With an impressive resume, Denver University coach David Carle will finally be behind the bench in Anchorage

In his young coaching career, David Carle has hoisted national championship trophies and guided a U.S. national team to gold.

This weekend, the Denver University head hockey coach will finally be behind the bench in his hometown.

Carle leads his Pioneers team into Anchorage to take on UAA in a weekend series. Denver arrives as the nation’s top-ranked Division I team, fresh off a national title in the 2023-24 season. The two teams play Saturday at 6:07 p.m. and on Sunday at 5:07 p.m. Both games are at the Avis Alaska Sports Complex.

Carle, 34, hasn’t lived in the state full-time for nearly two decades, but his parents and plenty of extended family and friends are in Alaska.

“We try and make it up at least every other summer,” he said. “I was fortunate to get up this summer in the early part to go on a fishing trip and see some family and friends that way. Really proud to be from Anchorage and love coming back.”

Carle is now in his seventh season with the Pioneers and said he would’ve liked to have matched up with the Seawolves even sooner. But between the UAA team being targeted for elimination and then reinstated, and the COVID-19 pandemic, this season was the earliest opportunity.

Two of Carle’s assistants — Tavis MacMillan and Dallas Ferguson — both have strong connections to the state as well.

“I’ll have family at the game and it’ll be exciting for them too,” Carle said. “It took a little bit longer when I became the head coach, and we probably all wanted to get our team up here sooner. But we’re certainly excited to be here, and so are our players.”

The Carle family has been a titan in the Anchorage hockey community for decades. David’s brother Matt Carle was a Hobey Baker Award winner at Denver and an NHL pro for a dozen years.

“All three of their boys have been impactful on representing the state in a positive way,” UAA head coach Matt Shasby said. “His brother did it as a Hobey Baker winner at Denver and (David) has done it now as probably the brightest up-and-coming coach in all of hockey, winning national championships, winning World Junior Championships. David’s going to continue to represent Alaska, and he’s proud of his Alaska roots.”

When he was hired at Denver in 2018, Carle was youngest head coach in NCAA Division I men’s ice hockey at age 28. The 2024 championship was Carle’s second as head coach and an NCAA record 10th national title for the Pioneers. He added to his resume earlier this year by leading the U.S. National Junior Team to gold at the World Junior Championship. It’s a role he will reprise in 2025.

But despite the almost unprecedented success, Carle said he and the Pioneers’ program continue to focus on improvement.

“You’re always trying to grow and evolve whatever profession that you have and you’re trying to push boundaries and get better,” Carle said. “I don’t think we’re any different. I think we’re a more complete, well-rounded program than we were three, four years ago, six, seven years ago. I think you always want to be driving the bus forward.”

Carle’s playing career was cut short after he was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in 2008. But that opened the door to him coaching at a young age. He counts former coaches George Gwozdecky, Derek Lalonde and Jim Montgomery as mentors who he worked under during his early years.

“Those were the people that I had to lean on and ask questions and to fall back on that experience,” he said. “I got to observe how they manage different situations and moments. So I felt like you want to talk about a coaching 101 or crash course to a high-level degree in coaching, you couldn’t find three better people to learn from.”

Carle expects the games to be competitive as UAA is coming off its best campaign in a decade. The Seawolves posted a 15-17-2 record in 2023-24, knocking off a number of ranked teams during the course of the season.

“This is a good hockey team,” Carle said of the Seawolves. “I think Matt’s done a great job. They’re on the upswing. It sounds like they’re garnering more and more community support and building the program even more. As someone who’s from here, I think that that’s great to hear.”

On the home bench, Shasby said the chance to host the nation’s top team is a boon for both players and fans.

“It’s an incredible opportunity for our group,” Shasby said. “They’ve worked hard the last two years to get to this point. Just happens to be (Denver is) coming off the national championship and are preseason No. 1. So couldn’t ask for a more unique opportunity for our fan base to get to see a team like this and really appreciate the level of hockey that is college hockey.”

While Denver is seeing its first action of the season, UAA topped Grand Canyon 7-1 last weekend in an exhibition. While Shasby realizes his team will be an underdog, he believes they’ve improved as well.

“We’ve added some pieces,” he said. “I think our freshman class is faster, more skilled, and that’s what college hockey is. And (we just need to) play a simple game, manage the pucks well, avoid their allowing their high-end guys to get odd man rushes against us and just do a good job of the hard areas of the game.”

While the Pioneers bring in a talented and proven team, the atmosphere at the Avis Alaska Sports Complex should favor the Seawolves.

“I’m sure we’re going to be packing in people two-, three-, four-deep down around the glass,” Shasby said. “It’s going to be the environment that we hoped it would be when we brought this thing back online. The crowds have been great the first two years, and starting off with an opponent like Denver, you can’t ask for something better.”