The Denver Cup was a mid-season college ice hockey tournament with the first iteration played in late December 1992. It was Discontinued after the 20th edition of the series.

Denver Cup
Tournament information
SportCollege ice hockey
LocationDenver, Colorado
Number of
tournaments
20
FormatSingle-elimination, round-robin
VenueDU Arena,
McNichols Arena,
Magness Arena
Teams4
Final champion
Miami

History

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Denver began hosting a mid-season tournament during the winter break for the 1992–93 season.[1] The series was held at the team's home rink, the DU Arena, for the first two years before moving to the larger McNichols Arena, the future home of the Colorado Avalanche. By 1997, the Pioneers were able to get Wells Fargo to sign on as the sponsor to help fund the tournament.

After the McNichols Arena was closed in 1999 and the Avalanche moved to the Pepsi Center, the tournament returned to Denver's campus. In the interim, the Pioneers had built the Magness Arena which, though smaller than the McNichols Arena, had a much larger seating capacity than the DU Arena. By the end of the 2000s, interest in the tournament had waned and Wells Fargo ended its sponsorship after the 2009 series. Denver moved the tournament to the Thanksgiving weekend but, when no sponsor was secured after two years, the series was discontinued. In the final two years the tournament was styled as the 'Denver Cup Classic'.

During its 20-year run, Denver overwhelmingly dominated the series, winning 15 championships. The series had a Single-elimination format for all but one season; the 2009 series was a round-robin tournament with all matches set before the series began.

Results

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Year Champion Runner-up Third place Fourth place
1992 Denver Notre Dame Army Air Force
1993 Denver Boston College Princeton Air Force
1994 Denver Brown Ohio State Air Force
1995 Denver Colorado College Cornell Air Force
1996 Denver Yale Maine Air Force
1997 Miami New Hampshire Colorado College Denver
1998 Denver Boston College Colorado College Lake Superior State
1999 Maine Denver Colorado College Notre Dame
2000 Denver Providence Ferris State Air Force
2001 Denver Massachusetts–Lowell Harvard Bowling Green
2002 Denver New Hampshire Miami Clarkson
2003 Denver Nebraska–Omaha Niagara Yale
2004 Denver Northeastern Colgate Air Force
2005 Boston College Princeton Ferris State Denver
2006 Denver Massachusetts–Lowell Brown Mercyhurst
2007 Denver Dartmouth Northern Michigan Sacred Heart
2008 Boston University Denver Holy Cross Renssealer
2009 Denver Nebraska–Omaha St. Lawrence Boston College
2010 Denver Air Force Clarkson Lake Superior State
2011 Miami Denver Princeton Providence

Game results

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Participating teams

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Team # of times participated Titles
Denver 20 15
Miami 3 2
Boston College 4 1
Maine 2 1
Boston University 1 1
Air Force 8 0
Colorado College 4 0
Princeton Tigers 3 0
Brown 2 0
Clarkson 2 0
Ferris State 2 0
Lake Superior State 2 0
Massachusetts–Lowell 2 0
Nebraska–Omaha 2 0
New Hampshire 2 0
Notre Dame 2 0
Providence 2 0
Yale 2 0
Army 1 0
Bowling Green 1 0
Colgate 1 0
Cornell 1 0
Dartmouth 1 0
Harvard 1 0
Holy Cross 1 0
Mercyhurst 1 0
Niagara 1 0
Northeastern 1 0
Northern Michigan 1 0
Ohio State 1 0
Rensselaer 1 0
Sacred Heart 1 0
St. Lawrence 1 0

References

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  1. ^ "Denver Hockey Media Guide 2020-21" (PDF). Denver Pioneers. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 1, 2021. Retrieved March 13, 2021.