The Frozen Four National Championship is complete. After great tournaments all around for everyone, the Denver Pioneers and Boston College Eagles found their way into the Frozen Four title game.
Denver is a team with a lot of structure and they play the game a certain way that fits for them. Boston College is loaded with first-round NHL talent and plays a very skilled game.
That made for a very intriguing matchup in the final college hockey game of the 2023-24 season. Either Denver would grind out a low-scoring win or Boston College would win by scoring a ton of goals with all the weapons they have.
Just under halfway through the second period, Jared Wright (Los Angeles Kings) scored a goal to make it 1-0 Pioneers.
Just over five minutes later, Rieger Lorenz (Minnesota Wild) scored to make 2-0 Denver. He assisted on the first goal as well to make it a two-point game for himself. As a Wild draft pick, he hopes that this isn't the last big night that he has at the Xcel Energy Center.
Although Lorenz made the perfect shot, it couldn't have happened without the incredible play of Zeev Buium. The defenseman is going to be a top-ten pick in the 2024 NHL Draft after the way he played this year in the World Juniors and at the NCAA level.
Zeev got to play this whole season with his brother Shai Buium (Detroit Red Wings) who assisted on the first goal of the game.
The Denver Pioneers won the 2024 Frozen Four National Championship
The two big goals stood as the only two Denver needed as no goals were scored by either side in the third period. Denver won the National Championship game by a final score of 2-0.
The Boston College Eagles had a tremendous season but they weren't able to solve Matt Davis who deserved to be named the goaltender of the tournament.
BC's Jacob Fowler was the best goalie in the country but Davis out-dueled him when it mattered most. It was incredible to watch.
There is a ton of talent on both of these teams. Some of them will move to pro hockey this off-season and some of them will return to college. Either way, it is going to be a treat to see how it goes for all of them.
This was one of the best years in the history of the sport at the NCAA level. It is only getting better with time as better players choose to go this route. We can only hope that it continues to be as fun as it was this year.
Denver deserved the title. They beat Boston University and Boston College (who were considered the two best) to get it done. That makes it two championships in three years for that program. We'll see what is next for them very soon.