Denver upsets No. 1 Boston College, passes Michigan for most NCAA hockey titles

Denver University beat Michigan and Minnesota State in the 2022 Frozen Four to tie the Wolverines for the most NCAA hockey titles with nine.

The Pioneers downed No. 1 Boston College 2-0 in Saturday’s 2024 national championship in St. Paul, Minnesota, to surpass Michigan for the most all time.

Five of Denver’s titles have come since the Wolverines won their last in 1998. There was a chance for the two programs to meet in the championship, but Michigan, the only non-No. 1 seed in the Frozen Four, was blanked by BC 4-0, while Denver topped Boston University in overtime in the other semifinal.

The Pioneers (32-9-3) bookended their championship season on a nine-game win streak while snapping the Eagles’ 15-game run in the process. Saturday’s championship was a battle of the two highest-scoring teams in the country, but a defensive battle transpired.

Denver scored twice in the second period and weathered a strong push by BC (34-6-1) in the third. The Eagles, whose four first-round picks all rank top-six in the country in scoring, only had 12 shots the first two periods but fired 23 at Matt Davis in the third. Davis, who only allowed three goals in four games during the tournament, made a bid for save of the year early in the third, diving across the crease to deny a grade-A scoring chance. Watch the save from here.

He also made a breakaway stop earlier in the game and is the first goalie to shut out BC this season.

Only nine players remain from the Pioneers’ 2022 championship team, including Detroit Red Wings second-round pick Shai Buium, a left-hand shot defenseman. This year, Denver had the second-youngest team in the nation behind BC.

“We want to be that the only team with 10,” Buium told MLive Friday at the team’s hotel in St. Paul. “There’s been so many people before us. It just means so much to the program. We want to give back and want to leave the place better than we found it. With 10, that’d be pretty cool.”