ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Denver Pioneers have won the race to 10.
Third-seed Denver pitched a 2-0 shutout in the national championship game over top-seeded Boston College on Saturday behind an all-world performance by goaltender Matt Davis — the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player — to capture a record 10th national championship.
It’s Denver’s second national title in three years and third in the last seven tournaments.
Davis, who saw just 12 shots through two periods of play, stopped all 23 shots he faced in the third period, including a highlight-reel save on Ryan Leonard.
“Super human,” Denver coach David Carle said when asked to describe Davis’ performance. “This whole [NCAA] 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. There’s many moments in all these games that he could have cracked and he didn’t.”
The save on Leonard came with 17:25 remaining in the game and Boston College trailing 2-0. The Eagles were on their first power play when Gabe Perreault passed to Leonard, who seemingly had an open net. Davis, though, had other ideas, diving across the crease in desperation and making a save that will be shown on highlight reels everywhere.
“I saw the puck go back door again,” said Davis. “I was like, ‘Uh-oh,’ and I dove over and made the save.
“I saw [the save] it on the jumbotron. I thought ‘Sweet.’ As long as it’s not in the back of the net, that’s sweet.”
Because of Davis, Denver’s offense, which entered the game ranked first nationally, didn’t need to be dominant. That said, it was opportunistic in the second period, when momentum could have swung either way.
At 9:42, Jared Wright found space on the right side and fired a high shot. The puck hit the left post, bounced off goalie Boston College goaltender Jacob Fowler’s back and then hopped along the ice multiple times, eluding the stick of Eagles defenseman Drew Fortescue, and it trickled into the net.
That sparked the Pioneers.
Fowler was forced to stop Wright on a breakaway at 12:55 and Aidan Thompson in close at 14:04.
But Fowler couldn’t stop a blocker side snipe by Lorenz at 15:16 that gave the Pioneers a 2-0 lead. It was the first time in the tournament that Denver has led by two goals. The Pioneers won their first three games 2-1.
In the third, the BC offense that had scored four or more goals in seven consecutive games but had been smothered through 40 minutes made a significant push. They began getting pucks in back of the Denver defense and establishing their forecheck.
But then it became the Davis show.
“We made a great push in the third,” said BC coach Greg Brown. “[We] had a lot of chances. Their goalie played great.”
Great is an appropriate way to describe Davis, who became the first goaltender to shut out Boston College all season.
It was an appropriate ending for a goaltender who stopped 138 of the 141 shots he faced in the four-game tournament, good for a .979 save percentage. And it’s a far cry from some of the struggles he faced earlier in the season.
“I had to go through a couple of hiccups to learn that throughout the year, it was just kind of trusting in the process,” said Davis.
The 10th championship moved the Pioneers past Michigan for the most titles in men’s Division I history. And it cements Carle (two national championships), the second-youngest coach in Division I men’s hockey, among the best in the game.
“It’s a far cry from six years ago when everybody said I was too young to do this,” Carle said. “I think we’ve got great people. I’ve been extremely blessed to have great mentors, be supported by an unbelievable wife and family, and it’s a total team effort to do what we do at Denver.
“These guys, everybody laid it all on the line, and we’re national champions. So proud of them. They’ll walk together forever.”
