Matt Davis lived in Boston College’s nightmares all offseason. And there he will stay — perhaps for eternity.
The University of Denver’s mustachioed maestro frustrated and flummoxed the No. 1 overall seed for the second year in a row, stopping 35 shots to lead the Pioneers back to the Frozen Four with a 3-1 victory inside SNHU Arena in Manchester, N.H., on Sunday night.
Defensemen Eric Pohlkamp and James Reeder scored goals in a five-minute stretch between the first and second periods, and Zeev Buium added an empty-netter as the defending national champion Pioneers claimed their sixth straight NCAA Tournament win.
That, of course, includes last year’s shutout of the top-ranked Eagles in the Frozen Four championship — a 35-save masterpiece from Davis that gave the DU hockey program a record 10th national title.
“We’re going back,” an excited Davis told ESPN after the win. “It’s just a heck of an opportunity. I’m so proud of our group.”
The road to DU’s 11th national title now goes through a rematch with NCHC rival Western Michigan in the Frozen Four semifinals at 3 p.m. April 10 at Enterprise Center in St. Louis. The Broncos rallied from three goals down to beat the Pios in overtime in the Frozen Faceoff championship game a week ago, then beat Minnesota State and UMass back-to-back to claim their first Frozen Four bid. Penn State will face Boston U in the other semifinal.
This will be DU’s 20th trip to the national semifinals and sixth in the last nine years. Just like last year, this one comes after a pair of wins in the Northeast Regional that saw Davis surrender just two goals total.
“There were a lot of things stacked up against us that made this challenging,” said DU head coach David Carle, whose Pioneers broke a seven-game losing streak for defending NCAA hockey champions in rematches against the title game loser.
“… It’s really hard to end a team’s season twice in a row, and we were able to accomplish that.”
Boston College (27-8-2) came out determined to rough up DU (31-11-1) in front of a heavy contingent of Eagles fans, delivering multiple big hits in the opening minutes of the first period.
At one point, the Eagles even bowled over Davis and the goal behind him while attempting to muscle in a tally midway through the period. But the Pios turned that aggression against the Eagles, generating rush after rush that put pressure on two-time Mike Richter Award finalist Jacob Fowler in net.
DU finally broke through on a rush sparked by Aidan Thompson on the edge. The Fort Collins native sped into the BC zone and dropped the puck off to Jack Devine, who then fed a trailing Pohlkamp at the top of the circles for a laser beam that beat Fowler top shelf.
The sophomore defenseman’s 11th goal of the season gave the Pios a 1-0 lead with 1:41 left in the first period — then he nearly added another less than two minutes into the second period with a shot that clanked off the post.
No matter, Reeder scored his 11th of the season a few minutes later with a shot from the blue line that floated through a collection of bodies and beat Fowler five-hole for a 2-0 lead with 17:01 left in the frame.
“We got Boston College’s best game,” Carle said. “They had a very good game plan early. I thought we adjusted into the second period and were able to open the game up for ourselves a little bit.”
