The weekend that men’s college hockey fans all over have been waiting for is finally here.
Top-ranked archrivals Boston College and Boston University have reached the Frozen Four, each just one win away from what could turn out to be a national championship game for the ages.
However, the two Boston clubs certainly won’t have easy roads to reach the final game, as this field of four is rounded out by fellow traditional powers that know how to play on the big stage.
Thursday’s semifinal round from Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn., features Boston University facing Denver at 5 p.m. EST, and Boston College taking on Michigan at 8:30 p.m. The national title game is set for Saturday at 6 p.m.
Here are the storylines that we’ll be keeping an eye on.
High-flying blue bloods
They say defense wins championships, right?
While the two New England clubs are backstopped by talented goaltenders — BC’s Jacob Fowler and BU’s Mathieu Caron — who stand tall in front of solid defenses, there’s no doubt that the story of this Frozen Four field is offense, offense and more offense.
The top four teams left standing rank tops nationally in goals per game. These programs are also traditional powers of the sport, having won 28 national championships.
“Each coach will have their own wrinkles, but the most important part is starting with players who can do that,” said BC’s Greg Brown, the 2024 winner of the Spencer Penrose Award as National Coach of the Year. “(They have) guys who can create, guys who read plays. As they say, they can see around the corner a little bit. They know what’s coming and how to adjust or create offense off a tiny opening.”
Brown’s Eagles boast freshman Will Smith (Lexington, Mass.) and sophomore Cutter Gauthier, who are the nation’s leaders in points and goals, respectively. The duo has combined for 133 points, including 69 Smith points and 37 Gauthier goals — the latter which is the highest single-season goal total in college hockey since 2005-06.
The Terrier headlines often go to 17-year-old center and likely No. 1 overall draft pick Macklin Celebrini, the Hockey East Player and Rookie of the Year. Sophomore Lane Hutson has logged 49 points, tied with Denver freshman Zeev Buium for the national lead among defensemen.
The strategy to combat a high-powered offense such as Denver’s with a nation-leading 4.7 goals per game is oftentimes to be sound and focus on playing one’s game. That’s how UMass was able to take the Pioneers to double overtime in the opening regional game in Springfield, Mass.
“I think for us it’s dictating the way we want to play,” BU captain and defenseman Case McCarthy said. “I think when we’re playing our style, we’re hard to deal with.”
Another chance at a BC-BU matchup
Top-ranked BC arrived in St. Paul with a 14-game win streak intact. Since Christmas, the Eagles are an incredible 20-2-0.
But BU had to shake off a more recent defeat in the Hockey East championship game on March 23 to reach its second consecutive Frozen Four under second-year head coach Jay Pandolfo, who also reached this stage in all four of his years playing for the legendary Jack Parker.
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After falling short of defending its league title, the Terriers bounced back for 6-3 wins over RIT and Minnesota in the Sioux Falls (S.D.) Regional and now find themselves back in a familiar position.
“We were certainly disappointed, but we knew … we weren’t done,” Pandolfo said. “Our guys, they took it upon themselves (to say), ‘Hey, we've got to move on. Are we disappointed? Of course. Can we learn from some things that happened in that game (like giving the potent Eagles five power plays)? Of course we can.’”
The Eagles, meanwhile, kept on trucking after TD Garden and wound up in Providence, rolling past Michigan Tech 6-1 before ousting defending national champion Quinnipiac in a 5-4 overtime thriller.
In the eyes of BC freshman Ryan Leonard (Amherst, Mass.), the latter game answered a question that had been asked of the team all season long.
“I think (it showed) we’re able to play ‘big boy’ hockey, honestly,” Leonard said. “It was questioned throughout the year. We’re a young team, so can we perform at that high standard against those bigger, tougher opponents? I think we proved ourselves pretty well.”
Local kids on the national stage
The presence of the Eagles and the Terriers at the Frozen Four makes for a bit of a “revenge” moment for New England hockey after regional teams were shut out of the 2022 fun in Boston, where two Minnesota teams competed and Denver won its record-tying ninth national title.
Now just two years later, two New England teams will compete for the crown in St. Paul without any teams from the host state of Minnesota as competitors.
Should the Terriers reach the final and the Eagles do the same, it would mark only the second-ever meeting of the foes in the national title game and first since 1978. It is the two teams’ first shared Frozen Four since 1990.
As for the present, the two Boston teams also have local-heavy rosters. According to College Hockey, Inc., the 12 Massachusetts natives on Frozen Four rosters are the most of any U.S. states. New York is second with 11. There are also two players from Connecticut and one from Rhode Island.
The crop of local players represented runs deeper than just the world-class stars in the likes of Smith and Leonard, the latter who scored twice in both Providence Regional games. The Eagles got goals from unheralded sources like junior fourth-liner Connor Joyce (Westwood, Mass.) and freshman defenseman Aram Minnetian during that weekend.
On the BU side, freshman Shane Lachance (Andover, Mass.) has been a productive and versatile player for Pandolfo all year and has skated on Celebrini’s left wing in recent weeks. He had three points in Sioux Falls, including a goal and an assist against Minnesota in the regional title game.
Marshall Warren facing his old squad
“The X” will be the site of a reunion of sorts as Boston College opposes a familiar face during its semifinal matchup in Michigan graduate defenseman Marshall Warren, the veteran of now-170 career collegiate games who was the Eagles’ captain last season preceding current senior defenseman Eamon Powell.
During his first season as BC’s coach in 2022-23, Brown praised Warren for not only his outstanding skating on the blue line, but his ability to lead the talented group. The latter is also evidenced by him wearing a letter as an assistant captain at Michigan.
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“Marsh is such a tremendous person and, obviously, a great hockey player, so it’ll be weird to see him on the other side of the ice,” Brown said. “It’ll be a challenge. We know what he can do. He’s such a great skater, dangerous in transition. We’re going to have to keep an eye on him, but there’s so many dangerous players that we’ll have to be sharp against.”
Warren has played some of his best hockey of late, recording points in three of his last four games including a go-ahead goal in the third period of the championship game of the Maryland Heights (Mo.) Regional against Michigan State. He was a member of the All-Tournament Team.
