"With DU winning and then with us winning, and then I was aware that there was some minor teams that won as well, so that's awesome," said Avalanche defenseman Erik Johnson. "It seems like when I was growing up, Colorado wasn't really a hockey hotbed, but it seems like more and more there's guys coming out of here in the NHL now and college, so it's exciting. I'm excited about it just because Denver is kind of my home now. So it's good to see the up and coming guys make an impact."
Avalanche forward Logan O'Connor had the rare experience of playing for University of Denver and then the Avalanche.
"Going to school here, I know a lot of people that grew up in Denver and got into hockey because of [Joe] Sakic, [Peter] Forsberg-those teams in the early 2000s and the success they had as a team. So hopefully what we're doing now," O'Connor said. "Coming off a championship, we can sort of instill some of that success into future generations."
Winning it all at every level will do that.
"I think you look at any market, traditional or non traditional, when you get a professional hockey team in and they're able to have success, it builds a fan base," said Avalanche coach Jared Bednar. "It builds youth hockey programs. There's a lot of really good ones here. I think Denver produces a lot of quality players. They got the college team that's has had a tremendous amount of success... It's growing like crazy here in Denver."
-NHL.com Independent Correspondent Ryan Boulding contributed to this report.
