ST. PAUL, Minn. – Three straight 2-1 games. Three straight victories. Not bad for a team whose defense was left for dead just a couple of months ago. Sure, the first two against UMass-Amherst and Cornell, teams whose identities play well to defensive, physical, and low-scoring games were expected. But this one, in the Frozen Four, the one that pushed the Denver Pioneers over the top against the Boston University Terriers and one win away from their 10th title, that pitted the #1 and #3 offenses in the country against one another was much more surprising and by far, the most thrilling of the bunch…and it all culminated the same way the UMass-Amherst game did – with a Tristan Broz overtime snipe.

“We are 100% battle-tested,” said junior goaltender Matt Davis, who stopped 33 of Boston University’s 34 shots. “We had to win in different ways throughout the [Springfield] regional and we were just extremely confident.”

That confidence, specifically Davis’ confidence is what made all the difference for the Pioneers, especially early during what can only be described as a nightmare start for the crimson & gold. For the first 30 minutes, the Terriers were by far the better team. Denver lost every race to loose pucks, they looked a full step slower than every BU skater, and to make matters worse, the few scoring chances they did get missed the net entirely. Meanwhile, the Terriers were cycling in DU’s zone, dominating neutral zone play, and preventing the Pioneers from doing anything on offense.

What looked like would be the turning point in the game came early with DU still trying to find their feet. Under 8 minutes into the game, Jack Devine misplayed the puck at the blue line during Denver’s first power play, and it sprung Luke Tuch on a shorthanded breakaway. His shot found twine and the Pioneers simply looked stunned on the sport’s biggest stage. The Terriers were dictating everything in all three zones and, were it not for Matt Davis’ heroics after the shorthanded goal, the game likely would have gotten out of hand in the Terriers’ favor quickly.

“Big-time performance by him,” OT hero Broz said. “Three straight games. It was awesome stuff.”

The Pioneers finally woke up late in the second period. With BU’s superstars Macklin Celebrini and Lane Hutson effectively neutralized by Davis’ strong play and DU’s strong defensive effort, the offense showed up with some strong shifts that culminated in the tying goal thanks to a bad Hutson turnover below BU’s net. Miko Matikka read the play perfectly and intercepted Hutson’s pass along the boards. He then turned, found Tristan Lemyre crashing the net and Lemyre found BU goaltender Mathieu Caron’s five-hole to tie it.

“He’s been a big part of why we went 12-1-1 without [Massimo] Rizzo in the lineup,” DU head coach David Carle said of Lemyre. “He’s been really good for us…really happy for him that he was able to get rewarded, scoring that goal.”

Lemyre’s goal was the spark that the Pioneers desperately needed. But, instead of taking it to the Terriers on the scoreboard, Caron did his best Matt Davis impression and stole the goaltender spotlight for himself with a number of saves that will put him on SportsCenter’s Top 10 tonight, likely multiple times. His first one, likely the best of the bunch, game just moments after Lemyre’s tying marker when Jack Devine found Aidan Thompson on a late-developing two-on-one. Thompson deked and got Caron to bite, but the Terrier goaltender flailed back across his crease to make one of the best glove saves in recent Frozen Four memory.

And that’s how the rest of regulation would go. Denver turned the tables on Boston University after Lemyre’s goal and started dictating the game themselves but, much like BU and Davis, they  just couldn’t solve Caron. Even with three more power play opportunities over the course of the rest of regulation including one with barely a minute left in the third that should have been ruled a major for checking from behind when Dylan Peterson hit Sean Behrens hard along the boards, Caron kept the back of his net clean.

Thanks to Caron’s own heroics, the first game of the Frozen Four went to overtime, Denver’s second such game in its three-game NCAA Tournament run. And again, the goaltenders stole the show. Davis and Caron traded saves, some tougher than others, but through the first 10 minutes, the game had multiple overtimes written all over it.

But this was a game that Denver knew how to play and, thanks to the two games they played in Springfield, they knew better than Boston University how to win it. All it took was another defensive lapse by the Terriers in the neutral zone to spring Tristan Broz on the odd-man rush and, like his name-twin Lemyre, found Caron’s five hole to end it and send the Pioneers through to Saturday’s championship game.

“I just remember backchecking and [the puck] got turned over to Behrens and he made a nice little pass to me in the middle,” Broz recounted. “It was kind of a two-on-one. We did that drill yesterday, doing two-on-ones, and a few times I scored just kind of no look, try to shoot five hole…I kind of just blacked out in that moment. It happened to go in.”

It happened to go in and the hundreds of Pioneer faithful just feet away from the play erupted as they realized Tristan Broz gave the Pioneers a shot at their coveted 10th national title on Saturday.

“We’ve been in three of these 2-1 games now and they could all go either way,” Carle said. “Really proud of our guys, the effort, the resilience, and we’re staring 10 in the mirror on Saturday.”