MANCHESTER, New Hampshire – Denver goalie Matt Davis has been a Jonah to Boston College’s title aspirations as the No. 1 seed in consecutive NCAA tournaments.
The undrafted senior from Calgary, Alberta, set aside 35 shots as the reigning national champion Pioneers downed the Eagles 3-1 in the NCAA Manchester Regional final on Sunday night at SNHU Arena.
Davis registered 26 saves in Denver’s 2-0 victory over BC in last year’s championship game at the Xcel Energy center in St. Paul, Minn. Sophomore defenseman Zeev Buium, the Regional’s Outstanding Player, closed out the game with an empty netter with 4.4 seconds to play.
“Matt has played pretty well against us,” BC coach Greg Brown said. “It was not for a lack of shots that’s for sure and they are a very good team defensively so it is hard to get quality shots.
“We were able to generate chances and get pucks to the net and he was very good tonight.”
Denver improved to 31-11-1, advanced to its 20th Frozen Four, six in the last eight seasons and will contend for a record 11th national championship. Denver will face Western Michigan in the Frozen Four semifinal on April 10 at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis, MO., on April 10. Boston University will take on Penn State in the other semifinal.
BC closed out the season 27-8-2.
“I am really proud of our team and it was a really good hockey game both ways,” Denver coach David Carle said. “It is really hard to end the same team’s season twice in a row and we obviously got Boston College’s best game.”
BC has 10 NHL draft picks with three first rounders on the roster and there is a strong possibility that several key players will report to their respective pro teams this week.
Hockey East Player of the Year and leading scorer Ryan Leonard was the Capitals first round pick in 2023 while linemate Gabe Perreault went to the Rangers in the first round the same year. Freshman defenseman Dean Letourneau was Boston’s first round pick in 2024 and the Bruins have a lot of question marks on the blue line going into next season.
Goalie Jacob Fowler, a finalist for the Richter Award, was the Canadiens third round pick in 2023 while first line freshman center James Hagens is expected to be a top 5 selection in the 2025 NHL SuperDraft. Sophomore defenseman Drew Fortescue was the Rangers third round pick in 2023.
BC also has three seniors and two graduate students that includes team captain Eamon Powell, a Hockey East first team defenseman who played in a record 170 games.
“I will start that (turning the page) tomorrow,” Brown said. “I am sure we will have guys moving on, and it will be sad losing these seniors and grads.”
BC is known as a finesse skating and passing team, but the Eagles came out thumping from the opening faceoff and were dropping bodies all over the ice. The Pioneers retaliated furiously during a wild scrum that erupted in Davis’s crease at 5:36 and resulted in a disallowed BC goal.
Denver came on strong late in the period and took a 1-0 lead at 18:19. Defenseman Eric Pohlkamp fired a hard wrist shot from the high slot through traffic that beat Fowler top shelf stick side for his 11th of the season. BC exited the ice with an 11-5 advantage in shots on goal.
“They were definitely trying to play physical in the first and trying to get under our skin a little bit,” Denver captain Carter King said. “I think coming into the first intermission we were able to regroup.”
Denver went ahead 2-0 on a hard luck goal at 2:59 of the second. Defenseman Zeev Buium, who had a goal and two assists in the Pioneers’ 5-1 semifinal win over Providence, controlled the puck at the blue and made a lateral pass to Reeder at the left point. Reeder advanced to the top of the circle and fired a slapper that beat Fowler 5-hole for his 11th of the season.
BC caught a huge break when Buium’s goal 8:21 was disallowed when the replay showed the play was offside. BC made it 2-1 on a breakaway goal by left wing Teddy Stiga with :53 seconds remaining in the second. The freshman from Sudbury beat Davis with a back-hander through the 5-hole for his 14th of the season.
“He made a great move and beat me 5-hole which I never like,” said Davis.
