It wasn’t supposed to end this way.
Boston College’s storybook season came to a bitter conclusion on the national championship stage on Saturday night.
The top-seeded Eagles were shut out for the first time all season, falling, to Denver, 2-0, which captured its NCAA record-setting 10th national title and second in three years.
Here are three takeaways from the game.
Denver did the impossible
Denver entered the Frozen Four as the highest-scoring team in the country averaging 4.9 goals per game. Across four NCAA tournament games, though, it managed only eight goals — the lowest total ever for a team that won a title.
Those numbers didn’t matter. The Pioneers hadn’t played a 2-1 hockey game all season before winning by that score in both Springfield Regional games against UMass and Cornell, and in Thursday’s semifinal against Boston University.
“It was a championship battle, and they were as stingy and tight defensively as we've seen this year,” BC coach Greg Brown said. “They did a great job. Played a lot of winning hockey. They played like a championship team.”
BC hadn’t been shut out all season. Its only game scoring one goal was a 1-0 win over New Hampshire on March 3.
There was not one other game where the entire all-freshman line of Gabe Perreault, Will Smith (Lexington, Mass.) and Ryan Leonard (Amherst, Mass.) was held without a point. But Denver goalie Matt Davis thwarted all 35 shots he faced, including Leonard’s game-high eight.
How did Denver do it? Strong play in the neutral zone was key.
“We’re usually pretty good at breaking pucks out and having speed through the neutral zone, but they had three and four guys a lot of times above our guys right away,” Brown said. “I just didn't think we generated as much speed, and that's more of a credit to (Denver).”
The sweltering defensive effort was epitomized statistically by a total of 21 blocked shots — the second-most by a BC opponent this year — and included a second-period stretch of more than five minutes in which the Eagles did not register a shot on net.
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“They're a team that keeps you on your heels. If you play on your heels, you're playing with fire,” Denver coach David Carle said of BC. “You have to find a way to skate forward and angle and stay on your toes to disrupt them and make them uncomfortable. I thought we did that well in the first two periods and the third period was Matt Davis' show.”
Davis dominated
Second-period goals by Jared Wright and Rieger Lorenz staked Denver to a 2-0 lead.
As Carle said, Davis did some of his best work from there.
BC pushed and pushed late, recording a whopping 23 of its 35 shots in the third period. Denver had a 21-12 advantage in that department through two frames.
But the Denver junior goaltender was “superhuman” on the grand stage.
“When we got into the offensive zone, I felt until the third period they did a good job keeping us to the outside and keeping our shots not as much of a threat as we want them to be,” BC graduate forward Jack Malone said. “And like Coach said, I commend their goalie. He did a tremendous job for them, and they have a great team.”
Davis made a number of highlight stops, but one will be remembered in Denver lore forever. Halfway through BC’s first of two third-period power plays, Perreault set up Leonard in the left circle for a shot that Davis dove across the crease to his right to bat away as it sailed towards an open net.
"MATT DAVIS IS OUT OF HIS MIND!!!!"
📺 ESPN2#MFrozenFour #SCTop10 x @DU_Hockey pic.twitter.com/EnFT0DHuHl
— NCAA Ice Hockey (@NCAAIceHockey) April 13, 2024
“I just saw the puck go back door again,” Davis said. “I was like, ‘uh-oh,’ and I dove over and made the save.”
On BC’s second advantage, Davis also denied Leonard from the right side and followed with another cross-crease save on defenseman Lukas Gustafsson. The latter kill preserved Denver’s 2-0 lead with six minutes left.
Incredible season ends
It wasn’t the ending that maroon and gold-clad fans wanted, but BC finished the season with a 34-6-1 record, which included capturing the Hockey East regular-season and tournament championships, and had won 15 consecutive games before Saturday. Two of those losses were to Denver.
From high-flying future NHL stars to outstanding depth to a goaltender who always stood tall, this team had it all.
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“I don’t think I’m ever going to play on another team like this one,” said Malone, who joined the Eagles as a graduate transfer from Cornell this season and wore a letter alongside the likes of captain Eamon Powell. “Throughout the year, pieces started to fall together. … It was great to see some of the young guys develop into the players they are today, and as a team, I couldn't be prouder to be an Eagle. And I learned that you can never take a moment for granted when you're doing something that you love to do.”
But a sixth national title? That will have to wait.
“We gave it everything we had right up until the end this year. It didn't fall our way,” added Malone.
