To say a hockey player has “great wheels” is to compliment his speed on the ice. But if you were to tell Rhett Rakhshani that he had great wheels while he was learning the game on the outdoor rinks of Southern California in the mid 1990s, all you’d have been telling him is that he was properly outfitted for hockey.

Rakhshani and Denver's other offensive-minded players will need to help carry the load while starting goalie Marc Cheverie recovers from injury.

The Denver senior started playing at age five, but was nearly twice that age before he tried the game on a sheet of ice. It’s no stretch to see the kid from Huntington Beach, Calif., list surfing as one of his favorite hobbies. But with no longboards and breakers to entertain him while playing developmental hockey in Michigan, and college hockey in Colorado, he’s had to be content with a different hobby he learned not far from the Pacfic beaches: creating offense and watching the goal light behind the opponents’ net glow.

With top goaltender Marc Cheverie out of the Pioneers’ lineup for a few weeks due to a nasty cut on his leg, the focus rightly switches to the new Denver goalie, freshman Adam Murray. But the burden of leading the team, as Denver heads to Alaska Anchorage this weekend for a pair, switches to the offense. And anyone who witnessed the Pioneers’ forceful statement at Mariucci Arena two weekends ago doesn’t have to look at the team statistics to know that Rakhshani leads the way as Denver seeks to bring the MacNaughton Cup back to Magness Arena for its third visit of the decade.

“Rhett has tremendous stick skills and he’s capable of doing some wonderful things that other people just can’t do,” said George Gwozdecky, one night before Rakhshani and Cheverie would help give the Pioneers coach his 500th win. “He has such great roller hockey hands and is so fast, so what he’s able to do - pick the corner or shoot a puck off a pass, maintain possession when he’s knocked off balance - those are the things that he’s really, really good at.”

He was held to just an assist in last weekend’s home win and tie with Minnesota State, but Rakhshani had three of the team’s six goals at Minnesota and leads the team with nine points in eight games. After the Gopher series was over and his team was packing to leave Minneapolis in possession of a serious statement about who is the WCHA’s team to beat, Rakhshani reflected on those early days of learning to skate and score on wheels and concrete, rather than on blades and ice.

“Roller hockey is more of an offensive game so there are more offensive opportunities you’re given,” he said. “Through that you get to practice and learn the play. A lot of it is just hockey sense, but over time I’ve been able to develop a little bit of a scoring touch and a quick release.”

Rakhshani comes from an athletic family - his uncle Vic played tight end for the USC football team - so it’s not surprising that when he switched to ice hockey at age nine, the only real transition was learning to stop. Perhaps that was a sign of things to come, as stopping him hasn’t been easy for opponents throughout his college career.

If his coach doesn’t seem as consistently awed by the skills as others, keep in mind that Gwozdecky has had a front-row seat for the show for three seasons, and has realized that Rakhshani’s unique talents, learned outside in the Southern California sun, aren’t easy to teach, duplicate, or rein in.

“What he does sometimes may be a special effort by others, but for him that’s pretty normal,” Gwozdecky said.