Jim Montgomery said Zajac and his three other seniors — forwards Quentin Shore, Grant Arnold and Gabe Levin — have the team going in the right direction.
“I’ve noticed a big difference in all four of them, but especially Zajac and Q. Shore— as far as their intensity and desperation to their game,” Montgomery said. “It’s their last semester of college hockey and on Saturday ( in Omaha), after the first period whenwewere subpar, I thought they led us. They showed emotion and were very vocal on the bench.”
Montgomery blames himself for DU’s 0- 4 stretch in December.
“I made some mistakes in not giving enough reps and being detailed enough as a coach in practices in the month of November,” he said. “If we break the puck out of our D- zone, we have flow to our game. We play fast.
“If we struggle, we don’t break the puck out. I had looked at my practices and saw thatwe got away fromthat and little details of howwe need to break out against certain forechecks.”