ST. PAUL, Minn. — The University of Denver defeated Boston University 2-0 Saturday night at Xcel Energy Center to win its 10th NCAA national title.
As always, it's time to break down Denver's title and trends in recent title-winning teams.
Here are five takeaways.
Goaltending requires clutch power
Yes, that's obvious.
But to date, no one has won an NCAA title with mediocre goaltending.
Denver had the worst team save percentage in the nation during the Christmas period, but showed some great goaltending at the right times.
Junior Matt Davis stopped 139 of 142 shots in the NCAA Tournament, posting a .979 save percentage. He was particularly impressive in the title game, posting a 35-save shutout against a Boston College team that had not been blanked all year.
Boston College goaltender Jacob Fowler was also great.
If you go down the list of recent champions, Quinnipiac's Yaniv Peretz, Denver's Magnus Krona, University of Massachusetts' Philip Lindbergh and Minnesota Duluth's Hunter Shepard all have clutch goaltenders.
Peretz, Crona, Lindbergh and Shepard all received NHL contracts as well.
In fact, since the 2013-2014 college hockey realignment, only one title-winning goaltender has failed to sign an NHL contract: Denver's Tanner Jailett. He won the Mike Richter Award as college hockey's top goaltender in 2017.
NCHC's recruitment model is working.
The Big Ten has plenty of NHL first-round picks, but they don't often stick around for more than two years.
Boston University and Boston College of Hockey East are also taking turns doing something similar.
Although they received a lot of attention for this work, none of them have won any big awards yet.
So far, the NCHC has hosted the NCAA Tournament and has adopted a recruiting model of taking mid-round picks who generally remain until they become seniors.
Since realignment, NCHC has won six national titles. ECAC and Hockey East each won two games. The Big Ten has yet to win a title.
No one would turn down a first-round NHL draft pick, but it also shows that you don't need that kind of makeup to win big.
Of the past 11 NCAA national champions, only one has had multiple NHL first-round picks on the roster. That was UND in 2015-16 with Nick Schmaltz (20th overall) and Brock Boeser (23rd).
When Denver defenseman Jeev Bouium is selected in the first round in June, he will become the second first-round pick in the last seven years to win a national title. The other is Riley Tufte of Minnesota Duluth.
If Bouium finishes in the top 15, he will become the first top 15 player to win a national title since Boston College's Colin Wilson in 2009.
In the history of college hockey, 14 teams have acquired four or more first-round picks. None of them have won an NCAA title. This year's Boston University team advanced to the finals for the first time.
The Eagles had three players selected in the top eight of the draft, but fell one game short.
need to win the coin toss game
Yes, we have to be careful not to make too many far-fetched assumptions based on the NCAA Tournament.
The difference between losing the first round and winning it all can be paper thin.
This year, Denver went to double overtime against the University of Massachusetts in the first round. The Minutemen won in overtime. Denver won with a goal from Tristan Broz, a transfer from Minnesota.
Denver also advanced in a second overtime game against Boston College in the NCAA Frozen Four semifinals Thursday night.
The six-year title winners will need to win in overtime on their way to the championship.Three of them had to win in overtime. first round.
The last team to win the trophy without overtime was Denver in 2017.
Overall top seed falls
Most seeds to win the national tournament: 1st place.
Denver was the No. 1 seed for the third year in a row and won the championship for the 10th time in 15 years. The Pioneers were the No. 1 seed in the Springfield Regional Tournament and the No. 3 seed overall.
However, No.1 whole Seed wasn't so lucky.
In the past 11 tournaments, only one overall No. 1 seed has won. It was Denver in 2017.
The last general team to advance to the tournament won more titles (three) than the No. 1 overall seed (one) during that time.
Boston College ranked first overall this year.
This tournament shows that UND is not far away again.
The Fighting Hawks have faced Denver four times this season, scoring 10 of their 12 points. They won three games in regulation and lost one in overtime.
UND won the Penrose Cup as the NCHC regular season champions, finishing with a four-point lead over the Pioneers.
But Denver caught fire at the right time and went 15-2-1 after being swept by UND in late January.
After this series, UND went 8-6, losing 4-3 to Michigan in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Speaking of overtime, this was UND's first loss in the NCAA Tournament not in overtime since the 2015 Frozen Four in Boston.
