Frozen Four: Three things to know about each team coming to St. Paul

Teams with a combined 28 national championships will gather in St. Paul for the NCAA men’s Frozen Four on Thursday, as Denver meets Boston University and Michigan plays Boston College in the semifinals before Saturday’s championship game. Here are a hat trick of facts to know about each team:

1. Pioneers coach David Carle is the only coach in the Frozen Four to have won a national championship. Denver beat Minnesota State Mankato 5-1 for the 2022 title in Boston.

2. The Pioneers won their ninth national championship in 2022, matching Michigan for the most in NCAA history. Under coach Murray Armstrong, Denver won three national titles and was runner-up two times from 1958-64. The Pioneers closed the 1960s with back-to-back national titles in 1968 and ’69.

3. From the 1960-61 season through the 1972-73 campaign, the Gophers, under coach John Mariucci, would not play Denver during regular-season WCHA play because of the Pioneers’ use of players from Canada’s major junior leagues.

1. The Terriers are the largest and oldest team in the Frozen Four. They average 6 feet, 1.1 inches and 191.3 pounds. They have an average age of 21.7 years and have nine seniors or graduate students on their roster.

2. It would behoove opponents to not fall behind Boston University. The Terriers are 21-4 when scoring the first goal, 19-1 when leading after one period and 22-2 when leading after two periods.

3. The Terriers have three sets of brothers on their roster: Macklin and Aiden Celebrini, Lane and Quinn Hutson, and Case and Gavin McCarthy. That group has combined for 71 goals and 98 assists.

1. The Wolverines have qualified for their third consecutive Frozen Four and their 28th overall, the most of any program. That’s two more than Boston College, four more than Boston University and nine more than Denver. Michigan has been to every Frozen Four at Xcel Energy Center, losing to the Gophers in the 2002 semifinals, falling to Minnesota Duluth in the 2011 final and losing to Notre Dame in the 2018 semifinals.

2. Since winning its record ninth NCAA championship in 1998, the Wolverines have a 1-8 record in Frozen Four play. Six of those losses were by one goal, and four were in overtime.

3. Over the past seven years, Michigan has had 13 first-round NHL draft picks, including four of the top five selections in the 2021 draft. In that span, the Wolverines have had 33 NHL draft picks.

1. The Eagles, who won NCAA championships in 1949, 2001, 2008, 2010 and 2012, are in the Frozen Four for the first time since 2016. They were tournament regulars from 1998 through 2016 but are in the NCAA field for only the second time in the past seven years.

2. Led by Will Smith, Gabe Perrault and Ryan Leonard, Boston College relies heavily on its freshmen for scoring. Eagles frosh have combined for 214 points on 80 goals and 134 assists. The next-closest team in the Frozen Four is Denver, with 159 points from freshmen.

3. Boston College has only one player with Frozen Four experience. Forward Jamie Armstrong, a graduate transfer from Boston University, had an assist for the Terriers in their 6-2 loss to the Gophers in last year’s national semifinals.

Sources: Staff research, College Hockey Inc.