NCAA Hockey: Analyzing the 2024 NCAA Hockey Tournament

By James Ferreira

This year’s Division I NCAA Hockey Tournament has come and gone. The 2024 edition of the annual sixteen-school tournament, absolutely stacked with talent, was certainly one to remember, so let’s catch you up on what you missed.

While every team was extremely talented and the vast majority of games were decided in the final minutes, two juggernauts stood out from the rest: Boston College (first in NCAA hockey rankings) and Boston University (second in NCAA hockey rankings). These two squads, stacked from top to bottom with legitimate future NHL stars, were the real deal (thirteen draft picks per team).

Looking at BU’s roster, it is easy to see why this team had the potential to make a championship run; their stacked offense powered by the 2024 projected first overall pick and Hobey Baker Award (award given to the best player in the college hockey season) winner Macklin Celebrini averaged 4.15 goals per game during the season. Along with having a top five player in the NCAA, BU also has an elite defensive core led by the dynamic Montreal Canadiens’ defenseman Lane Hutson. BU’s balanced offense resulted in a season of constant wins.

But then there was BC. Their endless talent includes various high-end prospects such as 2023 fourth overall draft pick Will Smith, Anaheim Ducks’ Cutter Gauthier, and New York Rangers prospect Gabe Perreault, the top three scores in the NCAA. BC was the clear favorite to win it all.

These two teams found themselves as the one seeds in their respective regions of the bracket, and if the stars aligned, they would face off in an epic showdown. However, other talents loomed in the midst. A seasoned Denver University team, one which had won a championship two years ago and two in the last six years of hockey, loomed as a contender as the third-best team in the tournament. Eyes were also on eighth-ranked North Dakota, who had been putting together a strong season, with a record of 26-12-2. Finally, the defending NCAA tournament champions, Quinnipiac, sought to recapture a title for the second time under the leadership of Hobey Baker Nominee and Massachusetts local Colin Graf.

The stage was now set, and the tournament began. BC and BU dismantled their first-round opponents (Michigan Tech and RIT respectively) easily, each putting up six goals. In a surprising turn of events, North Dakota was upset by a Michigan team coming off of a strong end to their season, winning six of their last eight games. Quinnipiac took down Wisconsin in a tight 3-2 game, which set up a game to remember in round two against BC. Former tournament finalists, Minnesota defeated Omaha, resulting in a matchup with BU in the second round. Meanwhile, Denver had barely eliminated UMass to make it into a second round against ECAC Champions Cornell University.

The second round was one for the ages, but one game in particular emphasized this fact: one-seed BC facing off against former champions Quinnipiac. Quinnipiac controlled the game. Their timely goals in the second period and their one in the third primed them to upset the soon-to-be likely champions. However, BC never quit. Despite playing from behind for the vast majority of the game, they would continually respond to each Quinnipiac goal, slowly clawing their way back into the game.

Quinnipiac led by a score of 4-3 approaching the five-minute mark in the third period, when BC’s Aram Minnetian scored to tie the game, deflating the opposing squad. This momentum carried into overtime when BC’s Jack Malone scored quickly off of a poor Quinnipiac giveaway to end the game. This particular game for me was the most entertaining to watch of the tournament, with the championship game being a close second; had Quinnipiac been able to hold onto that lead, the tournament may have turned out completely different.

After a series of tightly matched second-round games, the Frozen Four was set: BC would play Michigan, and BU would play Denver at Xcel Energy Center, home rink of the NHL’s Minnesota Wild in Saint Paul, Minnesota. While BC’s superior talent was able to rip through Michigan’s defense to score four unanswered goals, BU was not as lucky. In what was probably the most evenly matched game of the entire tournament, second-seeded BU was upset dramatically by Denver. In a back-and-forth game that saw Denver goaltender Matt Davis stand on his head, BU was held to only one goal. A 1-1 tie in regulation meant that overtime followed, in which Tristan Broz would score the goal to send Denver to the championship game and ruin New Englanders’ hopes of a Boston-on-Boston final.

The game was set: the certain favorites BC would take on Denver at Xcel Energy Center for the NCAA championship; and what a game it would become. In its entirety, it was a back-and-forth game with tons of suspense and action. Matt Davis (goalie) of Denver kept the scoring low for the entirety of the final game and was the clear MVP of the tournament. Davis earned the shutout and made some almost inhuman saves to upset the overwhelming favorites by a score of 2-0 and secure Denver’s third national championship in its last seven years. It still sits strangely with me to this day that BC did not blow by every team they played with the talent they had; if anything, this year’s tournament goes to show that no matter how skilled a team is, there may at any time be a team that overcomes the outside noise and prevails based on the sole principle of simply putting in more effort than the opposition.