A self-described “low-stakes” poker player is eager to push all of his chips into the center of the table for the biggest weekend of his young hockey career in the Gambling Capital of the World.

Denver freshman Brendan McMorrow, whose favorite movie of all time is the 1998 cult classic “Rounders” about the underground world of poker, has become a key piece of the Pioneers’ quest for a record 11th national championship. He enters his team’s Frozen Four matchup against Michigan on Thursday (6:30 p.m. ESPN2) coming off the first multipoint game of his college career less than 10 days ago in Loveland.

“That’s obviously the reason I wanted to come to Denver is to have an opportunity to win national championships,” McMorrow told The Denver Gazette. “I’m just excited to do that, first and foremost. Las Vegas is a great spot. There’s two other great teams that we could potentially play, so I’m just excited for that. These are the two biggest games of my life.”

McMorrow pops off the screen with his game-breaking speed, which has come in handy during DU’s 6-0 record in the postseason. The winger from Minnesota is just happy to be back on the ice for the last few weeks after spending a decent chunk of his first season with the Pios watching from the stands.

While getting a chance to compete for the United States in the World Junior Championships in his home state of Minnesota, where he drew plenty of praise for his performance, McMorrow suffered a severe broken finger in a quarterfinal loss to Finland that required pins to keep the bone together.

When he returned to the Mile High City in early January, all he could do was wait for his finger to heal while DU sputtered to a point where a run like this in the NCHC and NCAA tournaments seemed unlikely.

“It actually still is broken,” McMorrow said. “It’s just healthy enough that I can play. People play with broken fingers all the time; it was just shattered. I literally couldn’t move it.

“It’s definitely been tough. I missed training camp this year, too. I broke my left and right wrists and getting injured again at World Juniors, it was definitely frustrating, to say the least. Our staff here — our athletic trainers, our strength trainers — they just put me in the best spot to succeed and get back in the lineup. It made me getting back into the lineup an easy fix.”

McMorrow finally made his return to the lineup for the final regular-season series against Arizona State and was instantly thrust into a key role as part of a deep forward group and a member of the Pios’ penalty kill.

“His speed is real,” coach David Carle said. “It’s been a big factor, getting him and (Kristian) Epperson and (Garrett) Brown all back in the lineup. We’re already a deep team, but it just increases the depth even more. Brendan’s an ‘X factor’ because of that speed. Anywhere on the ice, you can draw up a faceoff play for him to try and expose his speed and certainly we try and do that. He’s a menace on the forecheck and creating turnovers and (is) a really frustrating player to play against.”

That mentality has been with McMorrow since his youth hockey days. Even though he’s a gifted skater who showed in the Loveland regional final against Western Michigan that he has real skill with the puck on his stick, too, the Los Angeles Kings draft pick has always felt his game is defined by what he does when he doesn’t have the puck.

“It’s always been the identity of me, the forechecking piece,” McMorrow said. “If I’m not scoring or getting assists, I can still be effective using my legs. It kinda just came from my summer coach. He always stressed attitude and effort and that was a big part of our game back then and it just stuck with me throughout my career.”

DU will need everything McMorrow and his teammates have in limiting a Michigan team that enters the Frozen Four with by far the best offense in the country at more than 4.5 goals scored per game, a full goal ahead of the Pios, who have a top-10 offense nationally.

McMorrow knows these Wolverines may be better than anyone else as he played multiple seasons with several Michigan players during his time with the U.S. National Team Development Program, which plays its games less than a half hour from Ann Arbor.

It’s just an added bonus for a weekend McMorrow came to Denver to be a part of.

“If we’re at the same hotel, I’ll go and say, ‘What’s up?’ So many tournaments, so many years I played with those guys and they’re all great guys,” McMorrow said. “It’ll be fun. It’ll just make it that more competitive, too, just playing against your buddies.”