ST. PAUL, Minn. — Playing less than 30 minutes away from his Bloomington, Minn., hometown, Denver’s Tristan Broz made the most of a big moment on Thursday.
Broz ripped a low, hard shot through the legs of Boston University goaltender Matthew Caron at 11:09 of overtime to send Denver to Saturday’s national title game with a 2-1 victory at the Xcel Energy Center.
Denver is searching for its record 10th national championship and second in three years.
Broz’s game winner began at the opposite end of the ice. Boston University failed to get the puck deep on a rush and the puck hit off the stick of Devin Kaplan. Denver’s Sean Behrens made a quick pass to Broz that began and odd-man rush. From there, Broz executed what he practiced just a day earlier.
“We ran that drill yesterday doing 2-on-1s and a few times I scored, just kind of no-look, trying to shoot five-hole,” said Broz, who played his freshman season of college hockey at nearby Minnesota before transferring to Denver last offseason. “And just kind of blacked out in that moment and it happened to go in.”
The resulting goal set off a celebration for the Pioneers as they won their third straight one-goal 2-1 decision in the NCAA tournament.
Denver had to handle significant early pressure from Boston University. The Terriers outshot Denver 10-3 in the opening period and had a significant advantage in quality chances.
They eventually potted one of those chances short-handed at 7:45 of the first.
Kaplan flicked a quick pass to Luke Tuch that sent him past the Pioneers defense on a breakaway. Tuch ripped a shot up high for his first career short-handed goal.
By the midway point of the game, BU had limited Denver to just six total shots on goal but never extended the lead.
“The first period we played very well,” said BU coach Jay Pandolfo. “We shot ourselves in the foot not to [continue to] play behind them. It’s been a little bit of an issue all year in the second period, not being able to put teams away.”
As Denver began to feel comfortable in the game, it established its forecheck and eventually forced a mental mistake by All-American defenseman Lane Hutson.
Behind his net, Hutson made a blind pass that was perfectly anticipated by Miko Matikka. He intercepted the puck and fed quickly to a wide-open Tristan Lemyre, who fired the puck five-hole on Caron at 15:21 to even the score. The goal came on just the eighth Pioneers shot of the game.
That injected the life that Denver needed, and the Pioneers hemmed the Terriers in their zone for the remainder of the second. With 23.4 seconds left, it looked as if Aidan Thompson was going to give the Pioneers their first lead when Davis made a perfect stretch pass to spring a 2-on-1. Appearing to be beat, Caron reached behind him for a glove save that robbed Thompson, sending the game to the third tied at 1.
It was in that final period that Boston University got into penalty trouble, three times heading to the box. Though the penalty kill was sharp and finished a perfect 4-for-4, Denver’s possession time increased and the Terriers struggled to find quality opportunities.
Denver remained disciplined all night and Boston University never got an opportunity on the power play.
“We spent the better part of three practices talking about [Macklin] Celebrini and [Lane] Hutson on the power play and how to defend that,” said Denver coach David Carle. “To not have to see that I think was a big factor in the victory.”
With those man advantages mounting for Denver, Caron continued to save the day for the Terriers, with his biggest save coming on Denver’s scoring leader Jack Devine as a Denver power play ended. A rebound popped right to Devine’s stick and he made a move past Caron, but the junior netminder reached his arm across to stop the puck with 9:13 left.
At the other end of the ice, it wasn’t so much the goaltender stealing the show but the post. Lane Hutson took a feed from Celebrini with 3:33 left and ripped it off the inside of the post. That was one of the final great looks the Terriers had.
The loss ended the Terriers’ season in the national semifinal for the second straight season. It did not, though, take away from the growth Pandolfo felt his team has made in that time.
“I really feel for our seniors,” said Pandolfo. “They’ve done a great job the last two years re-establishing the culture of what it means to be a Terrier.
