College Hockey Update: Denver gave up an early short-handed goal to Boston University in an otherwise tense, brick-wall-defensively played first period of the early Frozen Four semifinal game, and went into the first break down 1-0. Denver continued its stingy ways that brought them their first two wins, and only gave up a goal eight minutes into the period when Denver mishandled an interception of a clearing pass by BU’s Devin Kaplan, which Luke Tuch stole, bolted down the ice and shot in past Denver goalie Matt Davis with only 14 seconds left on the power play. While Denver posed a seemingly unbreakable defense, BU seemed to respond similarly, and out-shot Denver 10-3 in the first, also seeming to be the faster and better skating of the two early on.

The two teams continued this battle in the second — BU continued to press with quickness and skating for about the first five minutes of the perod, but in the second five minutes of the period the pace of play evened up. Denver didn’t seem to accomplish much, but did become effective at stopping BU from putting on pressure — Denver became effective at stopping BU in the Denver zone, while BU was effective at stopping Denver in transition. However, once Denver got into the BU zone, they were effective at staying dangerously near the BU net. In the third five minutes of the period it seemed Denver started taking control and started getting shots off. With five minutes left in the period BU’s Lane Hutson grabbed the puck behind the BU net out of the Denver offensive set, and attempted a behind-the-back blind pass to the other side of the net, which Denver’s Miko Matikka easily picked off and alertly zipped into the slot to a wide open Tristan Lemyre, who pounced on it and fired it into an opening to tie the game at 1-1, the score going into the second break. The second period overall ended up statistically looking as though it had played evenly, with BU slightly out-shooting Denver 10-8. But the scoreboard told the more important story. In the last ten minutes of the second, BU’s play looked as though they were drained from their frenetic pace in the first period and a half, while Denver appeared to have really picked up the pace. Certainly in the last five minutes of the period Denver looked strong while BU looked tired, and BU simply was not able to convert on any of its efforts near the net.

BU came out in the third for a while with good speed and controlled the puck in the Denver zone for a bit with a few good chances, but Denver still seemed a bit more in control overall. Certainly the shots on goal counter backed that up, as Denver had the advantage, 12-5, something of a role-reversal of the first period. The game ended in regulation tied at 1-1.

In Overtime it appeared as though Denver was better at passing and controlling the puck except at the outset of the period when BU seemed to really be on the mark. But later BU had some puck handling that missed and sat out in the middle of the ice — some very dangerous stuff they seemed to get away with. Meanwhile Denver had a really solid neutral zone defense that was very effective at stopping a BU rush, and preventing BU from getting very far down into the Denver zone. BU did hang tough and showed a lot at the end — particularly a solid defensive effort. But they needed to mount good offensive charges and find a solution to the Denver neutral zone defense, and it just wasn’t happening. While BU had a slight shots advantage of 9-6 in OT, it all came down to someone getting a moment to take a good shot at a good opportunity, and at eleven minutes into OT that someone was Denver’s Tristan Broz, who took a pass a the top of the Denver zone, skated down ice into the BU zone, pulled up at the top of the right circle, and abruptly fired a shot through the pads of BU goalie Mathieu Caron (who had played an otherwise pretty darn good game), and in a blink — it was over.

And let’s be sure to give a credit where a ton of credit is due: Dever goalie Matt Davis, of Calgary, Alberta, was awesome. He blocked 24 of BU’s 25 shots in regulation, and he blocked 33 of BU’s 34 shots on the night, with a number of them at point blank range. He has a GAA of 2.34 on his season, and a season saves percentage .917. And he seems to be peaking at the right time . . . .

Denver advanced to play the winner of the Boston College vs. Michigan game that night.

The outcome of this game is an upset in our pool, as 19 entrants picked Boston University to win it vs. only 12 who picked Denver; 8 picked Minnesota, and 2 picked Maine.

That’s all for now.

Stay tuned, and go Terriers!

— Tom