On Saturday, April 13th, Boston College took on the University of Denver for the NCAA hockey championship. Coming into Saturday, Boston College was the heavy favorite, as they had just blown past Michigan 4-0 in the semifinal. Denver barely won their game against number 2 Boston University 2-1 after scoring a goal in overtime to make the finals. Before the game began, Cutter Gauthier, forward for Boston College, and fifth pick in the 2022 NHL draft told interviewers when asked about the game, “Gonna be a lot of tears for that team over there.” These are words that he would later regret.
The First Period went scoreless, although some great effort from Boston College who had control over the puck for most of the first period. Denver’s defense came to play and was able to hold off Boston College to zero goals, even though Boston College’s offense is one of the best in the country. Denver’s defense had some shots, but none were dangerous, and Fowler made quick work of them.
The Second Period started similarly to the first period, until Denver got a power play 4 minutes into the Second Period, and Denver attacked Boston College showing that their offense when given the chance can be deadly. Although Denver didn’t score, it did kill the Boston College movement. In the tenth minute, Jared Wright scored a crucial goal to make it 1-0 in the favor of Denver. After the Goal the momentum swung to Denver who just 6 minutes after scored their second goal, making a Boston College comeback even less likely to happen.
In the third period, Boston College’s offense gave it their all, and multiple shots that usually went in for them were stopped by Denver’s Goaltender Matt Davis who turned into prime Carey Price, and blocked a total of 35 shots. Matt Davis won Player of the Game, as he stopped Boston College from even starting a comeback in the Third period, even after Boston College pulled their goalie to make it a 6 vs 5 on the ice.
Denver was able to shut out Boston College’s Offensive line mainly, thanks to head coach David Carle who coached the United States World Junior team that contained seven Boston college players, so he knew their strengths and weaknesses. Overall it was a good game that was entertaining to watch, even after Denver took a 2-0 lead, because when Boston College is trailing it’s rarely for long, except for this game.
