We’ve never seen a Frozen Four like this. From the programs involved to the star power to what could be at stake. It’s going to be one for the ages.
The four programs: BC, BU, Denver, Michigan, four of college hockey’s signature programs. It’s the equivalent of the final four in basketball being North Carolina, Duke, Kansas and Kentucky. Or football being Notre Dame, Alabama, Michigan and USC. There’s 28 national titles between the four teams. Michigan and Denver are tied for the all-time lead in natties.
And if college hockey truly has overtaken the CHL as the flagship breeding ground of NHL talent, that premise will very much be on display in St. Paul this weekend. BU’s Macklin Celebrini and BC’s Cutter Gauthier would’ve broken camp with a majority of NHL teams had they been on NHL rosters six months ago. Celebrini will be the first overall pick in the upcoming draft and Denver defenseman Zeev Buium will likely join him among the top 10 picks. BC has three more first-rounders in Ryan Leonard, Gabe Perreault and Will Smith. BU has another in Tom Willander, a key piece of a defense corps led by Lane Hutson, who has 97 points in 76 collegiate games. Michigan has its usual stable of prospects in Gavin Brindley, Seamus Casey, Dylan Duke, Rutger McGroarty and Frank Nazar. Denver is led by Jack Devine, a 2022 seventh-round pick by the Panthers who exploded for 27 goals and 56 points this season.
It could all end on Saturday night with an all-Boston final. There could also be a matchup between Denver and Michigan, two programs tied atop the all-time list with nine national titles apiece. Whatever exists in between isn’t a bad matchup.
Good times will be had. Here’s a rundown on the four teams:
Boston College
Why they’ll win: To put it simply, if the Eagles win the national championship, they’ll be in the conversation for the greatest team in the history of college hockey. The Eagles have won 33 games this season – one more will set a program record – and have won 14 in a row, their last loss coming in the Beanpot semifinal against BU on the first Monday of February. It’s not dissimilar to the most recent BC national champion, in 2012, a club that featured the likes of Chris Kreider, Johnny Gaudreau, Kevin Hayes and Brian Dumoulin. That team won 19 straight on the way to a natty, losing for the final time on January 21st.
There’s been lots of good collections of talent in college hockey in recent years – teams stacked with high first-round picks, projected top picks, and so on. This is the first such group that’s really put it together and been the juggernaut they appeared to be on paper.
Why they won’t win: There’s not much to choose from in terms of flaws for this team, but if there’s on area in particular this team is lacking in it’s experience. They’re the youngest team in the country (though it should be noted everyone in this Frozen Four is young), and they have a coach in his first national tournament – which really gives you pause when when you factor in the fact all three coaches have reached the Frozen Four prior, with one (David Carle, Denver) winning two years ago.
Player to watch: Cutter Gauthier. If Gauthier signed his pro contract after last season, where he put up 16 goals and 37 points in 32 games as a freshman, he likely would’ve been playing in the NHL this past October – if he wasn’t it wouldn’t be for a lack of ability. Returning to the Heights this season, he’s put up 37 goals in 39 games, pacing a BC team that has been the nation’s best for much of the season. There hasn’t been a 40-goal scorer in college hockey in 30 years – Gauthier has a chance to do it. Gauthier is probably known best for his player rights being dealt to Anaheim from Philadelphia in a highly-publicized January trade. The Ducks will be more than happy to have him.
Player you might not know about: Eamon Powell. At one time I would’ve put BC’s goalie, Jacob Fowler, in this spot, but he’s becoming the player that everyone talks about how nobody talks about him. So we’ll talk Powell, the senior defenseman and Lightning prospect. Here’s the one thing that comes to mind for Powell – when BC was at the height of its power under Jerry York, winning four national titles in a 12-year span from 2001-12, there was always an upperclassman or two that would step up in a big way. Powell has done just that this season, taking charge of the BC blue line with 38 points in 38 games – up from the career mark of 22 he set last season. His 13-game personal point streak that stretched from late January to mid-March was the longest in the country for a defenseman this season.
Boston University
Why they’ll win: BU has tons of size. They’re the third-biggest team in the country in terms of both height and weight – none of the other three teams crack the top-20 in terms of height and only Denver (8th-heaviest team nationally) comes close in the weight category. This is a team built very well for postseason hockey and the size is chief among the reasons why that is.
Why they won’t win: Too much Celebrini? Terriers star freshman Macklin Celebrini is tied for second in the nation with 64 points. After Celebrini, the next-highest scoring forward on BU has 36 points (a three-way tie between Ryan Greene, Quinn Hutson and Jeremy Wilmer), a 28-point gap. At the same time, BU is tied for third in the country in scoring so the fact there’s only two players with more than 36 points (Celebrini, Lane Hutson) probably speaks to their scoring depth and the fact they get a lot from a lot of different areas. At the same time, they lean pretty heavily on the 17-year-old projected top pick in the upcoming draft – while the Terriers have won both games he missed this season, they’re 1-3-1 in the five games in which Celebrini failed to record a point this year.
