Growing up in Bloomington, Tristan Broz acknowledged, he fantasized of situations like the one he had on Thursday: winning the NCAA Frozen Four in overtime at St. Paul’s Xcel Energy Center, his backyard.
“To accomplish something like that for your team is what every kid dreams of,” Broz said shortly after his goal, which put Denver up 2-1 over Boston University in overtime and set up a meeting with the national champs.
For the title, the Pioneers (31-9-3) take against Boston College at 5 p.m. on Saturday. Denver is going for their second consecutive national title in three years, and a record tenth.
Following his freshman season with the Gophers in 2021–22, Broz transferred to Denver. He scored the game’s winning goal on a rush from the Pioneers zone, grabbing a pass from defenseman Sean Behrens, sprinting into Terriers territory alongside teammate Massimo Rizzo, and beating goalie Mathieu Caron to ignite the celebrations.
“We ran that drill yesterday doing two-on-ones, and a few times I scored,” Broz said. “Trying to shoot five holes was sort of like not looking at all. And at that same time, I sort of lost consciousness, and it entered.”
For Broz, who scored Denver’s victory in double overtime to defeat Massachusetts 2-1 in the Springfield Regional first round, it was nothing new.
Denver coach David Carle expressed his happiness for his player after he scored the goal. “Everything he did was correct. He hasn’t always had the best opportunities this year, but he really puts the team first.”
Denver, which was confined to seven shots on goal in the first thirty-three minutes of the game and trailed 1-0 after the first period, pulled one goal back with Broz’s victory.
The coach of Boston University, Jay Pandolfo, whose team ended 28-10-2, stated, “The margin of error in these one-and-dones is very slim.” “We have no tomorrow because of the costly blunders we made. Thus, it’s a very difficult competition to win.”
For Denver, Matt Davis made 33 saves to keep his side in the game for almost half of the Terriers’ dominance of play. Caron made 27 stops, three of them spectacular lunging saves.
“Both goaltenders were the teams’ two best players tonight,” Carle said. “Our guy happened to make one more save than theirs.”
At 7:45 in the first period, Boston University’s Luke Tuch, a fourth-liner, scored a shorthanded goal to give the team a 1-0 lead. Tuch capitalized on a Pioneers fumble at the BU blue line, rushing in to beat Davis.
However, the Terriers were unable to capitalize on that advantage, which would come back to haunt them in the second half.
When Denver forward Miko Matikka retrieved a puck meant for BU defender Lane Hutson, he fed Tristan Lemyre, the extra forward in the lineup, in front of the goal. On the Pioneers’ seventh attempt on goal, Lemyre beat Caron to tie the game at one goal.
From there on, Denver had the upper hand, scoring four power plays to the Terriers’ zero. At last, Broz took the initiative to terminate the game.
“I came in here, didn’t necessarily have the best freshman year [at Minnesota],” Broz said. “But this coaching staff, all the guys in the room, from the moment I got here, just took me into their arms and allowed me to just grow and gain confidence.”
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