Denver’s double‑OT thriller
Denver beat Michigan 4‑3 in double overtime to reach the NCAA men’s hockey title game, with defenseman Kent Anderson scoring the winner in the second OT. (The win puts Denver into the championship against Wisconsin and pushes the Pioneers toward a possible 11th national title.) (denverpost.com) (sports.yahoo.com) Michigan now extends its title drought to 28 years, setting up a classic final on schedule details listed by the NCAA. (usatoday.com) (ncaa.com)
Michigan threw 52 shots at Denver and still lost on one clean look from the slot in the second overtime, the kind of game that feels less like a semifinal and more like a season trying to refuse its own ending. Kent Anderson, a senior defenseman and Denver captain, scored the winner 7:25 into the second extra period in Las Vegas. (apnews.com) The other number that explains the night is 49. That was the save total for Denver goaltender Johnny Hicks, who faced more than twice as many shots as Michigan’s goalie and kept the Pioneers alive deep into a fifth period. (sports.yahoo.com) Michigan was the tournament’s top overall seed, and it had looked built for this run. The Wolverines entered the Frozen Four with a 5-0-1 record in overtime games this season, then controlled long stretches Thursday and outshot Denver 22-8 across the two overtime periods before one mistake ended it. (mgoblue.com) That finish hurt more because Michigan has been waiting a long time. The Wolverines last won the national championship in 1998, so this loss pushed the drought to 28 years even though the program keeps getting back to the sport’s final weekend. (sports.yahoo.com) (sportsnet.ca) Denver lives on the other side of that history. The Pioneers already own 10 national championships, more than any men’s college hockey program, and this win moved them one game from an 11th banner and a third title in five seasons. (denverpioneers.com) (apnews.com) That is why the final now looks so big. Denver gets Wisconsin on Saturday, April 11, at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, with the national championship game scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Eastern on ESPN. (ncaa.com) Wisconsin brings its own long wait into that matchup. The Badgers beat North Dakota 2-1 in the other semifinal and are chasing their first men’s hockey national title since 2006, which turns this final into a meeting between the sport’s most decorated program and one of its oldest powers trying to climb back. (ncaa.com) (jsonline.com) So the semifinal did two things at once. It gave Denver another entry in a trophy case that already bends the history of college hockey, and it gave Michigan another Frozen Four loss that will sit next to 1998 until the Wolverines finally break through. (nchchockey.com) (aol.com)