Player to watch: Macklin Celebrini. If you’re a fan of the Ducks, Blackhawks, Sharks, Blue Jackets or another team whose only source of hope at this point rests on a bunch of ping pong balls, this is the prize. Celebrini has lived up to, if not exceeded, all expectations this season, with 32 goals and 64 points in 37 games as 17-year-old. All this after having his offseason disrupted by shoulder surgery. If the Blackhawks win the draft lottery again, you can all but guarantee another revisitation of the draft lottery rules – getting Celebrini a year after landing Connor Bedard would be getting Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews all over again.
Player you might not know about: Shane Lachance. The imposing 6-foot-5 freshman is a third-generation Terrier, the most notable of that lineage being his grandfather, Jack Parker, who spent 40 years as the head coach at BU, winning 897 games and three national titles after a good career at BU as a player. His father, Scott, played one season at BU, helping the Terriers to the 1991 title game (they lost 8-7 – yes that’s right, 8-7 – to Northern Michigan) on a team that featured Scott McEachern, Tony Amonte and Keith Tkachuk, before being drafted fourth overall in the 1991 draft and going on to play 819 NHL games.
As for Shane, he has 13 goals and 27 points in his freshman season – his 13 goals tied for eighth among freshmen in Hockey East. He’s an absolute menace around the net.
Denver
Why they’ll win: Of all the success between these four teams, this is the one program that has recent success, having won twice in the past decade – meanwhile BC, BU and Michigan nurse title droughts of 12, 15 and 26 years, respectively. The Pios have nine holdovers from that team, including five of their top eight scorers this season in Jack Devine, Massimo Rizzo, McKade Webster, Shai Buium and Carter King. Also in that group is defenseman Sean Behrens, who has 79 points in three seasons as a defenseman.
Why they won’t win: Denver has a team save percentage of .898. No team with a sub-.900 save percentage has won a natty since 2003, when Minnesota did it with a .897 save percentage. That’s not going to cut it when you’re trying to win a championship. Now, Matt Davis has been very good in net for Denver this postseason. If he keeps it up, there’s a good chance Denver will capture its second title in three seasons. But if the goaltending doesn’t hold up, they’ll be leaving with no hardware.
Player to watch: Zeev Buium. The Denver ace blueliner just has the look of a No. 1 defenseman. And he’ll be a top-10 pick in the NHL Draft a few months from now on the premise he’ll emerge as one. His 49 points are tied with Lane Hutson for the most in the country among defensemen.
Player you might not know about: Boston Buckberger. Best name in this Frozen Four. He flies under the radar a bit on a blue line that includes Zeev Buium, Shai Buium and Sean Behrens but has 27 points in his freshman season. He had a coming out party of sorts in the tournament opener against UMass, scoring the game’s first goal in the second period before assisting on the winner by Tristan Broz in double overtime.
Michigan
Why they’ll win: Have to love the way this team is playing coming in. Yes, they’re running into a buzzsaw in BC but the Wolverines have momentum on their side. They’ve won six of seven going back to the first weekend of March, the only loss over that stretch coming in overtime of the Big Ten championship game.
Why they won’t win: The Wolverines have given up exactly three goals per game this season, the most of the four teams in it. Do you really expect them to shut down BC?
Player to watch: Gavin Brindley. You almost forget this kid wasn’t a first-round pick, that’s how good he’s been since being taken 34th overall (which would probably make him a first-round pick in 2033, given the way things are trending on the NHL expansion front, but I digress) last summer by the Blue Jackets. Brindley followed up a strong freshman season, in which he put up 38 points in 41 games, with 25 goals and 53 points in 39 games coming into St. Paul. He was also one of Team USA’s best players en route to a World Juniors title in January and has been one of the country’s best players since returning from Sweden, with 35 points over 21 games dating to mid-January. Fans have another player to be excited about in Columbus, where Brindley’s freshman year liney Adam Fantilli is currently playing. Brindley rode shotgun with Fantilli last season on the way to Fantilli winning the Hobey Baker Award before being drafted 3rd overall by the Jackets.
Player you might not know about: Marshall Warren. We’ve got a revenge game on our hands on Thursday when Michigan plays BC in the semifinal. Warren, a grad transfer, played four seasons for the Eagles, playing 130 games and serving as team captain last season before moving onto Michigan for this season. He’s put up four goals and 18 points in 40 games for the Wolverines while wearing the ‘A’ this season.
Puck Watching 