College Hockey Update: Denver and Boston College battled through a scoreless first period in a game that seemed to bear Denver’s stingy defensive trademark of every tournament game that preceded this championship match. Denver held Boston College to only five shots in the first, compared to eight for the Pioneers.

In the second, Denver opened up the game, getting 13 shots on goal compared to only 7 for BC — BC only had shots twelve in the first two periods. At the half-way mark of the second, Denver won a face-off in its own zone, and Rieger Lorenz ended up with the puck at the left point in the BC zone. On the other side of his defender he spotted Jared Wright and a lot of ice, and he passed to Wright, who took it at the dot of the left circle, adeptly slid backwards, turned and fired from the bottom of the circle to the left side of the goal, hitting the post, ricocheting off, hitting the back of the BC goalie, and then slipping inside the right side post for the 1-0 goal. Five minutes later Zeev Buium flew into the BC zone, again on the left side down the boards, and eyes were on him as he drew two defenders to him. But Rieger Lorenz was paralleling Buium’s path — Buium snuck a pass between the two defenders to the speeding Lorenz who was wide open at the top of the circle, drew back and nailed a slap shot from the bottom of the circle (just about the same spot as Wright’s goal) and into the net for the shocking second goal, to make it 2-0, Denver, the score going into the break.

In the third BC came out guns a-blazing and fired off 23 shots on goal. But Denver was more stingy than ever and with the two goal lead seemed pretty content to stay between their goal and the BC players. In fact, Denver only managed five shots in the period, but steered the game to a scoreless third, shutting out BC for the 2-0 win and the NCAA Title, the tenth in their history, the most of all schools.

Once again, can’t begin to say enough about Denver junior goalie Matt Davis, of Calgary ALB., who stopped all 35 of BCs shots, some of them seemingly destined to get in. He finished this season with a GAA of 2.34, and a saves percentage of .917. But get a load of his stats as he reached his zenith in the four games of this NCAA Tournament: He allowed only three goals in four games, and blocked 138 out of 141 shots over that span, for a GAA of 0.75 and a saves percentage of .979! Little surprise he was not only named to the All-Tournament Team, but was also named the Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.

THE 2024 COLLEGE HOCKEY UPDATE POOL

College Hockey Update: Ok, I’m sure we all remember very clearly where we were in this thing at the conclusion of the first two regional rounds were played — we had a monster bracket with twelve correct picks out of the first twelve games played, as the leader at that stage, with two right on his heels with eleven.

So here’s the scoop — a little drama in 2024. Julie Schreader came from the middle of the pack with nine correct picks to win it this year, and managed to do it with no tie-breaker involved — twelve correct picks out of fifteen, plus two bonus points for getting the winner, for total of fourteen points. Have to say it is great to see a first-time winner. She was followed by the trio of Greg Cattermole, George Huberty (a past winner), and Joel Smith, who all had eleven correct picks, plus two points, for a total of thirteen, and by Griffin Schreader (making this a family affair — actually all four entered once again this year), who had ten correct picks, plus two points, for a total of twelve.

Julie, your sweatshirt was ordered last week and should be here within a couple of days. A real live American made sweatshirt that just might be a bit big on you, as I had to order it before they ran out, so i bought it to be big enough to fit just about anyone. Now, if you were to listen to George Huberty, or Craig Miller, they might say, “Don’t hold your breath waiting for this sweatshirt,” and if they were to say that, then I couldn’t argue. I am nearing a warehouse of Frozen Four sweatshirts here, and it’s high time to get them screened and delivered.

Final College Hockey Update Pool Standings

(Note — if you think i miscounted your score, notify me immediately — i saved all the entries.)

Winner, Julie Schreader, 12 correct picks, 14 total points

11 picks, 13 points: Cattermole, Huberty, Smith

10 picks, 12 points: GnSchreader

12 picks, 12 points: Kramer, Rarden

11 picks, 11 points: Erdman, Holte, Michela, Naughton, Pastor, PReichel

8 picks, 10 points: DMattson

For everyone else, correct picks = total points; no one else picked the winner.

10: Kriesel, Miller, Muscarella, EOlson, MReichel, DShymanski

9: Peterson, GgSchreader, Sempere, MShymanski, TShymanski

8: Carlisle, Fairbrother, Fong, KMattson, Raluca, Shepard, Slaughter

7: Cook, MOlson, Speare, Sweeney

6: DRamsey, KRamsey, Shimshock

4: PMattson

3: Roth

FINAL TEAM RANKINGS/FINAL POLL FOR 2024

This provides the final poll for the 2024 season, rankings records, and ranking at the end of the conference tournaments, prior to the start of the NCAA Tournament:

FINAL, END OF SEASON DIVISION I MEN’S POLL APRIL 15, 2023

Rnk	Team	(First Place Votes)	Record	Points	Last Poll
1	Denver	(50)	32-9-3	1000	3
2	Boston College		34-6-1	949	1
3	Boston University		28-10-2	898	2
4	Michigan		23-15-3	811	10
5	Michigan State		25-10-3	784	4
6	Quinnipiac		27-10-2	724	8
7	Minnesota		23-11-5	692	7
8	North Dakota		26-12-2	667	5
9	Cornell		22-7-6	582	12
10	Maine		23-12-2	565	6
11	Wisconsin		26-12-2	529	9
12	Omaha		23-13-4	441	11
13	Massachusetts		20-14-3	374	13
14	Western Michigan		21-16-1	362	14
15	Colorado College		21-13-3	300	15
16	Providence		18-13-4	200	16
16	RIT		27-11-2	200	17
18	St. Cloud		17-16-5	146	18
19	Michigan Tech		19-15-6	123	20
20	New Hampshire		20-15-1	100	19

Congratulations to Denver and to Julie Schreader on their wins, and on reminding all of us that good college hockey is played everywhere.

Thanks to our co-publisher, Jim Slaughter, for making this possible by putting this blogsite online. Hopefully, I’ll provide actual in-season coverage next year.

So, that’s all for now.  STAY TUNED, and go Terriers, go College Hockey!

— Tom