Denver Sends BC Packing Again, Wins Manchester Regional
By Brendan Locke - April 2nd, 2025Denver is doing the thing again.
Matt Davis is peaking, and the Pioneers are in that mode where they travel east and promptly take the soul of whichever poor team gets in their way. Dating back to 2016, Denver has made six Frozen Fours, six appearances in nine years to the pinnacle of the sport is almost incomprehensible. Through coach changes, a pandemic, a transfer portal, and name image and likeness. There has been one name to define the past decade of college hockey.
Denver dominance.
Boston College wanted a revenge tour. Dating back to October, these Eagles talked about knowing what the goal of the season was. They kept focused on the end of the year and played their best hockey at the end of the season, on the backs of Tony Voce, Johnny, and Matthew Gaudreau. But it was scoring three goals in their final three games that was their ultimate undoing.
Did the Eagles run out of the gunpowder that made them the most electric show in the nation? Did Northeastern crack the code to corral this potent attack that gave way to a Bentley scare and their ultimate undoing?
Losing middle-six forward Oskar Jellvik to a shoulder injury for the final two months of the season doesn’t help. But the junior from Sweeden put up 13 points in 23 games this season, compared to a whopping 42 points in 41 games in his sophomore campaign. Whatever happened, BC came crashing back down to earth and did not stick the landing.
Denver, on the other hand, continues to raise their floor with every tournament game they play. Matt Davis is a certified lunatic. Over six NCAA tournament games, he’s allowed… five goals? Huh???? Tack that onto a .976 save percentage, and well, that’s going to win you a lot of hockey games. Combine that with the fact that you have a roster with two Hobey Baker candidates, one of whom is the best defenseman in the country, and the hottest name in coaching in the world of hockey. Wait, how did this team lose to a club team again?
This game had the billing of a prize fight, and the opening period felt like it. BC was the quicker and more physical of the two. “[BC] Probably surprised us a bit with how physically engaged they were,” said Denver coach David Carle. “During play, after play.” BC came out with a plan and executed it to a tee in the opening frame.
BC’s third-year coach Greg Brown loved his start “I thought we started really well on our toes. Generated a lot of pressure in their zone.” The best of those chances came off the stick of Gabe Perrault, making a power move. He lost control and plunged toward the crease, knocking Matt Davis into his net.The puck ended up over the goal line but well after the net had been dislodged. (No net issues today; that was nice plus well done SNHU Arena!)
But despite the strong start from BC, the Pioneers are like TSA, there is a very specific list of things that you need to do to have a chance, but one mistake, BACK OF THE LINE.
The Eagles had an excellent start to the game, the tempo and rhythm of the game, then they forgot to take their laptop out of their backpack.
Denver got shot out of a cannon in the second period, complete domination of play, logging 18 of a total of 25 shots on net in the middle frame. The changes that needed to be made were not a new feeling for the Pioneers. “They were definitely trying to play physical in the first and trying to get under our skin.” Said graduate forward, Carter King, “We’ve played teams like that before and I think that’s what so great about playing in the NCHCs.”
Worth noting that despite having just two teams make the tournament from the NCHC, Denver and Western Michigan, both have made it to the Frozen Four.
Unlike Hockey East, which had six teams make the tournament, including four reaching separate regional finals. The BU Terriers are now the lone team that is making the trip to St. Louis.
Eric Pohlkamp would ring the post on a three-on-one beating BC goalie Jacob Fowler just 90 seconds into the second, and that was just the beginning. Denver would continue their second-period onslaught just minutes later, extending their lead.
Zeev Buium would notch his fourth point of the Manchester regional and continue his meteoric rise as one of the all-time great tournament players, winning the most outstanding player of the regional.
The air was completely taken out of the building with over 6,000 in attendance and just about everyone pro-BC. The Pioneers continued to tighten the vice on the Eagles and seemingly had a third goal on yet another zone entry, hitting a trailing player, yet again Zeev Buium to make it 3-0. But, in a hail marry challenge attempt from Greg Brown and the Eagles, it was determined that the zone entry was offsides.
BC would get their legs back under them following the challenge but still struggle to create. Freshman forward Teddy Stiga was the only Eagle to truly generate, getting a breakaway from the blueline and trying to slide it under Matt Davis's five-hole. Yet the senior was up to the task once more.
The sentiment after Stiga missed the breakaway was that BC may have missed their moment, Denver looked that good. If the Eagles somehow managed to climb through the neutral zone, beating Matt Davis was a seemingly impossible task. Then Stiga got a shot a redemption.
BC finally had a shot in the arm that they needed, but with under a minute to go in the period, “It was probably too bad the period was coming to an end there because we felt like we had picked it up” said Brown.
Tell me if you have heard this before: Boston College is peppering Matt Davis in the third period of a tight game. BC outshot Denver 15-2 in the third, and the best chance may have come on an Aram Minnetian drive that he couldn’t fire home in time before Davis repositioned and made the save. Despite his brilliance all season, Ryan Leonard could not generate his normal production besides James Hagens and Gabe Perrault. Denver packed the house and made nothing easy for the Eagles down the stretch, and the depth scoring couldn’t pull through to have that moment for BC.
Zeev Buium secured the win in the final moments for Denver with a full-ice empty-net goal to secure a 3-1 win. He saluted the Eagles’ bench as he passed them, effectively ending this era of Boston College hockey.
Photo by Richard T Gagnon
“The National Champion we knew coming in was 0-7 in the title rematch [the next year] “ said Dave Carle “Now it’s 1-7.”
For more coverage of the best conference in college hockey - Follow ECH blogger Brendan Locke on X @_Brendanlocke
