The Frozen Four will take place on April 11 & 13. The four teams that have made it to the Frozen Four this year are #1 Boston College vs Michigan and #2 Boston University vs #3 Denver University. I will give my opinion on who will move on and how the teams match up against each other.
#1 Boston College vs Michigan
Boston College is easily the number one team in the country, as they just recently won the Hockey East tournament. Michigan on the other hand has made its third straight Frozen Four appearance after upsetting home-state rival #4 Michigan State. Boston College should win this game, but that doesn’t mean they will get past Michigan with ease. Michigan has great players like Forward Rutger McGroarty, Tyler Duke, and Frank Nazar II. These players will give BC’s goalie Jacob Fowler some issues, but Fowler has been playing phenomenally recently and will be one of BC’s key pieces needed to beat Michigan. Ryan Leonard and Cutter Gauthier will be the main reason Boston College will win this tough match-up against Michigan. Ryan Leonard just recently won Player of the Year in the Providence area, and Cutter Gauthier has been playing amazing this year for BC, as he leads all players in points with 64. BC vs Michigan will be a fun game to watch, and even though BC will be the favorite to win, don’t count Michigan out just yet.
#2 Boston University vs #3 Denver
This game can go either way, as Boston University and Denver are two teams that are pretty equally matched. Boston University started their game against Minnesota trailing 0-2, and even though they came back to win it 6-3, it showed some flaws inside their defense. Unlike BU, Denver’s defense includes players like the Buium brothers, Sean Behrens, and Boston Buckberger who have only allowed two goals in this tournament. BU has the upper hand on offense, as they have scored 12 goals in total this tournament. BU has some great offensive weapons, for example, consensus number 1 pick Macklin Celebrini, Jack Harvey, and Shane Lahance that can cause some issues for Denver. Denver has only scored four goals in this tournament, but I expect Miko Matikka, McKade Webster, and Jack Devine to bring their A-game and outscore BU. I think Denver will win this game because of how much better their defense is overall. Macklin Celebrini will have to lock in and play like the number one pick he’s projected to be if BU wants to win this game against Denver.
