The Denver Cup was a mid-season

college ice hockey College ice hockey is played principally in the United States and Canada, though leagues exist outside North America. In the United States, competitive "college hockey" refers to ice hockey played between colleges and universities within the g ...

tournament with the first iteration played in late December 1992. It was Discontinued after the 20th edition of the series.

History

Denver began hosting a mid-season tournament during the winter break for the 1992–93 season. 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 The Colorado Avalanche (colloquially known as the Avs) are a professional ice hockey team based in Denver. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference. The Avalanche play thei ...

. By 1997, the Pioneers were able to get

Wells Fargo Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company with corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California; operational headquarters in Manhattan; and managerial offices throughout the United States and intern ...

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 Ball Arena (formerly known as Pepsi Center) is a multi-purpose indoor arena located in Denver, Colorado. It is situated at Speer Boulevard, a main thoroughfare in downtown Denver, and is served by two nearby exits off Interstate 25. A light r ...

, 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 Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden ...

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 A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

format for all but one season; the 2009 series was a round-robin tournament with all matches set before the series began.

Results

Game results

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

^† Denver won in a shootout.

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

^† Boston College won in a shootout.

2006

^† Massachusetts–Lowell won in a shootout.

2007

2008

^† Denver won in a shootout.

2009

2010

2011

Participating teams

References

* * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Denver Cup Ice hockey competitions in Denver College sports in Colorado College ice hockey tournaments in the United States Recurring sporting events established in 1992 1992 establishments in Colorado 2011 disestablishments in Colorado