With the Lawson Lunatics yelling at him for six straight periods, Denver freshman goaltender Quentin Miller shut down the defending national champions with a smile on his face.

After feeling like Western Michigan stole two trophies from them last season with double-overtime wins in both the NCHC Frozen Faceoff and the NCAA Frozen Four, the Pioneers exercised some demons last weekend with a sweep in Kalamazoo, Mich., the home of the Broncos, led by Miller’s impressive work.

He racked up career-highs in saves both nights, improving to 5-2-1 on the season while limiting what was the best offense in the country last season to just four goals on 80 shots across two games at Lawson Ice Arena.

“Playing there was incredible, just the fans and the students,” Miller told The Denver Gazette. “But honestly, I love playing in hard environments. It kinda fuels me. That was a great experience, for sure.

“It’s pretty new to me, but I enjoy it a lot and try to keep having fun and smiling the whole game.”

A little over a month into his college career, the Montreal native and Canadiens draft pick hasn’t been fazed by anything. Immediate playing time in a new system, tough road environments, high expectations for the program — not to mention the fact he’s replacing a local legend in Matt Davis, the former goalie who led the Pios to the 2024 national championship.

Among NCAA goalies who have made at least six starts, he’s fifth in goals allowed on average, sixth in save percentage and fourth in College Hockey News’ goals-saved-above-expected metric. 

“I think that’s just a confidence and a comfortability,” Pios coach David Carle told The Denver Gazette. “He’s played a lot of hockey games over the last three years in his junior career. I think the guys are growing in their trust and their confidence and their belief in him. That’s an important thing when you’re on the bench looking at the guy back there. Certainly, he’s doing the work in practice and it’s showing off and getting rewarded in games.”

Miller has already won over his teammates with some of the same highlight reel saves that made Davis famous, even if he’s nothing like his predecessor in terms of demeanor.

“He’s super confident. He comes back to the bench, he’s laughing, he’s giggling. He’s a little different from (Davis),” junior defenseman Eric Pohlkamp told The Denver Gazette. “(Davis) was a bit more serious. It’s fun to see that. It’s easy to joke around with him and he’s done a fantastic job for us.”

The reasoning behind that in-game attitude is simple, Miller says.

“I’m trying to keep the fun in the game because hockey’s a fun sport,” he said. “I find when I’m too serious getting too much in my head, so I’m trying to just stay loose with the guys, compete with them and just have fun.”

Miller is hoping the fun continues this weekend as he and DU try to win a seventh-straight Gold Pan trophy against Colorado College. He’ll try to do that with a smile on his face, too. 

“We’re gonna treat it like every other weekend. We’re gonna have to prepare and be ready,” Miller said. “They’re games we want to win, for sure, but I don’t think we have to put too much pressure on ourselves. We showed last weekend how we can play, so let’s just try to repeat the process.”

Series Preview

No. 4 Denver (6-3-1, 2-0 NCHC) vs. No. 17 Colorado College (6-3-1, 1-2-1 NCHC)

When: Friday (7 p.m.) & Saturday (6 p.m.)

Where: Magness Arena (Friday), Ed Robson Arena (Saturday)

TV/streaming: Altitude (Friday) & NCHC.tv (both nights)

Pioneers to watch: D Eric Pohlkamp (12 points, 7 goals, 5 assists, +12); F Clarke Caswell (9 points, 2 goals, 7 assists); D Eric Jamieson (7 points, 4 goals, 3 assists); F James Reeder (7 points, 4 goals, 3 assists, +7); F Jake Fisher (7 points, 3 goals, 4 assists); D Boston Buckberger (7 points, 7 assists, +13); G Quentin Miller (5-2-1 record, 1.60 GAA, .938 SV%)

Tigers to watch: F Owen Beckner (12 points, 6 goals, 6 assists, +8); F Klavs Veinbergs (9 points, 6 goals, 3 assists); F Gavin Lindberg (8 points, 4 goals, 4 assists, +8); F Bret Link (8 points, 4 goals, 4 assists); D Colton Roberts (6 points, 1 goal, 5 assists); G Kaidan Mbereko (6-3-1 record, 2.39 GAA, .913 SV%)

Quotable: “They’ve got some injuries as well, (Max) Burkholder and (Phillippe) Blais-Savoie, so that hurts them on the back end, but the goaltender (Kaidan Mbereko) is excellent. They recruited a lot of the CHL and the Western (Hockey) League, some players that (DU assistant coach) Tavis (MacMillan) knows really well from watching the league that are highly-skilled. They look to be a little bit faster and more dynamic offensively than they were a year ago. We’re gonna have our hands full and need to make sure our discipline is high and that, always, we’re making life hard on the goaltender.” — David Carle