It was a historic night in St. Paul, Minn. as the University of Denver claimed their record-setting 10th NCAA hockey championship. The hero, as it has been throughout the whole tournament, was junior goaltender Matt Davis. In the tournament, Davis stopped 139 of 142 shots for a .979 save percentage. Some of those saves, especially in Saturday’s game, were legendary.

Some compared the Frozen Four to the hockey version of the Boston Massacre, with DU beating both Boston University (BU) and Boston College (BC), the two top-ranked teams in the nation. Similarly to the other three tournament games, the offense was hard to come by for the high-flying Denver offense, but between the world-class goaltending of Davis and the solid defensive structure, DU was able to get by on only two goals like they had the entire tournament. 

Head Coach David Carle described Davis’ run as, “superhuman.” 

“This whole run, he gave up three goals. It’s incredible what he did. A lot of big-time saves in those games. It’s not like we weren’t giving up any chances. Did we get better defensively? Yes. Did we get more predictable? Yes. But there are many moments in all these games that he could have cracked and he didn’t,” Carle said.

The first period was a very tense one, where both teams were trying to limit mistakes, even to the extent of stifling their offense at times. Denver came out the sharper team, but BC picked things up in the latter stages of the period, with their best chance coming when the fourth overall pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, Will Smith, was sent through on a breakaway but was denied by Davis.

Other than that big chance, it was tough sledding for BC for the first two periods, with Denver dictating the play. Sophomore forward Rieger Lorenz gave a glowing review of Coach Carle’s preparation and game plan and credited the win to it. 

“I think it was in the prep work. We have the best coach in college hockey. He prepares us through the weeks and in the pre-scout as well. He’s helped me and our teams so much and through all of our careers. We’re incredibly blessed to have him, and, yeah, couldn’t do it without him,” he said. 

At only 34 years old, Carle now has two national championships and a World Juniors Championship on his increasingly stacked resume.

The beginning of the second period was much like the first, with both teams looking to avoid mistakes and trying to manufacture chances on turnovers. BC was able to kill a penalty off a DU powerplay that had been struggling, but both teams failed to generate many serious chances.

That was until sophomore Jared Wright scored on an odd shot that hit off goaltender Jacob Fowler and then deflected slowly into the net to make it 1-0.

The line of Wright, Lorenz and freshman forward Kieran Cebrian was outstanding all night, forcing the skilled players of BC to defend in their own zone. That line would strike again just over five minutes later when Lorenz sniped a shot past Fowler to make it 2-0. The star of that goal was freshman defenseman Zeev Buium, who entered the zone and made an outrageous pass to Lorenz while surrounded by Eagles defenders. 

After DU scored their second goal, and especially in the third period it became a Davis highlight reel, with the netminder making one jaw-dropping save after another. As Carle put it, “I thought we did that well [executing the game plan] the first two periods. And the third period was Matt Davis’ show.”

After a slow start to the game for the Eagles, BC played with desperation in that third period and had DU on the defensive. However, all that desperation did not matter because of one man, Davis. His best save of the night came on a BC power play where Rangers first-round pick fed fellow first-rounder Ryan Leonard, who looked to have an empty net to shoot at, but Davis dove from the other side of the blue paint and made a mind-numbingly brilliant glove save.

Describing that save, Davis comically said, “I just saw the puck go back door again. I was like, ‘uh-oh,’ and I dove over and made the save. I was on the net catching my breath back and just redialing, I guess.” 

Davis made 23 saves in that third period, tied for the most all-time in a Frozen Four period. Davis had been brilliant all tournament, but he saved his best performance for last, on the biggest stage and his reward was being named the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament. 

The chase for 10 championships has been on DU’s mind all season, and they accomplished their goal thanks to a phenomenal group of players, a goalie on an all-time hot streak and a prodigious coach.