The massive success of DU hockey’s Ball Arena debut was enough to prompt curiosity in the local hockey community: Are the Pioneers eyeing a return to the Avalanche’s home ice?

Denver coach David Carle, who was awed by the size of his school’s student section Friday night in a 2-0 win over Colorado College, said he would love to play at Ball Arena again. He’s unsure how the scheduling logistics would work, though.

“It has to line up properly, to be quite honest, with probably a single game. So it’s not on the schedule for the next two years, I can tell you that,” Carle said. “But if it’s something that we can get a single-game type of an event, whether it’s against CC or another team with an opportunity to bid on a certain game, we are looking at that. And it’s something that we want to do. Hard to do it every year, but it’s something we definitely want to do again.”

Carle praised everyone involved in arranging the event, which brought the Battle for the Gold Pan to Ball Arena for the first time. It was a short-notice event: DU announced the change in venue Nov. 22, 2022, after the season had already started. The announced attendance: 17,952.

“I take a lot of pride in what tonight was, and that’s not even on the ice but the event,” Carle said. “I thought it was excellent from start to finish. Thought our people in our athletic department, in our university, did an unbelievable job. On short-notice, too. … Just an immense amount of pride tonight for the hockey community, but specifically for our fans and the (DU) brand and the following that we have within the state and the city of Denver.”

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